Feb 05

AHSTW joins the five-letter acronym club

Posted on Wednesday, February 5, 2014, at 10:48 AM by Jeff

Avoca-Hancock-Shelby-Tennant and Walnut, which have been sharing football for years, are going all-in on whole-grade sharing (links: KMA, Omaha World-Herald). This school year, Walnut is the 10th-smallest school district in the state by certified enrollment, but the second-smallest that still had a high school. The superintendent of both schools said Walnut has lost half its student population in five years. The school building in Shelby closed not too long ago.

AHSTW, which straddles I-80 in far western Iowa, is too far away to compete against BCLUW and AGWSR in an Ultimate Acronym Deathmatch, but the latter two will play each other in Class A District 4. (OABCIG would round out the bracket, but only has four towns among those six letters.)

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Feb 04

Prairie Valley, SE Webster-Grand on track to create state’s second-largest district

Posted on Tuesday, February 4, 2014, at 12:29 PM by Jeff

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July 25, 2012: This new landscaping at the Boxholm school addition may not have students enjoying it for long. The main building was constructed in 1916.

When the football district assignments came out, I noticed that Southeast Webster-Grand wasn’t listed anywhere. Now here’s the reason why: The school district will be starting whole-grade sharing with Prairie Valley of Gowrie next fall. The schools have entered into a five-year deal.

Prairie Valley’s enrollment has plunged since the turn of the century, from 850 students to under 600, and the school in Callender was closed. SEW-G has had ups and downs but leveled around 540. A combined district would have an enrollment in the top third of the state, but more notably, cover 500 square miles (499.2, to be exact). It would pass Davis County as the largest district with one high school and trail only Western Dubuque overall in the state. Technically, this would not happen until a consolidation vote, but for the next five years, this area of southern Webster County plus northwestern Boone and far eastern Calhoun counties will be the largest served by only one high school.

According to the information on PV’s website, grades 9-12 will be in Gowrie and 5-8 will be in Burnside (SEW-G’s high school). Elementary schools will be kept in Farnhamville and Dayton. That leaves Boxholm, in northwest Boone County, as the odd building out. It has 112 students this year. Its age may be a factor, as it’s one of the many but dwindling 1910s schools in use in Iowa, but it’s in the very southern part of its district. I should note I didn’t see anything specific in board minutes about the closing of this building, but it seems obvious.

The superintendent’s announcement* says “Student leaders from each district will be meeting to develop a name, mascot, and colors for the shared activity programs.” PV-SEW is an option. A name of “South Webster” would cover most of the territory but also be a double-whammy to Boxholm, Pilot Mound, and Fraser after losing the last Boone County building. Since one district name involved has already gone from geographic to generic, there may be a greater chance the new one won’t have a recognizable geographic marker either. Personally, I’m always in favor of geography if it can be made to work.

The Prairie Valley Warriors and Southeast Webster-Grand Eagles have played their last football games. We’ll have to wait and see what team takes the field in fall.

*Uploaded as a Word document, which should not be a file type used for the Web.
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Feb 02

Updates from river to river

Posted on Sunday, February 2, 2014, at 12:26 PM by Jeff

I delved into the DOT’s photo archives and pulled up some pictures that fit in with this website. For the time being, I’m putting the copyright line underneath each picture but may move that to the main page.

One thing’s for sure: Moving my photo dates to being right underneath the photos cuts down on page time.

Here is what’s new on the site:

  • US 6 has DOT archive photos at both ends, along with some new I-74 pictures. That covers “river to river”.
  • I-74 and I-280 both have new pictures, as does I-480 (duplicating from US 6).
  • IA 131 has been “revised and updated” — I made every photo from 2002 larger (they were very small even for the start of this site) and added a batch from my Lincoln Highway summer day trips.
  • The end sign at IA 44 has changed, and not exactly as I envisioned. There are also Lincoln Highway signs there.
  • IA 285 has been updated for the first time in a decade (aside from site migrations). Its numerical neighbor, IA 286, also has new pictures.
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Jan 30

North Tama’s enrollment drop among largest in state

Posted on Thursday, January 30, 2014, at 4:04 PM by Jeff

Meanwhile, Waukee added NT’s entire student population in one year. Again.

The 2013-14 Iowa enrollment numbers, released last week by the Department of Education, show a positive change statewide from the previous school year. However, those gains are not spread out equally.

