Category Archives: Schools

Feb 01

What’s next for Wall Lake school?

June 24, 2017: The oldest part of Wall Lake school. I found out about the closure of Wall Lake Elementary School in late February of last year. It turned out to be one of the last things I blogged about on … Continue reading

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Jan 29

Corning-Villisca merger on hold

Corning and Villisca, which started whole-grade sharing in 2013 as Southwest Valley, last year started to make gestures toward full consolidation. But like pretty much everything else, the plague got in the way. KMA reports that the merger is on … Continue reading

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Oct 08

A matter of perspective

Here is an aerial view of most of the town of Gladbrook. IA 96 is at the bottom, 2nd Street at the top, school in the middle. Now here’s an aerial view of the campus for College Community School District … Continue reading

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Sep 21

South Tama is running out of Internet

Really. (Warning: WHO’s website autoplays video now. Additionally, the livestream now requires a reload every 20 minutes.) I don’t understand how this hasn’t been a significant topic the past few months: For significant numbers of students and school districts, it … Continue reading

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Sep 04

Manilla school has come down

May 22, 2014: The entrance to the 1915 school building at Manilla. Here is a photo gallery from that day, including pictures from the inside. In 2014, I wrote for the Des Moines Register that the IKM-Manning school board had … Continue reading

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May 15

Mallard school gone

As covered here, here, and here, the school building in Mallard was a victim of declining enrollment in the West Bend-Mallard school district in northwest Iowa. The Emmetsburg News website has an eight-paragraph story about the school, ending with the … Continue reading

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Mar 17

North Tama closed ‘for an extended period’

From the school’s Facebook page: The North Tama County Community School District will be temporarily suspending all activities and instruction for an extended period starting on TUESDAY, MARCH 17. The school time will need to be made up to meet … Continue reading

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Mar 14

North Winn land for county plow barn?

The online Decorah News has a story about Winneshiek County reaching out to the Decorah school district regarding the North Winneshiek school property (and softball diamond). The county wants to build a snow plow barn, which would probably(?) result in … Continue reading

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Feb 26

Wall Lake losing its school

June 24, 2017: The Wall Lake school complex embodies the structure repeated in so many towns in Iowa in the 20th century: A pre-Depression symmetrical brick structure (seen above), a gymnasium (1952), and an addition built in the 1960s. This … Continue reading

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Feb 21

2019-20 enrollment update

Iowa’s school districts start enrollment in the 2020s the same way as previous decades — with some of the rich getting richer and many of the poor getting poorer. Total Iowa public school certified enrollment, rounded, is palindromic: 490,094. About … Continue reading

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