School timeline mega-update: 1980-84

Plus some auxiliary before-and-afters.

  • Oakville’s school closed in 1980 (Wapello Republican, 4/20/95, via IAGenWeb)
  • Rodman’s school closed in 1980 (West Bend Gazette, 12/13/79)
  • Bedford Elementary, which I think was the original high school, had a bat infestation in 1980 (Clarinda Herald-Journal, 7/17/80). A bond issue passed 19 months later (CHJ 2/18/82), with construction finished by 1983, meant the end of Conway’s and Gravity’s schools.
  • Randall’s school probably closed in 1980? Webster City Daily Freeman-Journal stories aren’t quite conclusive, though residents approved sale of the property in a vote in April.
  • Conesville’s school closed in 1981 (Columbus Gazette, 2/12/81 and 9/3/81; Washington Evening Journal, 3/19/81)
  • Dawson’s school closed in 1981 (Perry Daily Chief, 2/18/81)
    • Perhaps ironically, seven years later, as the city of Dawson voted to tear down the school, Perry faced an elementary overcrowding problem. It would have rented a church basement but the Iowa Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue (Perry Chief, 6/9/88).
  • Fertile’s school closed in 1981 (Forest City Summit, 7/24/80)
    • The Summit’s online archives appear to be photographs of pages rather than transferred from microfilm, which makes an enormous difference in seeing what a photograph in the paper actually was. Unfortunately, it makes the PDFs six times as big.
  • Vincent’s school closed in 1981 (Eagle Grove Eagle, 2/11/81)
    • But not until after the Iowa Department of Public Instruction heard 6½ hours of testimony, including grilling school board members, as the town fought to stop it (EGE, 5/13/81).
  • Hansell’s school closed in 1981 (EGE, 1/21/81 and 2/11/81)
  • Floyd’s school closed in 1981 (IDOE archives)
  • Gray’s school closed in 1981 (Atlantic News-Telegraph, 6/15/79)
  • Low Moor’s school closed in 1981 (DeWitt Observer, 6/24/81)
  • Melvin’s school closed in 1981, immediately upon merging with Hartley (Hartley Sentinel, 8/13/81). However, 40% of the Melvin district ended up in what’s now Sibley-Ocheyedan (HS, 7/31/80).
  • Scott Township school southeast of Winterset closed in 1981 (Winterset Madisonian, 5/13/81). It was built in 1957 to replace K-8 township schools and became part of Winterset in 1960. This is one of my “discovered” buildings.
  • West Delaware closed both Dundee’s and Greeley’s schools in 1981 (Manchester Press, 1/16/80)
  • Anamosa’s West Elementary, its 1885 high school, was closed in 1982 and demolished immediately (Anamosa Journal-Eureka, 1/20/82 and 1/26/83)
  • Blencoe’s school closed in 1982 (Onawa Democrat, 8/7/86)
  • Elkhart and Sheldahl both lost their schools when new North Polk elementaries in Polk City and Alleman opened in April 1982 (Des Moines Tribune, 4/16/82)
  • Washington Township, at the intersection of F31 and P58 southwest of Minburn, was closed by the Central Dallas district in 1982 (Perry Daily Chief, 1/14/82)
  • Wayland’s original high school building, later WACO Middle School, closed in 1982 (Winfield Beacon, 5/30/82) and was torn down in 1986 (Winfield Beacon and Wayland News, 6/19/86).
  • Malcom’s school probably closed in 1982 (CRG, 1/16/82), but there was a need for new space at Brooklyn to hold the third- and fourth-graders (CRG, 5/11/82) so it might have been 1983.
  • I mention Meservey’s 1983 closing in the opening of the page, but never put it on the list.
  • Union Township, the latter partner in Remsen-Union, closed in 1983 (Le Mars Daily Sentinel, 5/20/83). It had served as the combined district’s high school in 1961-65 until a new building at Remsen was completed (Remsen Bell-Enterprise, 9/2/65).
    • The 1912 Remsen school had a cupola and “a gymnasium 28×38 in size” (RBE, 5/2/12 and 5/25/61).
  • Superior’s school, which closed in 1959 as its area was divided among Estherville, Spirit Lake, and Terril (Spirit Lake Beacon, 7/16/59), was demolished in the summer of 1983 (SLB, 6/30/83).
  • Cardinal school district:
    • Added Batavia and Selma in 1960, just before the present building north of Eldon opened (Ottumwa Courier, 5/31/60)
    • Closed Selma in 1974 (OtmC, 6/21/74)
    • Closed Batavia and Eldon in 1984; “bricks were falling off the Batavia structure” (OtmC, 8/2/84)
  • Rock Falls’ school closed in 1984 (Shell Rock Valley Times, 8/19/99)
  • Fenton’s school in town closed in 1984 (Algona Upper Des Moines, 4/22/84). After that, all students were in the school 2 miles east of Fenton, which is now one of two elementaries for North Union.
  • After a bond issue passed in late 1984, Central Lee’s elementaries in Argyle, Donnellson and Montrose had to have closed in 1986 (Mt. Pleasant News, 12/5/84 and 4/14/87). The present K-12 complex is on US 218 halfway between IA 27 and US 61.

UPDATE 9/1/21: Corrected date of Manchester Press story on Dundee and Greeley.

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