SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION

SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION. In his Report of 1856, Horace Mann recommended independent township units which were established in 1858. (1) The typical township was divided into nine subdistricts, each with its own director; incorporated towns could organize as independent school districts. The Iowa General Assembly in 1872 formalized this by creating the independent school system. This proved to be a popular idea as seen from the jump from 400 to 2,206 in two years and to 3,686 by 1900. The only drawback was the weak system for the certification of teachers. (2)

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Henry Sabin recommended in 1895 the revolutionary idea of publicly supported transportation. (3) In 1898 Dean Amos N. Currier of the University of Iowa recommended “reorganization” under the township as the administrative unit. Central graded schools should be made available to all rural children with transportation at public expense. (4)

Currier’s ideas launched a movement for consolidated schools. (5) In 1895 Buffalo Township voted to form a Town Independent District around the village of Buffalo Center. Students were “bused” on six horse-drawn wagons called “hacks” into town for their education. (6) This action led to the formation of the first consolidated school district west of the Mississippi River. (7)

Although the first consolidation law in Iowa was passed in 1906, the movement was slow getting started. The law mandated that a school district include no fewer than sixteen square miles; and electors in both urban and rural areas had to approve the larger district in separate votes. (8) In 1908 State Superintendent John Franklin Riggs advocated county-wide planning of larger schools and better transportation. He also campaigned for the standardization of teacher certification under the control of the state. (9) By 1910, there were only ten consolidated schools including Albion (Marshall County), Buffalo Center (Winnebago), Crawfordsville (Washington), Fernald (Story), Lake Center (Hamilton), Lincoln Township (unknown county), Floyd Township (Dickinson), Marathon (Buena Vista), McIntire (Mitchell), and Webb (Clay). By 1921 over four hundred schools had consolidated. (10)

The consolidation movement began to end around 1919. (11) The disruption of food production in Europe during WORLD WAR I led to higher prices for American crops. Higher crop prices led to higher prices for farmland, but American farmers were encouraged to expand their holdings. In the fall and winter of 1919, crop prices began to fall. There was no decline, however, in the cost of farm implements, the price to haul products to market, or the debt they had to the bank for their loans to purchase land. School consolidation had increased costs to Iowans who had to pay for buses to transport children and higher wages for teachers. The increased use of buses and automobiles led to the need for better roads. Taxes were increased at a time when many could not afford them. (12)

It was cheaper to maintain the elementary school in the country and pay the tuition to the nearby town or consolidated school for those who wanted to continue their education. (13) The number of organized districts did not change very much. There were 4,639 in 1922 and 4,558 in 1953. (14) Despite the cost of tuition, Iowans continued to feel the rural education was sufficient and feared the loss of local control. (15)

In 1945 the Iowa General Assembly ruled that each County Board of Education prepare a plan that would allow a realignment of country schools into natural neighborhoods. This resulted in a few consolidations, but change was halted in 1947 when the General Assembly stopped further reorganization until an extensive study could be made by the County Boards. (16)

The moratorium on reorganization ended in 1953. Iowa school law was changed to require each of the non-high school districts to join with a high school unit by 1962. New districts were to have at least three hundred students in kindergarten through grade 12. The new community school district would decide whether it would continue to use the one-room schools in the joining districts. (17)

When legislation was passed in 1955 that all country school would close by June 1, 1966, fifty new community school districts were formed. The 1958-1959 school year saw the greatest number of consolidations when 829 districts merged into 102 new school units that had to transport children. (18)

In 1957 County Superintendent Wayne Drexler announced that the first phase of school reorganization—initiating detailed studies and surveys of school districts within the county and the adjacent territory—was about to begin. (19) The 57th General Assembly had passed a reorganization law that required all public school districts had to be a part of a public district that maintained twelve grades. If an area were not in such a district by that time, it would be placed in one. Drexler pointed out that the policy was to encourage reorganization of school districts into such units as are necessary, economical and efficient and which would ensure equal opportunity for all students in the state. (20)

Dubuque County at the time had 62 districts, but 27 of them existed only on paper and operated no schools at all. While there were approximately 5,000 public school students in Dubuque, the rest of the county had only about 1,500 students. Besides Dubuque Senior High School, the only other four-year public high schools in the county existed in Peosta and Epworth. No new district could be formed in the state unless it had at least 300 children who attended a public school the year previous to forming the new district. (21)

The surveys would examine the adequacy of the educational programs, average daily attendance of pupils, property valuations existing school buildings and equipment, natural community areas, road conditions transportation, and economic factors. (22)

Following the surveys, a tentative reorganization plan would be designed and acted upon by the County Board of Education and then submitted to the state as the Dubuque County Plan for reorganization. This plan could be amended before July 1, 1962 when everything had to be complete. The state recommended procedure also called for the county boards of education of adjoining counties to meet. (23)

At least three reorganization plans existed. First, all the areas of the county could be incorporation into the Dubuque Community School District. Second, the county could be split so Dubuque and some high school in the western part of the county would each serve a district. Third, the outlying Dubuque county districts could join school districts outside the county including Maquoketa, Monticello, Manchester, Colesburg or Guttenberg. (24)

In 1962 the General Assembly passed legislation that allowed the state to assign any unattached district to a high school district by 1967. There were only 46 non-high school districts by 1966 and only 19 districts remained to be assigned in 1967. (25)

In 1967 all country schools were not closed. The Code of Iowa provided for “Schools Operated by Exempt Religious Groups” to continue as private schools. There were thirty-seven such schools in twelve counties in 1996-1997 with 895 students. The Old Order Amish operated 29; the Mennonite had 5; and the rest were operated by the New Order Amish, Brethren, and Beechy Amish. There were also six Amish schools in northeastern Iowa which were operated by the public schools, the Jesup and Wapsie Valley School Districts. (26)

In 1970 Cletus Koppen, the new County Superintendent of Schools, was still dealing with fifteen rural school districts to see how the people felt about joining the Dubuque Community School District. (27) A passed in 1957 which had led to so many consolidations had stipulated that forcible consolidation would not go into effect until the agricultural land tax credit had been paid in full for at least one year prior to July 1, 1962. This was modified in 1965 by moving it to July 1, 1966. (28) The Legislature, however, had appropriated the funds for this full credit only once—in 1949. In 1960, only 44 percent of the claims were paid and the $10,500,000 line limit in 1970 had only been increased $750,000. (29)

Koppen acknowledged that the county school system was going through change. The plan was to have two districts and his own office had become a service unit instead of a direct administrator of rural and small school districts. Acting as a link between local districts and the State Department of Public Instruction, the county office was especially involved in providing special education services and supervising testing programs to provide equality of opportunity. (30)

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Source:

1. Sage, Leland L. A History of Iowa. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1974, p. 330

2. Ibid., p. 331

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Schweider, Dorothy; Morain, Thomas; Nielsen, Lynn. Iowa—Past to Present. Ames: Iowa State Press, 2002, p. 160

7. Sabin, p. 331

8. Deiber, Camilla and Beedle, Peggy. Country Schools for Iowa. Hiawatha, IA, 2002. J & A Publishing. , p. 7 Online: http://www.iowahistory.org/historic-preservation/assets/Country%20Schools.pdf

9. Sage, p. 331

10. SMR, 160

11. SMN, p. 160

12. Houlette, p. 255

13. Dreier, p. 5

14. Dreier, p. 6

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. “County Public Schools Begin Reorganization,” Telegraph Herald, October 6, 1957, p. 4

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid, p. 7

24. Ibid.

24. Deiber, Camilla and Beedle, Peggy, p. 8

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Sage, p. 331