August 17, 2017: The jersey of six-on-six basketball star Lynne Lorenzen of Ventura High School is in the State Historical Society’s “Iowa History 101 Mobile Museum.” At left is Natasha Kaiser-Brown’s medal from the 1992 Summer Olympics. I saw the RV at the Iowa State Fair.
Severe financial difficulties are causing a reconfiguration of grades in the Garner-Hayfield-Ventura school district and the first building casualty of the 2020s. The vote happened last week, according to this partial story from the Clear Lake Mirror Reporter.
Enrollment in the district is barely above what Garner-Hayfield by itself had a student generation ago. According to the Mason City Globe-Gazette, the consolidated district’s spending authority, the difference between money spent and money allowed to be spent, has decreased substantially. The Garner Leader has a shorter story.
At some point between 2013, the first year of sharing between Garner-Hayfield and Ventura, and now, the second school building in Ventura was closed. I found a Mirror Reporter article from 2014 regarding a proposed configuration that had grades 5-6 in the Intermediate School and grades 7-8 in the junior high (Ventura HS), and the district itself still has a page for the intermediate school. However, the drop-down menu has 5-8 in the junior high/middle school and the Globe Gazette story says the school is currently operating three buildings.
Either way, moving grades 5-8 will put all grades in Garner, and Ventura will become the first town in the 2020s to lose its school building. The Globe Gazette says the building will be leased to Four Oaks social services.