WCLT High School sign in Crystal Lake, July 2011. The “Titonka” plank has been removed.
At the end of last school year, the Woden-Crystal Lake and Titonka school districts went their separate ways. WCL started a sharing agreement with Forest City. The expectation was that the districts would eventually merge, but some residents want the district to be dissolved instead.
This KIMT story makes it out to be a tax issue, but there is also geography involved. When the district is centered around one town, a merger often puts part of the reorganized district at a travel disadvantage.
This map shows the WCL and T districts and the surrounding high schools. The Forest City district (PDF) is relatively horizontal, stretching east across Winnebago County all the way over to Fertile. The North Iowa map also puts the highlighted districts in perspective with that one.
The western part of WCL is closer to Titonka than Forest City, but that’s not really an option, because Titonka is sharing with Algona and is elementary-only. Crystal Lake is about equidistant from Britt and Forest City, making West Hancock a viable alternative.
This Globe-Gazette article explains what would happen in the event of a dissolution. It’s not as clean as a straight-up merger. Among the things that would have to be settled then would be what district would take control of the building in Crystal Lake, which would likely fall to whichever district incorporated the town into its borders. The South Clay dissolution earlier this decade drew one line literally across the street from the school building, which went to Spencer, by far the largest district involved.
The FC/WCL reorganization/merger vote has already been scheduled for this year, so dissolution can only advance if it fails. The district has already agreed that second grade and up will go to Forest City next fall. The KIMT story also mentioned the unified district would remain named Forest City.
Keep an eye out for Titonka, as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if a dissolution or split occurred there, with the northern portion going to North Iowa instead.
