Iowa High School BEDS count 24-25

[VeloClone]

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?

BIL built a house in the development that is just down the hill across the road from the Marina and they are definitely in North Polk. I don't know about any farther down the road. I do have a buddy that is quite a ways down the road but clearly closer to Ankeny and they are Ankeny SD.

 

[CyPhallus]

It's like 3 on 3 basketball. It just seems like a different sport altogether. Like football vs rugby.

Prepare to have your mind blown,

 

[VeloClone]

Wow - I went to Ogden which is 197th on the list to my kids going to Waukee which is top 10. It would be really interesting to see a historical line chart for a selected school to see how enrollment has changed over time.

I went to a school district that had about 200 in the high school grades then moved to one of about 350. Contrast that to my daughter who went to a high school with an enrollment of about 3,000.

 

[Jer]

Prepare to have your mind blown,

Yeah, that's just crazy. I get that it helps 1 - when you don't have a lot of players to make up traditional teams, 2 - it's high scoring so a little more "exciting", and 3 - still structured enough to have strategies. It's just so foreign looking to what we're used to.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

I think 8 man football is bizarre, and it barely resembles actual football. So I looked up what other states play 8 man. There's a bunch. In doing that search I found there's actually states that play 6 man football along with 8 and 9 man football. My mind is blown for the day.

Netflix has a great series on 6 man football in Texas, wild game. Hard to compare 11 man to 8 man, 8 man is all about speed, get a player to the outside and there is no corner there to come up for support.

 

[mramseyISU]

I think 8 man football is bizarre, and it barely resembles actual football. So I looked up what other states play 8 man. There's a bunch. In doing that search I found there's actually states that play 6 man football along with 8 and 9 man football. My mind is blown for the day.

7 on 7 has gotten huge too. I think it's more fun to watch that regular tackle football. Just throw the ball and see what happens.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Texas 6 Man Football is awesome. Tons of points. Kids that don't have much of a chance in life getting their one big moment.

Can't recommend Texas 6 on Paramount+ enough. Both seasons are great.

 

[ISU_Guy]

Urbandale is land locked. All of the Urbandale growth is in the Waukee school district.

after anyone here cares, I think you will see a transition of Urbandale, NP, Bondurant, Carlise, ADM, Indianola, Norwalk, Gilbert, etc become a CIML spin off.

 

[qwerty]

They have a cool merged name. Cobras. Reminds me of Dodgeball.

Still waiting for a Nimrods in Iowa.

Watersmeet School District - Home of the Nimrods

 

[Kinch]

Netflix has a great series on 6 man football in Texas, wild game. Hard to compare 11 man to 8 man, 8 man is all about speed, get a player to the outside and there is no corner there to come up for support.

I think Iowa in the 1940s and 50s played six man.

 

[Kinch]

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.

You are right in your description of VBCSD. Van Buren is one of the largest districts in the state by area. They also consolidated with Fox Valley around 20 years ago. It is a huge district. Where a centralized elementary will really help is with staffing efficiencies. A few years ago, the state was forced to cough up extra money for bussing assistance, or else face a class action lawsuit which was just about coming down the pike. Problem is construction costs have soared faster than the tax base of these rural schools.

 

[Kinch]

Still waiting for a Nimrods in Iowa.

Watersmeet School District - Home of the Nimrods

The Fighting Nimrods.

 

[Kinch]

The best girls basketball team name mascot ever was the Everly Cattlefeeders.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

You are right in your description of VBCSD. Van Buren is one of the largest districts in the state by area. They also consolidated with Fox Valley around 20 years ago. It is a huge district. Where a centralized elementary will really help is with staffing efficiencies. A few years ago, the state was forced to cough up extra money for bussing assistance, or else face a class action lawsuit which was just about coming down the pike. Problem is construction costs have soared faster than the tax base of these rural schools.

