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<\/p>\nThere is a tiny parcel of the Marshalltown school district, half a square mile, that isn’t directly connected to the rest of the district. It is connected via what, in the Iowa legislative redistricting process, is called “point contiguity” \u2014 that is, the parcels meet at a junction but do not have a land connection. That’s not allowed in either redistricting or school district boundary drawing.<\/p>\n
How did it get there, then? It was grandfathered in from 1946.<\/p>\n
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The middle feature circled in blue is Marietta No. 4 school, one of thousands of such township schools once peppered methodically across the state. The school was discontinued in 1946, which was a formality, as the Times-Republican<\/em> article about it reported it had not been active for a decade. The territory was divided between the Albion and Lamoille districts.<\/p>\n Lamoille later merged with State Center, and Albion merged with Marshalltown. The north half of the southwest quarter of Section 23 \u2014 the rectangle with “J.T. Packer” \u2014 went with Albion to Marshalltown, although it’s surrounded by State Center\/West Marshall territory.<\/p>\n While looking in to that, I found out a few more things about the area that has changed in the past decade.<\/p>\n There is a tiny parcel of the Marshalltown school district, half a square mile, that isn’t directly connected to the rest of the district. It is connected via what, in the Iowa legislative redistricting process, is called “point contiguity” \u2014 … Continue reading \n