September 17, 2014: The addition to the Coburg school in southern Montgomery County was used for less than 15 years (1956-57 to 1968-69). This is what’s visible of what’s left; the original school was demolished in 1979.
The Coburg and Essex school districts really wanted to get together. However, the consolidation (Es-Co? Cossex?) wasn’t meant to be.
The plan began in late 1957, only to be rejected by county boards of education in early 1958. At the time, each county had a board and every reorganization required approval from the counties involved.
Another attempt came months later, and from the news story below, you can tell it’s a big deal.
Joint meeting Page, Mont’y school boards
ESSEX — A free baby sitting service has been offered parents who plan to attend the Coburg-Essex school reorganization hearing this Saturday afternoon, June 21, at Clarinda.
Offering the service are three Essex girls, Karla Hummel, Berna Franks and Dorothy Dukeshier.
The girls will take care of the children in the town park from 11:30 a.m. until the parents return from the hearing. In case of bad weather they will take the children to the school.
All stores will close at noon for the hearing, which starts at 1:30 in the court room. A caravan to Clarinda is planned from here.
— Red Oak Express, June 19, 1958
This proposal passed the county boards, only to get struck down by the state when bordering districts objected. This began a multi-year process of appeals, reversals, and re-petitioning that did not end until the middle of 1963.
In 1960, during that long litigation process, Coburg shut down its high school. Its last graduating classes had 7, 9, and 11 students each. That same year, the Red Oak Community School District was formed.
The final step came involuntarily. A vote to consolidate Red Oak, Coburg, and Stennett (a district centered on IA 48 between Red Oak and Elliott) overwhelmingly lost in Feburary 1967. Stennett had objected to the plan for a seven-member school board that had five director districts and two at-large members with all voters voting on all seats, preferring seven director districts where only those in each district voted for their candidates.
In July, Montgomery County assigned the lion’s share of the latter two non-high-school districts, along with West Township No. 9 in the far southwest corner of the county, to Red Oak. Coburg would host grades K-4 and 8, Stennett 7. This allowed for demolition of Red Oak Junior High (1898) in October. The reorganization is not in the state’s post-1965 timeline. Stennett’s objection had only prolonged the situation; in the September 1967 Red Oak school board election, voting was not restricted by director district.
The Red Oak school district closed the Coburg and Stennett buildings in 1969, and followed that with Wales a year later. The Wales-Lincoln (Township) building remains, where M47 intersects 130th Street in far northwest Montgomery County.
Nothing remains of Stennett, an extinct map dot east of IA 48 where H20 goes gravel at 145th Street and the East Nishnabotna River. The gymnasium, built in 1952-53 and dedicated with a time capsule, went up in flames in May 2000. Aerial photos show that what remained was left untouched until the main school’s roof collapsed in 2009-10 and then it all was turned to rubble.
Information for this blog post comes from Red Oak Express archives.