Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25

[AuH2O]

Anything south and east of Saylorville Lake is Ankeny enrollment. Any home within Polk City is North Polk Schools. When the new homes are built east of the Polk City cemetery, those will be Ankeny CSD. Rural homes SE of the lake and wildlife refuge may have a Polk City address but are within Ankeny boundaries.

Conversely, anything north of 54th Street on the NE edge of Ankeny is North Polk enrollment. Basically, anything that falls to the north of halfway between Exit 94 and Exit 96. NP receives far more from that section of town than Ankeny receives from Polk City.

Also, NP was 2A less than 10 years ago. Just 7 years ago, they were #99 with 328 for the BEDS count and are up to #65 at 487, so they are rising rapidly. The growth is still bubbling up through the elementary grades. Gilbert was on a very similar trajectory a decade ago

NP is a really weird school district. You have growth in the school district in Ankeny and Polk city, and the high school is in Alleman. Personally, I had considered Polk City a long time ago when my kids were little, but the fact the HS wasn't there was a big detractor. It was a nice and growing town in a good location, but kids going 9-10 miles to get to the HS was not attractive. Kind of a typical Iowa move. Our school district is split up among three towns, let's split the difference so nobody has to drive 20 miles, but like 99% of the kids have to bus or drive to school.

 

[mramseyISU]

Is that happening?

In most sports getting into the conference with the DMPS schools ought to help East a great deal. And I thought West was offered a spot in the conference and declined.

If it's about West people thinking they can consistently compete with the CIML teams in most sports for state titles, that's a big stretch.

It's all but a done deal at this point. It's really happening because both of the high schools need major updates, more so with West where there are so many kids that the Freshmen don't get lockers any more. On top of that you've got several classes where you have 5 or 8 kids taking the class at each school and you need a teacher at each school to teach the class so by combining the schools you can move that second teacher to teach some other class where they need to add a teacher but can't find one to take the job.

The people who don't understand why we can't compete with the CIML teams seem to think that magically combining two school with mediocre at best athletics will magically become some sort of powerhouse. My kids will both be out of high school by the time this happens so it doesn't really impact them.

It's one of those things that academically makes sense. Getting teachers is hard so pooling those resources is probably the right thing to do. On the flip side of that you're cutting the athletic opportunities for these kids in half. We combine teams already for a few sports but I'm not convinced that having half as many kids that actually participate in football, volleyball, basketball, track, baseball and softball is a good thing.

 

[AuH2O]

It’s wild to me that any school would make such a large decision based on athletics in High School lol.

Especially one that will not do what they think it will.

The athletics decisions like, "let's find a conference that lets our kids have a little success" are good decisions.

The decisions like "let's try to drastically overhaul our entire school and district to try to compete with the big dogs in sports" are really stupid.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

It's all but a done deal at this point. It's really happening because both of the high schools need major updates, more so with West where there are so many kids that the Freshmen don't get lockers any more. On top of that you've got several classes where you have 5 or 8 kids taking the class at each school and you need a teacher at each school to teach the class so by combining the schools you can move that second teacher to teach some other class where they need to add a teacher but can't find one to take the job.

The people who don't understand why we can't compete with the CIML teams seem to think that magically combining two school with mediocre at best athletics will magically become some sort of powerhouse. My kids will both be out of high school by the time this happens so it doesn't really impact them.

It's one of those things that academically makes sense. Getting teachers is hard so pooling those resources is probably the right thing to do. On the flip side of that you're cutting the athletic opportunities for these kids in half. We combine teams already for a few sports but I'm not convinced that having half as many kids that actually participate in football, volleyball, basketball, track, baseball and softball is a good thing.

The other big issue is the city growing away from East. They're really having to stretch boundaries to get kids to the East district because all of the growth is south and west.