They amount of parents parked at the VB/DC line waiting for the DC bus to take their kids to Bloomfield is shocking to me. DC must fill up half a large bus load of kids that chose to attend DC instead of VB.
Davis Co. was the pilot program set up by the state to try out county wide school district, after it was up and running it stayed the only county wide district until the 90's when more started to form.
Bussing money has always screwed over the rural schools because the state funds the number of students you pick up not how far you have to drive to get them. An urban school that drives 20 miles to pick up a bus load of kids makes more money than a school that is busing 10 kids 70 miles a day.

 

[Kinch]

They amount of parents parked at the VB/DC line waiting for the DC bus to take their kids to Bloomfield is shocking to me. DC must fill up half a large bus load of kids that chose to attend DC instead of VB.
Davis Co. was the pilot program set up by the state to try out county wide school district, after it was up and running it stayed the only county wide district until the 90's when more started to form.
Bussing money has always screwed over the rural schools because the state funds the number of students you pick up not how far you have to drive to get them. An urban school that drives 20 miles to pick up a bus load of kids makes more money than a school that is busing 10 kids 70 miles a day.

I can believe it, since Van Buren almost reaches Pulaski. A few years ago, West Burlington had one activity school bus. At one time, Van Buren County had more than 20 routes. There is no way that’s equitable if districts had to dip into their per pupil funding for bus driver pay.

 

[Kinch]

They amount of parents parked at the VB/DC line waiting for the DC bus to take their kids to Bloomfield is shocking to me. DC must fill up half a large bus load of kids that chose to attend DC instead of VB.
Davis Co. was the pilot program set up by the state to try out county wide school district, after it was up and running it stayed the only county wide district until the 90's when more started to form.
Bussing money has always screwed over the rural schools because the state funds the number of students you pick up not how far you have to drive to get them. An urban school that drives 20 miles to pick up a bus load of kids makes more money than a school that is busing 10 kids 70 miles a day.

I see a bunch of parents at the district line at Cardinal and Fairfield after Fairfield closed Libertyville.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

I see a bunch of parents at the district line at Cardinal and Fairfield after Fairfield closed Libertyville.

A few years ago Cardinal had 200 students opened enrolled, most out of Ottumwa, but they get a few from Northern Davis Co. and over to Fairfield.

 

[qwerty]

The best girls basketball team name mascot ever was the Everly Cattlefeeders.

Since newer members may not have been around for the mascot thread several years back. I have yet to see anyone re-use Scrotie, especially not a high school. Moral: don't be a d1ck.

 

[NWICY]

One of the other options was to put 6/7 in the middle schools, expand Southwoods to be 8/9 and the new tech center would have been at the HS. Selfishly I wanted this as my youngest is in 8th and I would have only had to take him to Stilwell last year. Luckily all the parking lot improvements have made it a significantly better experience, but I can't wait until this year is over. And still would have loved a 9-12 campus. Next year my kid has classes at both Southwoods and Valley. With the new tech center, there are students shuttling between campuses all day. Just another example of how decisions 25 years ago are affecting us today.

Silly question but not in the area, when you discuss kids shuttling between campuses are they with in walking distance or does the school district drive them or if the kids are over 14(?) and have a school permit do they drive themselves?

 

[ISUTex]

If they want to do that, then what is the sense of having 8 man football at all? Like most of the things the state does they screwed this up from the start, setting the Beds number at 120 for 8 man and then allowing schools to go over that number for a cycle if they were projected to drop back down below that number for the next cycle allowed too many teams that should have stayed playing 11 man to drop down. The total to play should have been around roughly 90 that would have stopped a lot of schools like SEW to drop down, forcing them to continue to play 11 man.

You mention Sigourney and Keota, they have won state championships and the two schools cannot get along, once Howard left, they were going to go there separate ways then decided to stay together. Danville and New London shared football and then broke apart because both wanted to have their own program and NL had done very well playing 8 man.

Yes, what is the point t of playing 8 man football? I agree.