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[mb7299]

I've noticed the schools around Marshalltown have had an uptick so they all should be ok long term. GR on other hand is just delaying the inevitable, is it because they are good at boys athletics or something? The two towns don't seem to make sense being together in the first place looking at school maps.

 

[wxman1]

they better hope marshalltown doesn't get their act together and start reaching out towards these younger families. there is a big push in marshalltown right now to showcase the opportunities students have that they can't get in small districts.

the more i thought about it the more i realized neighboring districts don't really compete with one another but in reality they probably should. let's be honest - the reason people open-enroll out of marshalltown has nothing to do with academic opportunities. if places like GMG suddenly stop getting the dozens of marshalltown kids (and their 6k from the state) can GMG still survive?

You can make that argument about any 1A school in the state. Doesn't make it right and I think we need to think about the quality of education/life of these kids driving long distances to/from school and long bus rides.

 

[brett108]

they better hope marshalltown doesn't get their act together and start reaching out towards these younger families. there is a big push in marshalltown right now to showcase the opportunities students have that they can't get in small districts.

the more i thought about it the more i realized neighboring districts don't really compete with one another but in reality they probably should. let's be honest - the reason people open-enroll out of marshalltown has nothing to do with academic opportunities. if places like GMG suddenly stop getting the dozens of marshalltown kids (and their 6k from the state) can GMG still survive?

What they need to do is what my hometown does, and that's get people to want to live in a small community and commute to M'town, not get kids from Marshalltown to open enroll. My hometown has done a good job of marketing the fact that it is a 10 minute drive down 4 lane Hwy63 to Waterloo, and by living there you can get all the small town benefits, like letting your kids take their bikes down to the gas station or grocery store, staying out with friends without any worry, etc. Plus smaller class sizes and the tight knit community feel.

 

[cyclonepower]

Being from G-R, the school is good for another 8 years right now I believe. Delaying the inevitable? More than likely but Reinbeck is doing everything they can to bring younger people back. Also GMG woof! Go Rebels!

 

[CycloneErik]

I've noticed the schools around Marshalltown have had an uptick so they all should be ok long term. GR on other hand is just delaying the inevitable, is it because they are good at boys athletics or something? The two towns don't seem to make sense being together in the first place looking at school maps.

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.

 

[BCClone]

Is that the one that they did the IPTV special on? I remember seeing a good one on consolidation a few years ago.

Not sure I didn't see it.

My HS consolidated my senior year, I went elsewhere knowing this would be a mess for a few years with the way it was done. (had several friends say they wished they followed me afterwards). What is the reason most don't want to lose the school is that it is a final killer of a town. Once that school leaves, there is almost no way the town recovers. A lot of jobs gone, tax dollars shipped to a different town, most people don't want to leave in towns without the local school there (at least the white collar jobs). Then other business shutters up quickly with that loss of jobs and people just getting used to leaving for other things.

 

[ajk4st8]

Gladbrook lost an elementary and middle school leaving the town with nothing while Reinbeck got everything. However, you cant make money appear on trees. Keeping both campuses open was NOT an option.

Gladbrook was really hoping that they could eventually get GMG to go along with reopening up the school in Gladbrook.

Gladbrook fears being like every othe Iowa town that loses its schools. Collapsing to nothing.

Im a proud GR alum. It really is a great school. Im glad they chose to keep things going, even in Reinbeck.

 

[wxman1]

Gladbrook lost an elementary and middle school leaving the town with nothing while Reinbeck got everything. However, you cant make money appear on trees. Keeping both campuses open was NOT an option.

Gladbrook was really hoping that they could eventually get GMG to go along with reopening up the school in Gladbrook.

Gladbrook fears being like every othe Iowa town that loses its schools. Collapsing to nothing.

Im a proud GR alum. It really is a great school. Im glad they chose to keep things going, even in Reinbeck.

Gladbrook has more going for it (currently) than most small towns. Diner, Elevator, small grocery store, small car dealership.

 

[Al_4_State]

I think one factor that can hold up consolidation that isn't petty is the geographical practicality of it.

Up in my neck of the woods, you have Riceville. Probably one of the smallest school districts left in the state, but due to their location, they don't have a natural consolidation partner. The town is half in Mitchell County and half in Howard County. To the east, the nearest school is Howard-Winneshiek in Cresco, which is 22 miles from Riceville and over 40 from the northwest corner of the district. If they merged with that district, you'd have a school district that was about 60 miles wide. To the west are St. Ansgar and Osage, which pose the same kind of issues for students on the east side of the Riceville district. These are valid issues that go beyond emotion and/or town pride.

The only real solution, which you would likely never see due to the petty nature of these things, would be to split the district between the surrounding districts, with those three coming together to share the existing facility as a K-8 (to reduce busing kids 80 miles a day).

Because there isn't a clean solution, there isn't any real kind of discussion going on about the best way to deal with this, and you continue to see this smaller district soldiering on without much better option.

 

[Bret44]

South Davis PaloAlto County-Lansing DinnerTime

Hell of a commute.

 

[jbindm]

Sometimes I feel the reasons these towns don't consolidate are the most pathetic, and petty reasons.

In most cases you're probably right. That's how it went for the town I grew up in and the neighboring town. I can remember consolidation being brought up when I was second or third grade, and it ended up not happening until two years after I graduated. There was absolutely no good reason for the two schools systems not to merge, but egos and small town politics and power plays prevented it from happening for over a decade.

 

[mramseyISU]

Being from G-R, the school is good for another 8 years right now I believe. Delaying the inevitable? More than likely but Reinbeck is doing everything they can to bring younger people back. Also GMG woof! Go Rebels!

They had your Superintendent on TV a few weeks back I think who said basically the same things. You're at least 10 years away from having real issues and by then it's hard to predict where you'll be at populationwise.

 

[ajk4st8]

Gladbrook has more going for it (currently) than most small towns. Diner, Elevator, small grocery store, small car dealership.

Dont forget the movie theater and http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/

 

[wxman1]

i don't know commuting patterns of Gladbrook residents but it sure looks like the majority must go to Marshalltown while the majority of Reinbeck go to Waterloo area. If I'm heading south anyway why not drop the kids off on the way instead of them being sent 16(?) miles the other direction?

Another factor of that though is how many of those kids don't even live in town and live five miles outside of town on a farm.

 

[BirdOfWar]

Collins-Maxwell and Baxter agreed to split up this past summer too. Now Baxter is on its own and Collins-Maxwell are together.

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.

 

[trevn]

Sometimes I feel the reasons these towns don't consolidate are the most pathetic, and petty reasons.

It's all about educating the kids except when it isn't.

 

[wxman1]

Dont forget the movie theater and http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/

And the nursing home!

 

[jkclone]

I think this is really interesting. I'm looking at it from a metro perspective where many of the schools are becoming to big. We went on the tour of Urbandale this summer and they said Waukee had to average a new school every year for the past few years just to keep up. I don't know the rural school districts well but I'm weary of all the consolidation for the geographic issues others mentioned. I think that this should be a major focus for our state government because we can't have kids commuting an hour each way every day.

For some of these places is there feasibility to consolidate districts but not necessarily schools or can some of them restart more centrally located?

 

[isufbcurt]

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.

Yes that is accurate. I just phrased it poorly.

I live by Baxter so I saw pieces of what was going but really didn't pay a lot of attention since it has no effect on me.

 

[VeloClone]

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.