Connections and corrections made recently on my school timeline page:
- Burt and Sentral had a sharing agreement for five years (1988-93) before Burt went with Algona. Sentral had the high school and Burt grades 6-8. This is another case of short-term partnerships or attempts at partnerships that didn’t necessarily result in reorganization down the line.
- That, however, led to a different mystery. References to Burt Elementary in the Algona Upper Des Moines abruptly end in mid-1998, and the city was renovating/demolishing the property before the consolidation was official. I think Burt was a zombie district — legally existing but all its students were going elsewhere — for a period of time.
- In further reference to partnerships that didn’t happen, a tripleheader of Center Point, Shellsburg, and Urbana fell apart because Shellsburg refused to give up its kindergarten and first-grade students (Cedar Rapids Gazette, 11/11/88). The year before, Urbana only had nine eighth-graders (Gazette, 12/20/87).
- Webster’s school closed in 1974 (Gazette, 6/9/74)
- What Cheer’s school closed in 1979 (Gazette, 12/30/79). That fall, two seats on the Tri-County school board had zero candidates and had to be filled via write-ins (Gazette, 9/12/79). The original building was gone by May 1983 (aerial photos).
- Plover’s school closed in 1980 (Laurens Sun, 1/24/80)
- Ledyard’s school closed in 1981 (Algona Upper Des Moines, 2/12/81)
- Pleasant Plain’s school closed in 1981 (Plainsman-Clarion, 2/19/81)
- Marathon’s school closed in 1986 (Laurens Sun, 1/23/86)
- Lakota’s school closed in 1997 (Algona Upper Des Moines, 8/16/01)
- Quasqueton’s school closed in 2003 (Gazette, 12/22/03)
- George and Little Rock began whole-grade sharing in 1989 (Lyon County Reporter, 11/27/91)
- Wellsburg and Steamboat Rock actually talked about a merger in the early 1960s, while Steamboat Rock was fighting off Eldora’s intention to annex it. This “upset[] the Hardin County Board of Education’s own plan for school reorganization” (Grundy Register, 2/13/64) but the two ended up not even sharing students until two decades later. They started sharing some sports in 1983-84 (Grundy Register, 5/12/83).
- Despite announcement of a NICL/Mid-Iowa conference merger on the front page of the 1/28/71 Grundy Register, it didn’t happen. The Mid-Iowa fractured in 1977 with its teams split between the NICL and Big Iowa. (I tend not to track conferences because they are very fluid, but in this case, North Tama may have helped precipitate the breakup by voting at the end of 1975 to leave the Mid-Iowa 18 months later.)
- Conrad’s new building was dedicated March 11, 2001 (Grundy Register, 3/8/01)
- Multiple previous schools for Vinton have been added (Cedar Valley Daily Times). The East school had time open in both the 19th and 21st centuries (1898-2002).
- Fox Valley in 2002 is now accurately listed as last year for high school.
- Cosgrove is now accurately listed as a building closure when Clear Creek and Amana began sharing in 1989.
- I clarified that the Lowden closure in 1981 was a separate building (Gazette, 9/12/82) and retains an elementary. Lowden is part of North Cedar, a school district that formed in 1995. It almost began a few years earlier, but the Clarence-Lowden and Lincoln (Stanwood/Mechanicsville) districts stalled over whether Clarence or Stanwood would get the high school. It went to Stanwood for 20 years, and then in an extraordinary shuffle was relocated to Clarence.