{"id":8007,"date":"2017-06-16T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=8007"},"modified":"2017-06-20T00:46:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T05:46:01","slug":"bonus-e-is-for-elma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/06\/bonus-e-is-for-elma\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonus: E is for Elma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8008\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ElmaSchool1.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ElmaSchool1.jpg 500w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ElmaSchool1-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>August 4, 2015:<\/strong> Some of the windows at Elma Elementary aren&#8217;t &#8220;windows&#8221; at all; they have classical artwork and inspirational quotes on them (detailed below).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A decade ago, the Howard-Winneshiek school district was the second-largest in the state by area with one high school (in Cresco, although the sports teams are called Crestwood), but there were three other sites students attended: Elma, Lime Springs, and Ridgeway. But an enrollment drop of 300 students over that time (and, as always, tight state funding) led the district to close all three locations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kttc.com\/story\/12186252\/school-board-members-vote-to-close-north-iowa-elementary\">Ridgeway was the first to go, in 2009<\/a>. It is now home to the weirdest post-school use of a building in Iowa: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegazette.com\/subject\/news\/business\/agriculture\/iowa-couple-retrofits-former-elementary-school-into-shrimp-farm-20150719\">a shrimp farm<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then closures of Elma and Lime Springs happened a year apart, in 2014 and 2015. About the same time, <a href=\"http:\/\/globegazette.com\/news\/local\/neighboring-school-districts-end-busing-agreement\/article_911d77aa-2d56-5346-9310-ffd3938485c9.html\">Howard-Winneshiek ended an agreement with Riceville<\/a> to let Riceville&#8217;s buses into the edges of the district. Looking at a map, you can infer why: Elma is much closer to Riceville than Cresco.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8009\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ElmaSchool2.jpg\" width=\"370\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ElmaSchool2.jpg 370w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ElmaSchool2-300x197.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><br \/>\n<em>&#8220;Only the flint of a man&#8217;s mind can strike fire in music.&#8221; \u2014 Beethoven<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 4, 2015: Some of the windows at Elma Elementary aren&#8217;t &#8220;windows&#8221; at all; they have classical artwork and inspirational quotes on them (detailed below). A decade ago, the Howard-Winneshiek school district was the second-largest in the state by area &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/06\/bonus-e-is-for-elma\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools","category-sequences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8007"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8883,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8007\/revisions\/8883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}