Last month, CAL officially agreed to send grades 7-12 to Hampton-Dumont, the Hampton Chronicle reported in multiple articles. (One of the articles was by Greg Forbes, who was laid off from the Sioux City Journal a while back and was named the editor [!] of the Chronicle nine weeks ago.)
An editorial last week disclosed more terms: The combined district will be HD-CAL, but presentation (uniforms etc.) will be phased in to save money. The mascot will remain H-D’s. CAL is moving forward with building improvements with the intention of staying open for a long time.
CAL is one-fifth the size of HD, so the name agreement at least is a boon for CAL. A new name would have been tricky because “Central Franklin” could be interpreted as a slight to Dumont (and Aredale, which is also on the Butler County side of the district but unmentioned). The combined high school in Hampton will take in students along IA 3 from the south end of former IA 107 to the south end of former IA 326, about 30 miles.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, Waukee is likely to give the go-ahead for a second high school and Ankeny is chasing its 11th elementary.