The North Tama County Community School District fell below the 520-student mark for the first time, a mathematically significant threshold (520=40 students x 13 grades). Its total, based on the state’s formula, is 491.9 students, down from 523.3:

  • It’s the 15th-largest percentage drop in the state of Iowa (-6.38%).
  • It’s the 10th-largest percentage drop among districts with a high school.
  • It’s the 20th-largest numerical drop in the state overall.
  • Most concerning of all, it’s the sixth-largest numerical drop among school districts with fewer than 1000 students.

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This chart of districts with a major Tama County presence shows that Gladbrook-Reinbeck has dropped substantially from the year the current seniors entered kindergarten.

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School districts in Iowa’s suburbs continue to grow by leaps and bounds, taking all five spots in the best five-year percentage trend as shown in the Department of Education’s press release. Waukee took the top slot again, followed by Ankeny, adding 567.3 and 515.6 students, respectively. Those two numbers by themselves are larger than over 100 individual districts, and each could field a Class A football team.

Luverne (76 students) and Prescott (84.8) are the state’s smallest districts. Diagonal (93) is the state’s smallest district with a high school and fourth-smallest overall. It will gain some students when Clearfield (88.2), the state’s third-smallest district, dissolves.

Masked in the statewide increase is an issue that has barely begun to percolate. While the year’s 0.56% rise in enrollment reflects an increase in the state birth rate in the mid-2000s, the birth rate dropped significantly during the Great Recession. Over the next decade, elementary student counts will drop, likely putting more pressure on the state’s smallest districts.

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Jan 29

Cedar Rapids wants I-380 six-laned to I-80

Posted on Wednesday, January 29, 2014, at 1:11 PM by Jeff

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July 15, 2006

In 2010, more than 48,000 vehicles traveled daily on I-380 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. That’s the most on an Iowa interstate outside an urban area. It’s also more than any segment on the Iowa side of the Quad Cities except at and near the I-74 bridge.

Now, Cedar Rapids is going to make a push to six-lane I-380 south of US 30, much like Nebraska has six-laned I-80 between Lincoln and Omaha, but on a smaller scale. The state has nothing planned for the area in the next four years except minor patching, and an EIS would have to take place before anything can be planned. In other words, it’s going to be a long time, and Mayor Ron Corbett will have to hound state officials like advocates for the Avenue of the Saints and four-lane US 20 have done in the past.

The portion of I-380 in question turned 40 years old last year.

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Jan 28

Council Bluffs interstate meeting tonight

Posted on Tuesday, January 28, 2014, at 2:20 PM by Jeff

The Iowa DOT has a short blurb on the Council Bluffs interstate project page for an open house tonight (Tuesday) from 4-7. This is NOT a typical public information meeting, as those are published on the main site and regard specific projects. In this case, it appears to be more of a general update for the “newly accelerated vision” of the overall project and a meet-and-greet for a new office.

The CBIS project website as a whole has been redesigned. Here’s the page dedicated to the mainline “dual divided freeway” for I-29/80, which has a video explanation of the plan.

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Jan 27

Mother Nature, you’re mean when you’re drunk

Posted on Monday, January 27, 2014, at 1:59 PM by Jeff

At least it’s above zero.

jan14_24hrtemp

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Jan 26

More than half of football teams will qualify for the postseason

Posted on Sunday, January 26, 2014, at 12:48 PM by Jeff

Lost in the concern about potentially losing a regular-season game and excitement about the new high school football districts is a simple fact and reminder of the state’s expanded playoff system: More than half of the football teams in Iowa will be in the playoffs. The actual number is 192 of 340, or 56.47%.

With a 32-team bracket in all classes, 70% of the teams in Class 4A will qualify; 57% (four-sevenths) of Classes 3A/2A/1A will qualify; and half the teams in A and 8-player will qualify. (Class A will be 32 of 62 — close enough — and 8 will be 32 of 64, exactly half.) So 2-7 Des Moines East gets another game, but not 3-6 Stanton.

Changing to a 24-team bracket — top three teams in each district, champion gets a bye — would still mean that 42% of the state’s teams play in the postseason. In Class 4A, the number of participants would be one more than half (24/46 or 52.17%); in the next three classes, 42.86% (three-sevenths); and in A and 8, more than a third. There would be fewer first-round blowouts and being district champion would mean a little more.

Are the classes themselves too small? Not necessarily. In 4A, the population discrepancy is already huge (Valley’s fault). If we look at the other 11-player classes, configuring four classes into three would mean about 77 teams per class. Class A did in fact have 77 teams in 2004, and 82 in 2000 — but the district population variances in this scenario would be larger.

