.

Corwith Wesley luverne in the NC part just basically stayed open and made the state tell them they are done. You can ask the state for extra money and you get it once without much hassle, then they start looking at your more you ask but seemed to give it until it was a decent hit annually. We were suprised how long they were left going.
Actually we only dissolved the Corwith-Wesley district. LuVerne was not on the Dept of Ed hit list so that district managed to stay open and operates as a pre/K-6 that tuitions out its 7-12 to Algona. Enrollment is getting critically low needless to say
 
Is that the one that they did the IPTV special on? I remember seeing a good one on consolidation a few years ago.
Yes. Half of the special was dedicated to the dissolution of the Corwith-Wesley district and the subsequent closing of our high school. The other half centered around the consolidation/while-grade share (not sure which) between Prairie Valley of Gowrie and SEW-Grand.
We at CW/L were initially leery of allowing the Register to be so involved in the filming of our dissolution but I must admit they did an excellent job reporting on such a divisive process.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: NWICY
Local school consolidated 4 years ago with a neighboring town 7 miles away. They had been sharing with a larger school for eight years before that was 13 miles away, but had more and better academic and sports offerings. Some wanted the closer distance and to keep the towns name mentioned. I was for academics but lost. Now the kids in my neighborhood open enroll to the larger school. Some people are still mad at me and my neighbors, but academics should win out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skibumspe
I grew up in rural NW Iowa and I think a lot of people would be very surprised by the large amounts of money farmers will to these dying school districts.

I have followed a couple recent consolidations up in NW IA fairly closely and it blows my mind how narrow focused the school board members and the majority of the people in the community are. The school that is in your town of 300 people isn't the glue keeping the town together! If you don't have functioning businesses the school isn't going to solve your problem.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: isufbcurt
On a somewhat related note Starmont had to forfeit their football game last Friday because with 6 injuries they didn't have 11 players to field a team. They are just a little too big to be allowed to play 8 man football. It's sad because they have a long history of playing football but their enrollment is just too small. They lose several senior boys this year and only gain a few underclassmen from what I hear.

It would be tough for them to consolidate as they were at one time one of the largest (in area) school districts in the state. They will have huge busing issues if they have to add area.

They were 2A roughly 20 years ago, and I think fairly comfortably. Had some real nice football teams.
I saw where Maq Valley also has gotten smaller and that surprised me.
 
GR has some serious winning going on right now, and for the last few years.
I think the class that's been doing all this winning are seniors now, and they've led the charge that entire time, so there is probably a dropoff to reality coming soon.

Someone mentioned an emotional decision to hold onto memories. Seems like it's that, and holding on to pride with all the recent winning.
Ehh, they've had some absolute studs. I'm from a nearby school and graduated 4 years ago. I don't know much about this senior class but they certainly have not led the charge this entire time. Three years ago they went to state in football, basketball (state champs), soccer, and baseball and not many if any of this years senior class would've been big contributors for those teams as freshman. They also had Iowa's Mr. Basketball in Joe Smoldt graduate last year and he was a stud in every sport he played. This class of senior is definitely very good but to put all the success on them is silly in my opinion.
 
Ehh, they've had some absolute studs. I'm from a nearby school and graduated 4 years ago. I don't know much about this senior class but they certainly have not led the charge this entire time. Three years ago they went to state in football, basketball (state champs), soccer, and baseball and not many if any of this years senior class would've been big contributors for those teams as freshman. They also had Iowa's Mr. Basketball in Joe Smoldt graduate last year and he was a stud in every sport he played. This class of senior is definitely very good but to put all the success on them is silly in my opinion.

I thought Smoldt was still around. I get a lot of GR updates on Facebook from friends that went there, but I just started lumping them together.
Thanks for the update there.
 
I thought Smoldt was still around. I get a lot of GR updates on Facebook from friends that went there, but I just started lumping them together.
Thanks for the update there.
Very impressive athlete and just a good kid, too. Umped a baseball game this summer that he pitched and admittedly probably squeezed him a few times and he never once showed me up or reacted in a bad way. Also did a lot of 4A freshmen games and regularly had little self entitled pukes talk back to me after making a call they didn't like. But yeah just wanted to clear it up cause I'm good friends with a couple of guys from GR that graduated around me and wanted to give them their props ;)
 
Collins-Maxwell and Baxter were separate schools that had combined sports programs. They split from having combined sports this year.

