Category Archives: Schools

Sure, a lot of things didn’t happen in the past year and change. One thing that didn’t happen, though, is unique. In 2020-21, for the first time in the 55-year modern era of Iowa school districts, no community lost its … Continue reading →

June 5, 2014: The oldest portion of the Newell-Fonda Community School opened on February 5, 1912. “The new building marks an era of progress in the Newell schools. In coming years, it will be a monument of foresight of the … Continue reading →

You probably haven’t heard of Gardiner. But if you’ve driven US 169 in Dallas County, you saw the extinct map dot’s once pride and joy, a two-story brick school building. Stories, with pictures, from the Perry News and Raccoon Valley … Continue reading →

What’s left of what once was the Corwith-Wesley-Lu Verne school system — officially never consolidated but together for three decades — is probably going away soon. Algona and Lu Verne have formed a reorganization committee, Radio Iowa reports. Realistically, this means … Continue reading →

Connections and corrections made recently on my school timeline page: Burt and Sentral had a sharing agreement for five years (1988-93) before Burt went with Algona. Sentral had the high school and Burt grades 6-8. This is another case of … Continue reading →

The first takeaway from the 2020-21 certified enrollment list is the most obvious: There were big drops across the board. Growing districts that had not seen decreases in years if not the century to date (Ankeny!) lost kids. There were … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →