Yes we closed the Wesley elementary in 08 or 09 I believe. At dissolution we ceded about 85% of our district to LuVerne so that they could continue to function. The city of Wesley is now in the LuVerne district.
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- Thread starter Mtowncyclone13
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So the approximately 60-75 kids includes both K-6 plus preschool. And includes the LuVerne District plus about 85% of the Corwith-Wesley District.
LuVerne District probably has enough money to operate that way for a long time. Algona School District has a history of treating other Districts very fairly from our experience with our school district.
Moulton-Udell
Back in the 80s there was talk of combining Moulton-Udell, Blakesburg, and Moravia in a centralized location. It never came to fruition. Blakesburg closed their JH/HS and went to Eddyville in the early 90s.
There are two LOSTs. One for schools and one for muni/county and such. If you pay 7% sales tax, you have a school LOST
I think Humboldt County only has 1 school in it now after Twin River Valley closed, minus a small portion (Thor area) that is in the Eagle Grove School District.
How can you claim Benton Community as a single school county when you literally say they have another 3A school in the same county, not to mention part of the Center Point Urbana school district.
I don't think the argument is a single school county but more of two school counties which would fit Benton county better since more than half of the county goes to Benton.
I know nothing about Benton County. Someone else made the claim earlier in the thread and I was just rolling with what they said.
That used to be the case but the school 1 cent tax (SILO) was converted from a local option tax to a statewide tax about 10 years ago.
Under our agreement Algona lets us keep 50% of the state money for the first three years. I'm not sure what is going to happen after that. I believe Algona had the same agreement with Titonka before they reorganized. If Algona allows LuVerne a share of the state money going forward LuVerne will run out of kids (and therefore spending authority) before they run out of money
We live in Atkins and my kinds go to Benton. We love Atkins and we like the Benton Community School District. School/Class breakdown is...
Pre-school - 3rd: Atkins (East) or Keystone (West)
4th -6th: Norway (All)
7th-8th: Van Horne
9th-12th: Van Horne
The district is divided East/West so the little kids aren't on the bus too long. Atkins is growing at a crazy pace so we will see what it does to thw school district. If Atkins gets to 4,000 residents as the State has suggested, who knows.
We love it. Our schools are small enough when the kids are little but they get the freedom of a 3A school.
I can see both sides on this. For some, playing HS sports was/is a large part of the HS experience. I know it is the part I remember most about HS, and I was by no means a star. I would not have had the same opportunities at a large school. That particular experience is irreplaceable in that particular, structured format; and the opportunity is forever lost once you leave HS. Conversely, while there is some sacrifice in educational opportunities at smaller schools, the opportunity to learn persists beyond HS in many forms. Heck, learning can even be supplemented while in HS, such as by taking classes at a CC or online.
Your analogy is regarding the valedictorian is imperfect. It has become much harder for a non-naturally gifted athlete to compete at in sports at larger schools, both because of expense/time of year-round training and specializing. So, for a child that doesn't have immense natural athletic ability and an inability for parents to afford the expense or time to commit to the year-round participation, the choice is not having the opportunity at all, or having the opportunity at a lower level.
I completely agree. Academics can be made up through various means later in life. The opportunity for extracurricular activities is much harder to make up, and cannot be made up in that particular environment.
can someone tell us why Mount Ayr has these weird boundaries?
When the Clearfield district dissolved, a sizable portion of the area went to Mount Ayr. That's the outlier chunk in the NW part of the map. Lenox, Diagonal, and Bedford were the other beneficiaries.
As for the other odd boundaries, the First Great Consolidation of the 1950s and 1960s more or less allowed rural residents to choose their own district. So if the family on one side of the road wanted their kid to go to District A, and the family across the road wanted their kid to go to District B, then the boundary line was placed there.
Lucas County for the most part is one school district - Chariton. Southeast Warren has a very small portion in northern Lucas county, and Morman Trail has a small part around Derby.
The district divisions have always been a mess. I lived 5 miles from a 3A school and 10 miles from an 1A school. Never did an once of business in the 1A school but the way the districts were divided that is where I went. We lived on the wrong side of the district. Bus rides for 45 minutes to an hour.
I agree to a certain extent. I went to a 3A school, while my college roommate went to one of those small 20 kids to a class size schools. He was top of the class, basically considered a genius in his school. He was one of those kids who took tons of community college classes as well. The problem was, none of it prepared him for college. His community college credits only got him general credits, not applied to his degree. We took a lot of the same classes and he was far behind me, contemplating dropping out due to the difficulty while I was still reviewing what I had done in high school.
This is a smart guy, who was able to push through and now works at NASA. Now put someone who is average in that position, they are even farther behind and maybe never break through.
I am not one of those guys who thinks you should go in 100% on academics and get a 4.0 or else, but I also want to make sure my own kids are never in the situation that my roommate faced.
My graduating class was 24 and there are some successful people in my class, but they mostly went to small, private colleges. I spent a year at Indian Hills before coming to Iowa State and the numbers alone was a culture shock. It became very clear early why kids came home after a semester or two at Iowa or Iowa State. The things professors assumed I had learned in high school had me going to tutors for a few classes.
It's interesting to see the different perspectives. I graduated with 70 people in a small town that I don't really have any fondness for. It was a clique filled town that liked to pretend that there were no problems and covered everything up. Going to a large college was absolutely the right decision for me and I loved being one of many. I can't imagine living in or raising my kids in a small town and kind of pity those that still live there---which is stupid because different strokes for different folks and all 
As far as academics go, in general, I think that it really doesn't matter if you go to a small school or a big school. It depends on what you put into it and also how involved the parents are.
As far as academics go, in general, I think that it really doesn't matter if you go to a small school or a big school. It depends on what you put into it and also how involved the parents are.
