When I worked on my school timeline mega-update last year, the online Harlan newspaper archives ended in 1969. That was enough to find out the consolidation of the Harlan Community School District, including many small towns in the western half of Shelby County, but not when those towns lost their schools. Now, though, papers are available through 2017, and I can finish the Harlan district plus add to some others in the area.
- The Defiance school was closed in 1970. Defiance, like the rest, had only had kindergarten classes since 1966. (Harlan News Advertiser, 6/1/70)
- Portsmouth closed in 1975, because the annual opening-day ads for the district have Portsmouth Elementary in 1974 but not the following year (HNA, 8/19/74 and 8/11/75). Classes were held in “a country school building” (Harlan Tribune, 6/23/66). The Harlan board had promised to keep Portsmouth open “at least another year” in 1973 (HT, 3/29/73).
- Earling closed in 1986 through the same deduction (HNA, 8/3/85 and 8/9/86). The board had threatened to close Earling and Panama four years earlier, but parents suggested trying a new trend in education — all-day kindergarten. The alternate-day schedule eliminated noon bus routes. (HNA, 3/27/82, 4/14/82, 5/12/82)
- Panama closed in 1991, based on board minutes from May 13 printed in the Tribune June 11. On May 28, a photo of the last class mentioned they were in a one-room schoolhouse. Could that be Iowa’s last regularly used non-Amish one-room?
- The Tri-Center school district — Neola, Persia, and Beebeetown — was created in 1957. The high school was in Neola until the present building opened in 1962, in the half-mile space between the Harrison/Pottawattamie county line and the interstate, which didn’t open until the end of 1966.
- Shelby and Tennant merged in 1959, but the latter got left out of the official Shelby Community School District name (HNA, 2/17/59 and 6/16/59). This was rectified in 1991 when Shelby and Avo-Ha (HT, 4/26/57) started sharing as AHST.
- Tennant lost its school on a last-minute decision in August 1962; the Shelby district could not find enough teachers (HT, 8/23/62). The much bigger news of the day: “First Sabin oral Sunday Sept. 9; Administer vaccine at 5 locations.”
- Shelby’s school closure, as AHST Middle School, is confirmed for 2005 (HNA, 2/25/05). This didn’t sit well with Shelby-area families, who petitioned the school board to redraw the boundaries to be in Harlan instead. Of course, the answer was no (HNA, 4/22/05).