I actually really like the plan from an academic and city standpoint. Athletics is pretty far down the list of reasons this makes sense.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

NP is a really weird school district. You have growth in the school district in Ankeny and Polk city, and the high school is in Alleman. Personally, I had considered Polk City a long time ago when my kids were little, but the fact the HS wasn't there was a big detractor. It was a nice and growing town in a good location, but kids going 9-10 miles to get to the HS was not attractive. Kind of a typical Iowa move. Our school district is split up among three towns, let's split the difference so nobody has to drive 20 miles, but like 99% of the kids have to bus or drive to school.

Very common way to solve the problem when districts consulate and decide to keep centers opened in each little town. What it does is cost the district a small fortune in bussing kids back and forth between the towns or little kids spending large amounts of time on the bus.
Other districts like Pekin and Cardinal went the opposite way and put the school in the center of the district out in the middle of nowhere, but at least they have all the schools in one central location, so everyone drive is fairly equal if you are on the edge of the district.

Van Buren merged with Harmony 7 years ago, they have the MS/HS in Keo, the eastern elementary is out in the country at the old Harmony HS and the Western elementary is at Douds. The bussing back and forth has to be costing the district a fortune, but the little towns refuse to lose their school building and want to keep it and vote down any bond issue to move it all to Keo.

 

[BryceC]

Looks like a tough dating scene at Ogden lol. 59/41 split males to females.

Probably 10 of those chicks chew too, so unless you're into that it gets to be even tougher sledding

 

[Three4Cy]

It’s wild to me that any school would make such a large decision based on athletics in High School lol.

Why do you think there is only one public high school in WDM - athletics.

When they had to vote to either expand Valley Southwoods into the second high school in WDM or expand Valley, the expansion at Valley won easily. The supporters of keeping one high school made it clear that Valley would not be split because it would ruin their athletic programs, and there were already two high schools in WDM - Valley and Dowling.

 

[AuH2O]

It's all but a done deal at this point. It's really happening because both of the high schools need major updates, more so with West where there are so many kids that the Freshmen don't get lockers any more. On top of that you've got several classes where you have 5 or 8 kids taking the class at each school and you need a teacher at each school to teach the class so by combining the schools you can move that second teacher to teach some other class where they need to add a teacher but can't find one to take the job.

The people who don't understand why we can't compete with the CIML teams seem to think that magically combining two school with mediocre at best athletics will magically become some sort of powerhouse. My kids will both be out of high school by the time this happens so it doesn't really impact them.

It's one of those things that academically makes sense. Getting teachers is hard so pooling those resources is probably the right thing to do. On the flip side of that you're cutting the athletic opportunities for these kids in half. We combine teams already for a few sports but I'm not convinced that having half as many kids that actually participate in football, volleyball, basketball, track, baseball and softball is a good thing.

I can see it from the perspective of buildings and academics, but that seems crazy that schools that size are running into economies of scale problems. But I suppose it's like DMPS where open enrollment to the suburban schools and the privates have taken their toll on enrollment, particularly among kids with resources.

 

[Three4Cy]

It’s amazing to me that North Polk is so low. Polk City seems to growing leaps and bounds every couple of years when I have a chance to roll through there. Do some of their new developments go to Ankeny or Johnston?

North Polk Boundary Map

 

[Trice]

NP is a really weird school district. You have growth in the school district in Ankeny and Polk city, and the high school is in Alleman. Personally, I had considered Polk City a long time ago when my kids were little, but the fact the HS wasn't there was a big detractor. It was a nice and growing town in a good location, but kids going 9-10 miles to get to the HS was not attractive. Kind of a typical Iowa move. Our school district is split up among three towns, let's split the difference so nobody has to drive 20 miles, but like 99% of the kids have to bus or drive to school.

Four towns. And to be fair, many of these decisions were made in like the 1950s when they were all pretty small, rural towns. There were a lot of contentious battles in those decades to get a couple of those towns to give up their outdated elementary schools and get new buildings built in different towns.

