Category Archives: Schools

Dec 17

Geneseo school’s 100th anniversary

Posted on Friday, December 17, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

September 23, 2011: The 1920 Geneseo Township school building was featured in a Des Moines Register article on Barb and Dave Else’s book, For All The Small Schools, cataloging Iowa’s abandoned schools. It’s in the small percentage built alone on … Continue reading →

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Dec 15

Dinsdale school’s 100th anniversary

Posted on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Dinsdale Consolidated School District was approved by voters in January 1920, and construction on a new school began shortly thereafter. The above is a picture of the new consolidated school building at Dinsdale. The building is modern in every … Continue reading →

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Dec 06

School timeline mega-update: IDOE building databases

Posted on Monday, December 6, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

October 1, 2015: The Pisgah school building, now a community center, was once part of the West Harrison district. Besides newspaper archives, there is another, more time-consuming method to find closures. The Iowa Department of Education has a yearly breakdown of … Continue reading →

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Dec 01

School timeline mega-update: 1960-65, in fragments

Posted on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In the early 1960s, my school timeline categories show some cracks. Here is the world of donut-hole schools and rump districts. Reorganization proposals get cobbled together, advanced or shot down by county boards of education (sometimes up to four of … Continue reading →

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Nov 03

North Tama volleyball in state semifinals

Posted on Wednesday, November 3, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The North Tama volleyball team lost multiple small leads in their state quarterfinal sets Tuesday against Le Mars Gehlen, but pulled it out in the fifth set to win the match and advance to the state semifinals. It was a … Continue reading →

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Nov 01

Elk Horn-Kimballton…minus Kimballton

Posted on Monday, November 1, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa Department of Education map A finger of the Audubon school district touches the city of Kimballton. More than half a century ago, that finger tied two K-12 school districts, multiple county school boards, and the Iowa Supreme Court up … Continue reading →

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Oct 29

Plainfield school has been demolished

Posted on Friday, October 29, 2021, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

Three years after the last students left the Plainfield school building, the site is now open land. KCHA Radio says the building was demolished last month. The Nashua-Plainfield School District is trying to decide what to do next. The land … Continue reading →

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Oct 15

School timeline mega-update: Multi-high-school rural districts

Posted on Friday, October 15, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

For forward-moving history, it’s “and then the Sixties happened.” For this timeline, it’s “but first, the Sixties happened.” These notes mostly, but not exclusively, relate to the middle of the 1960s as Iowa’s era of one-room schools ended and consolidated … Continue reading →

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Oct 08

School timeline mega-update: 1966-67

Posted on Friday, October 8, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

November 15, 2013: “Hayesville Independent School, West Lancaster #9, Est. 1897, Closed 1966, Added to National Register of Historic Places 1990; Memorialized 2011.” The modern school district era in Iowa began on July 1, 1966. Starting with the 1966-67 school … Continue reading →

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Sep 20

Razing 1917 building an option for North Tama

Posted on Monday, September 20, 2021, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

WAIT WHAT July 7, 2021: North Tama’s 1917 school building, as seen from 7th Street in Traer. The concrete steps to the door are relatively new and used to have tannish-orange edges like you see lining the bottom of the … Continue reading →

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