Category Archives: Schools

Oct 29

1A volleyball regional finals: public vs. private

Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Tonight 16 teams complete for eight places in the Class 1A state volleyball tournament. Like is so often the case as we reach this level, we have a bunch of public-private matchups. Most important for this blog is North Tama … Continue reading →

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Oct 28

GR puts out video before bond vote

Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

The Gladbrook-Reinbeck school district has a video (linked here, attempt at embed below but YouTube doesn’t like that anymore) with a virtual tour of the addition that would be constructed if a bond referendum passes next week. The district has … Continue reading →

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Oct 14

‘Waterloo United High School’

Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

When Waterloo East and Waterloo West merge into a new campus in 2028, that school will be called Waterloo United High School. KWWL covered the introduction of the new nickname, wordmark, logo, and colors last Wednesday. I hate the word … Continue reading →

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Sep 15

South Page extends sharing with Clarinda to 2030

Posted on Monday, September 15, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In the previous school year (2024-25), the South Page school district resumed sending its upper grades to Clarinda after a short time with Bedford. Last September, shortly after the year began, the two schools agreed to make an extended contract. … Continue reading →

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Aug 06

Update on historic Toledo, CR school buildings

Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Orient-Macksburg is dead-but-not-dead. We know that. But did you know that a campaign to save Harrison Elementary School in Cedar Rapids more or less succeeded? Also, Toledo’s historic school is being replaced by a site at the Iowa Juvenile Home.

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Mar 13

School enrollment map, 2000-25, and more

Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

This is the second part of my work on 2025 enrollment information. It’s a map of changes since 2000 for districts that haven’t substantially changed in size, and also the roundup of eye-popping Waukee statistics.

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Mar 11

School enrollment and ESAs for 2024-25

Posted on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

My number crunching for school enrollment has a new dimension: education savings accounts, or vouchers, and where students using them are from, and how much money the state could have given to public schools instead of private schools. By the … Continue reading →

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Mar 07

Orient-Macksburg dissolution passes

Posted on Friday, March 7, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The Orient-Macksburg school district will dissolve after the 2025-26 school year. The vote wasn’t close, 203-18, with 10 of the no’s coming from Madison County. Most of the district’s land and students will become part of Nodaway Valley. Orient-Macksburg’s speech … Continue reading →

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Feb 20

Fixing West Fork’s ancestry

Posted on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A reader informed me that my school timeline page had the merger of Meservey-Thornton off by a year. I double-checked through the Mason City Globe Gazette archives, and the reader was right. M-T formed in 1962. The thing is, the … Continue reading →

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Nov 01

Fayette lost its school

Posted on Friday, November 1, 2024, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Previously, I explored how the northeast Iowa town of Fayette appeared to be the only town in the country that had a graduate degree program but not a high school. But as of last year, Fayette joined Peru, Nebraska, as … Continue reading →

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