Tons of Polk City kids are trekking to Alleman every day, but that will start to balance out somewhat as Ankeny pushes north. Meanwhile Alleman is complaining that it doesn't have the tax base or infrastructure necessary to support it.

It's a better problem than a district that's withering away, but it still doesn't seem like a ton of fun to navigate all that.

 

[ISUTex]

It’s wild to me that any school would make such a large decision based on athletics in High School lol.

Ever heard of Allen or Duncanville Texas? It happens all the time. You would've thought WDM would have two high schools by now.

 

[somecyguy]

Its worth a shot as an experiment.

CR basically has Kennedy for the folks with money, Wash for the very rich that forgot to move and very poor AA kids, and Jeff for the kids no one cares about at all (lower middle class, working poor, 1st gen minority immigrants, etc).

Having my daughter graduate from Kennedy and seeing gf daughter's experience now graduating from Jeff... its shocking the difference in resources available and expectations of the kids. Jeff has a ton of "yeah whatever" and Kennedy was like "is there anything else we can do for you".

Wash is a lot of "I'd like to help you, but I have too many other problems right now" It's sad watching its demise, even from before the pandemic. The school boundaries are already completely ridiculous to slow Kennedy's enrollment from increasing so quickly and to prevent Wash's from cratering.

 

[cmjh10]

My high school doesn’t even exist anymore. Beat that

 

[mramseyISU]

I can see it from the perspective of buildings and academics, but that seems crazy that schools that size are running into economies of scale problems. But I suppose it's like DMPS where open enrollment to the suburban schools and the privates have taken their toll on enrollment, particularly among kids with resources.

Well getting teachers in general is hard, and you compound that with a city/school district like Waterloo that has a reputation (fair or not) it makes recruiting teachers that much harder. If you were a fresh out of college teacher and you got an offer to teach the more well to do suburban kids in Cedar Falls or the working class urban kids in Waterloo which one are you going to pick? Especially if you're a fresh out of school teacher who grew up in small town rural Iowa and probably never interacted with a non white kid until you got to college. I'm pretty good friends with the last superintendent and a school board member that's a very real scenario they deal with in the district recruiting and retaining teachers. I suspect that DMPS has similar issues.

 

[madguy30]

Its worth a shot as an experiment.

CR basically has Kennedy for the folks with money, Wash for the very rich that forgot to move and very poor AA kids, and Jeff for the kids no one cares about at all (lower middle class, working poor, 1st gen minority immigrants, etc).

Having my daughter graduate from Kennedy and seeing gf daughter's experience now graduating from Jeff... its shocking the difference in resources available and expectations of the kids. Jeff has a ton of "yeah whatever" and Kennedy was like "is there anything else we can do for you".

Years and years ago it was Wash being the more wealth and Jeff was always pretty blue collar. They were YUGE rivals.

It is sad how much both have dissolved.

I guess I don't know much about what Kennedy is like but it was often the outskirts/Hiawatha/Robbins mixed with farm kids from Palo.

 

[AuH2O]

Very common way to solve the problem when districts consulate and decide to keep centers opened in each little town. What it does is cost the district a small fortune in bussing kids back and forth between the towns or little kids spending large amounts of time on the bus.
Other districts like Pekin and Cardinal went the opposite way and put the school in the center of the district out in the middle of nowhere, but at least they have all the schools in one central location, so everyone drive is fairly equal if you are on the edge of the district.

Van Buren merged with Harmony 7 years ago, they have the MS/HS in Keo, the eastern elementary is out in the country at the old Harmony HS and the Western elementary is at Douds. The bussing back and forth has to be costing the district a fortune, but the little towns refuse to lose their school building and want to keep it and vote down any bond issue to move it all to Keo.

I think in the case of a bunch of tiny towns I could see it.