About 42% of teams in those three classes would make the playoffs. However, cramming them into eight districts would mean five 10-team districts and three nine-team ones. That would mean the first group has NO non-district games and the second group only gets one in a nine-game schedule. The current setup allows for three non-district games in 3A/2A/1A and two in A/8, giving schools more flexibility with continuation of rivalries or close geographic matchups.

As the small schools continue to shrink, the elimination of Class A in the future is a possibility, but a long-term one. Right now, there are enough teams to sustain the existing setup, and a whole lot of them will be playing the first Wednesday after the regular season is over.

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Jan 24

Further notes on the new football districts

Posted on Friday, January 24, 2014, at 4:51 PM by Jeff

Odds and ends of observations.

  • The redesign of the IHSAA’s website completely bollixed up links to anything older than a couple years. Fortunately, with the Internet Wayback Machine, it is possible to recover old district lists.
  • Number of teams/schools by class (private): 8, 64 (5); A, 62 (4); 1A, 56 (6); 2A, 56 (3½) (West Burlington and Notre Dame are sharing); 3A, 56 (4); 4A, 46 (Dowling). Class 4A now has districts like everyone else.
  • In 2000, the first year of the six-class era, 82 teams played in Class A. For each two-year period since, here are the numbers for that class: 2002-03, 67; 2004-05, 77; 2006-07, 68; 2008-09, 58; 2010-11, 52; 2012-13, 63; 2014-15, 62. Numbers may have differed slightly in odd-numbered years because of programs sharing/dropping out.
  • In Class A, districts 3 (north-central) and 4 (northeast-central, NT’s district) have seven teams and the rest have eight.
  • In all, by my count, 35 teams went down a class and 23 went up a class. Clarinda Academy had a double-drop from 2A to A.
  • West Marshall got hosed. After a drop from 2A to 1A, it’s the northwesternmost school of a southeast-Iowa-ish district that includes defending champion Iowa City Regina. On the other hand, West Marshall could be just the team to end Regina’s 56-game win streak.
  • South Tama fell to 2A and will now be in the same district as Aplington-Parkersburg, Union, and East Marshall. (That’s kind of weird to me.)
  • Class A now has private schools Council Bluffs St. Albert and Le Mars Gehlen (which now includes Granville Spalding) in addition to Algona Garrigan and Mason City Newman. The latter two are in the same district.
  • A quasi-reconstituted North Union, which is Armstrong-Ringsted plus Sentral with North Kossuth sharing (it’s complicated), and Easton Valley, which is Preston plus East Central (it’s legally complicated), will also be in Class A.
  • English Valleys dropped to 8-man football, in the same wide-ranging district as both Don Bosco and Des Moines’ Grandview Park Baptist. Meskwaki Settlement School is there too.
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Jan 23

Old playoff foes pepper North Tama’s new football district

Posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014, at 2:37 PM by Jeff

(Of course the new enrollments and football districts would drop within 24 hours of each other. Looks like I have a whole bunch of new numbers to play with.)

The IHSAA has released the football districts for 2014-15. The Register has a list; class by class PDFs are on the association’s website. North Tama’s district is pretty geographically compact, with a couple “new” faces that haven’t been seen often but haunt the Redhawks’ playoff history.

Denver is dropping down to Class A for the first time. The last time the Redhawks faced off against the team north of Waterloo was the first round of the 1995 playoffs, when the Denver Cyclones and future Iowa State Cyclone Ben Bruns trucked North Tama 35-6 on their way to a Class 1A state championship.

Wapsie Valley is back on NT’s schedule. Back-to-back season-ending losses to the Warriors in 1996 and 1997 kept the Redhawks at home those years despite having 7-2 records. (That’s back when there were 16-team playoffs and not the current monsters that let 3-6 teams squeak in.) The two teams have met twice in the postseason: in 2007, when the Warriors trucked North Tama 47-0 on their way to a Class A state championship, and 2012, when the Warriors trucked North Tama 46-20 on their way to a Class A state championship.

And just for completeness’ sake, Grundy Center trucked North Tama 40-0 in the first round of the 1988 playoffs on its way to a Class 1A state championship.

(Anyone else get a sense of deja vu just now?)

Five of the seven teams in the new Class A District 4 — BCLUW, Gladbrook-Reinbeck, Grundy Center, North Tama, and Wapsie Valley — played in Class 1A in 2000 and 2001; AGWSR and Denver were in 2A then. North Tama has never played a unified AGWSR in football.

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