Category Archives: Schools

Ever since the Twin Rivers and Gilmore City-Bradgate school districts stopped sharing as Twin River Valley, the two have not been going it alone. GCB is in the far more precarious situation, engaging in whole-grade sharing with West Bend-Mallard even … Continue reading →

In February, it seemed odd that the Legislature passed the yearly school funding bill with the proviso to complicate processes with a second certified enrollment count. In April, the potential reason for it — allowing students to leave at semester … Continue reading →

In the fall of 2025, a new Bellevue Elementary opened. It’s near the junior high/high school building and holds grades 3-5. The new building — which, based on one video from near its completion, is exceptionally beige for grades 3-5 … Continue reading →

For the third year in a row, the Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock school district is trying to get a bond issue approved. Before 2023, the district could have tried multiple times in a year, but the Legislature put a stop to that. … Continue reading →

At the end of August I pulled a “break glass in case of no time to write” Substack piece — school timeline items. This time, it’s a lot about Mediapolis and Fremont-Mills, two schools four and a half hours apart.

Here’s a story about a school district dissolving before formation of modern school districts was really a thing in Iowa.

Despite the failure of a bond referendum last November, the Dubuque Community School District is moving forward with a plan to close one of its two century-old middle school/junior high facilities and move those students to a much newer building. … Continue reading →

Moulton Elementary School in Des Moines, the core of which began life as the original Des Moines North High School, will be demolished this summer. The oldest part is 110 years old. The Des Moines City Council approved demolition in … Continue reading →

Enrollment at public schools in Iowa dropped by the most in four decades, both numerically and percentage wise, and the Iowa Department of Education seriously underplayed it. There was so much to write about from that angle, in fact, that … Continue reading →