The Prairie Valley and Southeast Webster-Grand school districts started whole-grade sharing as Southeast Valley in 2014. Almost a decade later they will be officially consolidated. Although the vote was March 1, the merger won’t go into effect until 2023, based on the current rule that reorganizations take effect July 1 of the calendar year following the vote.
The Fort Dodge Messenger has reported — twice — that Southeast Valley will be the second-largest school district in the state in area, behind Western Dubuque. This would have been correct a few years ago, but not anymore. The consolidation of Van Buren and Harmony in 2019 created the largest one-high-school single district. In addition, if Algona and Lu Verne merge as expected, that district will be ahead of Southeast Valley.
In 2021-22, pre-consolidation, Southeast Valley is the sixth-largest one-high-school area in the state. No new two-way whole-grade-sharing arrangements have been enacted since 2016. (Clay Central-Everly is the only district to have given up its high school since then.*)
Much more Southeast Valley history is coming Friday.
*Learned while writing this blog post: CCE only had one year of sending students in grades 7-12 to multiple schools. Then in 2020 it exclusively set one-way sharing with Spencer (story: KICD), reportedly because the state only allows one partner school. That surprises me, given that Andrew currently splits its students in grades 9-12 between Maquoketa and Bellevue.
*Learned while writing the previous note: Andrew is giving up its junior high students this fall, officially tuitioning to Bellevue but also having Maquoketa as a partner. (story: Bellevue Herald-Leader) That would explain things.