Category Archives: Schools

Feb 04

Prairie Valley, SE Webster-Grand on track to create state’s second-largest district

Posted on Tuesday, February 4, 2014, at 12:29 PM by Jeff

July 25, 2012: This new landscaping at the Boxholm school addition may not have students enjoying it for long. The main building was constructed in 1916. When the football district assignments came out, I noticed that Southeast Webster-Grand wasn’t listed … Continue reading →

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Jan 30

North Tama’s enrollment drop among largest in state

Posted on Thursday, January 30, 2014, at 4:04 PM by Jeff

Meanwhile, Waukee added NT’s entire student population in one year. Again. The 2013-14 Iowa enrollment numbers, released last week by the Department of Education, show a positive change statewide from the previous school year. However, those gains are not spread … Continue reading →

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Jan 13

Three school story links

Posted on Monday, January 13, 2014, at 1:56 PM by Jeff

It’s the slow season for the blog; outside of whatever might pop up in the Legislature, road and school news is pretty quiet. Posts may be more sporadic. But here are some stories that caught my eye: Iowa City Press-Citizen: … Continue reading →

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Dec 23

On really, really small-school football

Posted on Monday, December 23, 2013, at 1:36 PM by Jeff

The Omaha World-Herald’s Dirk Chatelain follows a team taking a 368-mile one-way trip to play a 6-man football game in its last season. There are some parts of this story also applicable to Iowa.

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Dec 19

What happens to stuff in a closed school?

Posted on Thursday, December 19, 2013, at 3:56 PM by Jeff

The scale is very different compared with what would happen in Iowa, but a Chicago NPR station found out that a couple old schools there are serving as equipment and textbook repositories for material from 43 buildings the city closed. … Continue reading →

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Dec 17

‘Choice’ in school calendar really isn’t one

Posted on Tuesday, December 17, 2013, at 12:15 PM by Jeff

When the Iowa Legislature last session passed a law to enable school districts to measure a year in 180 days or 1080 hours, instead of just days, it was supposed to create flexibility. Instead, by removing a long-standing provision, it … Continue reading →

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Nov 16

7 of 12 state football finalists are private schools

Posted on Saturday, November 16, 2013, at 7:15 PM by Jeff

For the second year in a row, the 1A final will be all-private (Fort Dodge St. Edmond vs. Iowa City Regina), and the 4A final will follow suit (Dowling vs. Xavier). The other private-school finalists are Don Bosco in 8-player, … Continue reading →

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Nov 02

Coggon school renovated, repurposed

Posted on Saturday, November 2, 2013, at 10:30 PM by Jeff

It’s very hard to get a second life going for a school building. Let’s hope this is a success. Parts of the Coggon school may have been unused longer than others, given the building’s heavy presence in aggregators. Based on … Continue reading →

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Oct 31

Conferencepocalypse, Iowa high school edition?

Posted on Thursday, October 31, 2013, at 10:23 AM by Jeff

It is difficult to track and chronicle the statewide makeup of athletic conferences on the Iowa high school level. Mergers and attrition have brought the Cornbelt Conference in the northwest down to six members this school year, right before it … Continue reading →

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Oct 23

Iowa stubborn

Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 10:56 AM by Jeff

“As you can see from the survey, over 90% of our community does not want to reorganize. Therefore reorganization is not an issue. We can not discuss reorganization at this time. The community is united in their opinion on this … Continue reading →

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