But an Iowa town with 5,000 people with no HS, and the HS being 9-10 miles away in a town of 400 people seems dumb. I know the way the two districts are chopped up drives this, but it would be great if two school districts and the state could see this and redraw the lines so rather than this nonsense rework district lines so the growth in Ankeny goes to Ankeny, and the growth in Polk City goes to NP, then actually have all the schools in Polk City. With open enrollment it's not like redrawing district lines means they have to change schools.

 

[AuH2O]

Four towns. And to be fair, many of these decisions were made in like the 1950s when they were all pretty small, rural towns. There were a lot of contentious battles in those decades to get a couple of those towns to give up their outdated elementary schools and get new buildings built in different towns.

Tons of Polk City kids are trekking to Alleman every day, but that will start to balance out somewhat as Ankeny pushes north. Meanwhile Alleman is complaining that it doesn't have the tax base or infrastructure necessary to support it.

It's a better problem than a district that's withering away, but it still doesn't seem like a ton of fun to navigate all that.

When they were building a new HS a few years ago it was a perfect time to use some brains, get both Ankeny and NP involved, as well as the state and figure something out.

Almost any decision would've been better than putting it in Alleman because it's a town, sort of. I think there's a co-op there, and I suspect a handful of HS kids. Put it in Polk City, or if they think the Northern Ankeny growth is going to be where most of the kids come from eventually, put it on the southern edge of the district and let Ankeny grow around it.

But putting a school so 99% of the kids have to drive several miles instead of putting it in a town where a majority of the kids live is just dumb.

 

[Clonehomer]

Why do you think there is only one public high school in WDM - athletics.

When they had to vote to either expand Valley Southwoods into the second high school in WDM or expand Valley, the expansion at Valley won easily. The supporters of keeping one high school made it clear that Valley would not be split because it would ruin their athletic programs, and there were already two high schools in WDM - Valley and Dowling.

Great for the reputation of the school to compete for state titles, but that also makes it hard for more kids to participate in sports. It’s to the point that if you haven’t dedicated your entire youth to a single sport, you’re not going to make the high school team. How many kids never get the opportunity to participate in high school athletics because of the desire to have bigger and bigger schools to chase state titles?

 

[Trice]

When they were building a new HS a few years ago it was a perfect time to use some brains, get both Ankeny and NP involved, as well as the state and figure something out.

Almost any decision would've been better than putting it in Alleman because it's a town, sort of. I think there's a co-op there, and I suspect a handful of HS kids. Put it in Polk City, or if they think the Northern Ankeny growth is going to be where most of the kids come from eventually, put it on the southern edge of the district and let Ankeny grow around it.

But putting a school so 99% of the kids have to drive several miles instead of putting it in a town where a majority of the kids live is just dumb.

I don't disagree with the logic, but you seem to think this happens in a politics-free vacuum where we all reach the most logically sound conclusion and then execute on it. I think you and I both know better than that.

Why school district boundaries are apparently set in stone and can never be changed, I have no idea, but they are. And even if they could change, if you're North Polk right now in this new environment where you're now competing for students, why would you give up that growth and the dollars that come with it?

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

When they were building a new HS a few years ago it was a perfect time to use some brains, get both Ankeny and NP involved, as well as the state and figure something out.

Almost any decision would've been better than putting it in Alleman because it's a town, sort of. I think there's a co-op there, and I suspect a handful of HS kids. Put it in Polk City, or if they think the Northern Ankeny growth is going to be where most of the kids come from eventually, put it on the southern edge of the district and let Ankeny grow around it.

But putting a school so 99% of the kids have to drive several miles instead of putting it in a town where a majority of the kids live is just dumb.

Allemen is more towards the center of the district, and therefore when the district was formed it seemed like the correct place distance wise for everyone. No one thought that the population of Polk City would explode like it has and become the much larger town in the district.

Its hard to close a district or have one of the towns that has a school lose it to another town. In some of these towns the school is the major jobs provider, Gilbert is the same way, all the growth in the district is to the South and West of the town, but at least they are all located in Gilber.