Category Archives: Schools

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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Feb 20

Ventura losing its school

August 17, 2017: The jersey of six-on-six basketball star Lynne Lorenzen of Ventura High School is in the State Historical Society’s “Iowa History 101 Mobile Museum.” At left is Natasha Kaiser-Brown’s medal from the 1992 Summer Olympics. I saw the … Continue reading

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Feb 19

The optimism that was

October 16, 2009: Belle Plaine High School (1911), last used as Central Elementary during the school year this photo was taken, was torn down in 2016-17. I was going to use this as an intro to a post, but its … Continue reading

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Jan 29

New MOC-FV elementary would eliminate Hospers school

Finishing a miniseries of school bond blog posts, I suppose. A proposal to consolidate elementary schools in the MOC-FV school district would result in one town losing its school. A story on KTIV says the district is proposing a new … Continue reading

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Jan 28

South Tama proposal would eliminate Toledo school

Toledo could become the first county seat in Iowa without an active school building. That statement is both accurate and misleading. The South Tama High School building — and subsequent additions in the 21st century that eliminated all other sites … Continue reading

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