Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

Avoca-Hancock-Shelby-Tennant and Walnut, which have been sharing football for years, are going all-in on whole-grade sharing (links: KMA, Omaha World-Herald). This school year, Walnut is the 10th-smallest school district in the state by certified enrollment, but the second-smallest that still had a high school. The superintendent of both schools said Walnut has lost half its student population in five years. The school building in Shelby closed not too long ago.

AHSTW, which straddles I-80 in far western Iowa, is too far away to compete against BCLUW and AGWSR in an Ultimate Acronym Deathmatch, but the latter two will play each other in Class A District 4. (OABCIG would round out the bracket, but only has four towns among those six letters.)

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 anywhere. Now here’s the reason why: The school district will be starting whole-grade sharing with Prairie Valley of Gowrie next fall. The schools have entered into a five-year deal.

Prairie Valley’s enrollment has plunged since the turn of the century, from 850 students to under 600, and the school in Callender was closed. SEW-G has had ups and downs but leveled around 540. A combined district would have an enrollment in the top third of the state, but more notably, cover 500 square miles (499.2, to be exact). It would pass Davis County as the largest district with one high school and trail only Western Dubuque overall in the state. Technically, this would not happen until a consolidation vote, but for the next five years, this area of southern Webster County plus northwestern Boone and far eastern Calhoun counties will be the largest served by only one high school.

According to the information on PV’s website, grades 9-12 will be in Gowrie and 5-8 will be in Burnside (SEW-G’s high school). Elementary schools will be kept in Farnhamville and Dayton. That leaves Boxholm, in northwest Boone County, as the odd building out. It has 112 students this year. Its age may be a factor, as it’s one of the many but dwindling 1910s schools in use in Iowa, but it’s in the very southern part of its district. I should note I didn’t see anything specific in board minutes about the closing of this building, but it seems obvious.

The superintendent’s announcement* says “Student leaders from each district will be meeting to develop a name, mascot, and colors for the shared activity programs.” PV-SEW is an option. A name of “South Webster” would cover most of the territory but also be a double-whammy to Boxholm, Pilot Mound, and Fraser after losing the last Boone County building. Since one district name involved has already gone from geographic to generic, there may be a greater chance the new one won’t have a recognizable geographic marker either. Personally, I’m always in favor of geography if it can be made to work.

The Prairie Valley Warriors and Southeast Webster-Grand Eagles have played their last football games. We’ll have to wait and see what team takes the field in fall.

*Uploaded as a Word document, which should not be a file type used for the Web.