Sure, a lot of things didn’t happen in the past year and change. One thing that didn’t happen, though, is unique.
In 2020-21, for the first time in the 55-year modern era of Iowa school districts, no community lost its only school building.
This revelation from my school timeline hinges on a few circumstances:
- East Sac voted to close Wall Lake in 2020 — it was the board’s last meeting before everything went haywire — and the older Sac City building in the school year just ended. If those had been reversed, this wouldn’t have happened.
- Of multiple buildings that closed in 2006-07, only two — Ferguson and Onslow — did not get replacements.
- In the 1995-96 school year, two unincorporated communities both on the state map lost their buildings — Cambria in December, Yarmouth in May.
- Until preparing this blog post I believe 1993-94 hinged on Arispe and Lorimor being closed a year later than expected. It turns out there’s an unambiguous entry for 1994 — Weldon — which I had in the wrong year because the June 2, 1994, Osceola Sentinel is misdated June 2, 1993. But it was 1994 based on the Sentinel’s front page April 28, 1994.
In my timeline, I try to note when a replacement building comes in one town or make clear through context that it’s not a city’s only school in those cases. I’m pondering if there is a better way to delineate those.
Be on the lookout for much more this month about Iowa schools.