August 24, 2022: The backside of the South Page school faces the main road through town. This view does not show the clock tower.
The South Page school district won’t have a traditional high school this year, but it’s not a true whole-grade-sharing situation.
Last school year, South Page sent its students in grades 9-12 to Bedford for part of the day. On March 2, the school boards had a joint meeting March 2, from which the following is excerpted:
Both boards agreed to make the 9-12 grades sharing full time for next year, and allow the 7-8 grade students to continue to participate in activities if they were interested, but keep the 7-8 grade students in South Page for academics. They have an alternative school in South Page that includes 9-12 students, and will continue that program on their site as well.
This year, South Page students in grades 9-12 will go to Bedford for the entire school day under a tuition agreement. It is an expanded version of one approved by the Bedford district in May 2022 and South Page that June. The tuition deal was first reported by KMA Radio.
“It’ll be an interesting year,” South Page Principal Amy Bautista said when contacted for details about the agreement. Bautista is new to the district this year. High school students will be bused to and educated at Bedford, but the diplomas will say South Page, she said.
South Page was Iowa’s 13th-smallest school district in 2022-23, with a certified enrollment under 200. In 2019, it entered into a tuition sharing agreement with Clarinda. In March 2022, Clarinda cut off partial-day sharing, and South Page had a limited time to figure out what it was going to do.
Clarinda borders the district to the north, Shenandoah to the west, and Bedford to the east. Whole-grade sharing requires contiguous districts, meaning those three are South Page’s only options if it decides to take that step. South Page and Bedford did not touch each other until the New Market school district dissolved in 2008.
A last-minute tuition agreement is not unprecedented in the area. When the Iowa Department of Education forced the Farragut school district’s dissolution after the 2015-16 school year, the Hamburg school district, which had been in whole-grade sharing with Farragut, needed to find a partner. Hamburg tuitioned out its high school students to Sidney, and that arrangement continues for this school year. Hamburg also opened a charter school last year.