I was told that Baxter wanted to combine schools completely and that CM wanted to explore all of their options before doing anything. Baxter gave an ultimatum to combine now or they were splitting up sports.

I was told this by someone in the district so I assume it's accurate.


That's the sanitized version of what happened. With the help of a certain administrator within the C-M district, over $100k in facilities money was diverted from C-M to Baxter. It ended with one resignation and the split.
 
Last edited:
  • Informative
Reactions: NWICY
The sharing of Interactive video, by districts, might be a consideration for reducing expenses while offering expanded curriculum options. This also could reduce busing requirements.

Unfortunately, the 4 fiber backbone facility constructed for the much heralded INS rural fiber network lacks the capacity to satisfy any serious cost savings usage for broad scale endeavors.

It would do little, of course too, on savings for the cost of maintaining brick and mortar.
 
I believe this was a dissolution vote that split the district 4-5 different ways. I assume the next vote will be a full consolidation which might prove more popular.
 
What if there were a requirement for every high school to have a 10-12 enrollment of 400+? Regional high schools? Transportation nightmare? I don't know, but I think some sort of minimum enrollment may need to be required as we move forward as a state. Frankly, I think high schools need at least 1200 students, and 1800+ seems to really be able to offer more options than many colleges, as per my experience as an educator.
 
What if there were a requirement for every high school to have a 10-12 enrollment of 400+? Regional high schools? Transportation nightmare? I don't know, but I think some sort of minimum enrollment may need to be required as we move forward as a state. Frankly, I think high schools need at least 1200 students, and 1800+ seems to really be able to offer more options than many colleges, as per my experience as an educator.

In Iowa, you are never going to get close to that number in 10-12. You'd be bussing people for hours.
 
What if there were a requirement for every high school to have a 10-12 enrollment of 400+? Regional high schools? Transportation nightmare? I don't know, but I think some sort of minimum enrollment may need to be required as we move forward as a state. Frankly, I think high schools need at least 1200 students, and 1800+ seems to really be able to offer more options than many colleges, as per my experience as an educator.

It is all a matter of perspective. My wife wants to move out of a very large and fast growing district to get to a smaller one so our kids will have a better chance at participating in whatever they want.
 
It is all a matter of perspective. My wife wants to move out of a very large and fast growing district to get to a smaller one so our kids will have a better chance at participating in whatever they want.

Sounds like you're going for moral victories that doesn't fly around here prepare for the onslaught :D:D:D
 
  • Funny
  • Dislike
Reactions: NWICY and wxman1
What if there were a requirement for every high school to have a 10-12 enrollment of 400+? Regional high schools? Transportation nightmare? I don't know, but I think some sort of minimum enrollment may need to be required as we move forward as a state. Frankly, I think high schools need at least 1200 students, and 1800+ seems to really be able to offer more options than many colleges, as per my experience as an educator.

There is no way to do that in Iowa. The selling point of some districts is their small class/grade size. Part of the reason my family moved from the metro area 10 years ago was to get our kids into a smaller school. Where they can be involved and not get loss in the masses. It is also so nice to be able to walk into the school or activities and have teachers and parent know you and your kids. It is just personal preference. Many small schools do a good job of educating.
 
What if there were a requirement for every high school to have a 10-12 enrollment of 400+? Regional high schools? Transportation nightmare? I don't know, but I think some sort of minimum enrollment may need to be required as we move forward as a state. Frankly, I think high schools need at least 1200 students, and 1800+ seems to really be able to offer more options than many colleges, as per my experience as an educator.
That's the size of 4a schools. Urbandale only has about 1200 students in the high school. Dowling has like 1300. The largest schools in the state only have like 2200. Personally I think schools need to max out around 1500. If you get much bigger you get the problem where there isn't the availability to each activity by everyone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dmclone

Help Support Us

Become a patron