Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

KIWA Radio reports the Sibley-Ocheyedan school district intends to have the Ocheyedan school demolished before Ocheyedan has its quasquicentennial (125th) celebration in August. The building has had a cloudy future for a while. In contrast to other recent demolitions around the state, this building is entirely in the postwar era (1959) and thus would be one of the youngest to suffer such a fate.

Earlier this month, I wrote a post about former North Tama teacher/coach Doug Gee serving as superintendent for two districts in far western Iowa. Now, Gee is going to Clear Lake for the same position because that district will no longer be sharing a superintendent with Mason City.

When Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn and Remsen-Union go into whole-grade sharing next year, the combined districts will lose $450,000 in state funding because dozens of students are open-enrolling out, reports the Sioux City Journal. Distance could be a factor in the exodus, because the combined MMCRU will be serving an area over 400 square miles and Cherokee, Le Mars, or Kingsley could be closer for some students.

The whole-grade sharing agreement between the Alden and much-larger Iowa Falls school districts is currently the oldest two-way deal in the state (2004). Any arrangement that’s older has either fallen by the wayside through consolidation/dissolution or only sends students to larger schools and not the other way around. The IFA arrangement sends all sixth-graders, but only sixth-graders, to Alden.

Earlier this year, Iowa Falls told Alden to put up or shut up and demanded a move toward full consolidation. (Times-Citizen links are paywalled and do not show the full article.) Alden responded by saying things were fine as they currently stood. Last week, Iowa Falls responded to that, and it’s a doozy.

“Having reviewed extensive research, data, and findings we have concluded that Iowa Falls’ 6th grade students are best educated in Iowa Falls,” the school board said on the first page of a three-page letter (PDF). That means in two years — fall 2018, after the current agreement expires — no more Iowa Falls students will be sent to Alden. What about Alden’s junior high and high school students? “The Iowa Falls School Board … extends an invitation to the Alden School Board to engage in a one-way sharing agreement…”

If there is to be further sharing done, it will be on Iowa Falls’ terms, with Alden decidedly the junior partner. Iowa Falls occupies Alden’s entire eastern boundary. To the north, Dows just merged with Clarion-Goldfield. To the south, Hubbard-Radcliffe is in whole-grade sharing with Eldora-New Providence (the second-oldest active two-way deal).

To the west, Northeast Hamilton gave up its high school last year and entered a three-year agreement to send grades 7-12 to Webster City. Both deals expire at the same time. Could Alden and Northeast Hamilton figure something out? No, based on the simple fact an entire high school faculty would have to be reconstituted. Both districts have seen enrollment going nowhere but down. The two ships have passed in the night.

The only certain change is that Iowa Falls sixth-graders won’t come to Alden; Alden can still be its own district, with a K-6 school, and send 7-12 to Iowa Falls. Alden’s name and color have already been added to Iowa Falls’ in the current sharing deal, and that’s the best arrangement the school district is going to get.