Around the year of 1893, the Kellerton School District bonded $1,700 for the construction of a new schoolhouse.

During the 1920's, the issue of consolidation of Ringgold County schools was first addressed. The proposal failed and the town schools of Ringgold County continued with a majority of the rural children attending country schools. Later, when Ellston Community School closed, a few of the students attended school at either the Grand River Community School or Kellerton Community School.

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, May 16, 1957

A petition is on file in the office of county superintendent Vera F. DICKENS for the establishment of a proposed Grand Valley Community school district in Ringgold and Decatur counties.

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, August 22, 1957

At a special school election held Tuesday, voters overwhelmingly favored the establishment of the proposed Grand Valley Community School District in Decatur and Ringgold counties. The official tabulation was 755 in favor and 195 against. The establishment of the new district will become effective July 1, 1958.

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 04, 1959

The Grand Valley Community school district of Ringgold and Decatur counties will be served by one high school to be located at Kellerton when school opens this fall. The decision to close the high school at Grand River and to maintain the one high school at Kellerton was made at a recent meeting of the board of education of the district with three directors, Dean JACKSON, John GROSE and Norman ELSWICK, voting in favor of the proposal, and the other two directors, Roy JONES and John Van LAAR, opposing the plan.

Grand River and Kellerton consolidated, creating Grand Valley Community Schools. For several years, Grand River elementary students attended classes at the Grand River schoolhouse while Kellerton elementary students were educated at the Kellerton schoolhouse. The classes combined when the students attended junior high (7th and 8th grades). Junior High students attended classes at the Grand River schoolhouse while High School students attended classes at the Kellerton schoolhouse. [This continued until sometime in the 1970's when all classes - elementary through High School were combined, attending classes at both schoolhouses.]

The Brick Country School, once located northeast of Grand River in Richland Township near the Wheelis Cemetery, was moved to the Grand River schoolhouse grounds and was utilized as a music room. The Foland Country School was moved to Kellerton's schoolhouse grounds where it, too, was used as a music room. When Grand Valley Community Schools closed, the Brick Country School was moved west across the street where it is currently utilized as Grand River's town museum. The Foland Country School was moved uptown on the east side of Main Street where it is now Kellerton's town museum.

As student enrollment dwindled, Grand Valley Community School entered into a whole-grade sharing agreement with Mount Ayr Community schools for grades 7 - 12, and with Lamoni Community Schools.

The gymnasium and vocational agriculture building at the Kellerton schoolhouse grounds was built and dedicated on November 16, 1951. It was attached to the main building with a "breezeway."

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, March 27, 1958

The Beaconsfield Consolidated school district and the Ellston Independent school district are no longer included in the Grand Valley Community school district, according to findings of fact, conclusions of law and decree issued by Judge H. J. KITTLEMAN following a hearing held Friday in the district court in Mount Ayr. The status of the two school districts remains the same as before the filing of the certificates that included them within the Grand Valley Community school district.

Kellerton High School's athletic teams were the Kellerton Indians and the school annual was called "The Tomahawk." When Kellerton and Grand River schools consolidated, they were called the Grand Valley Tigers and the school annual was called "Tiger Rag" with the exception of 1962 when a typo named the annual "Tiger Ray."

Leon Journal-Reporter
Leon, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, September 08, 1977

Grand Valley Community School enrollment for the 1977-78 year was 99 in high school and 180 in junior high and elementary for a total of 279 students.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2012

Upon Grand Valley's closing, there was a proposal to convert the school building into a safe house for abused women, among other things. Of the main concern was the ability to provide proper security should such a transformation take place. Ultimately, it was decided to demolish both schoolhouses instead of allowing the buildings to deteriorate and fall into a state of decline and decay. The gym at the Kellerton school grounds serves as a community center. There is a senior center [former voc ag and shop rooms] now located on the Grand River school grounds.

The first annual Ringgold County Basketball Tournament was held on February 28 and March 1 of 1919, at the Mount Ayr High School gymnasium. Teams from Kellerton, Mount Ayr, Delphos, Diagonal, Ellston, Shannon City, and Tingley played for the championship which was won by Ellston High School prevailing with 62 points over Diagonal's 19 points.

At the 1922 Ringgold County Tournament, Kellerton's guard JACKSON was named to the all-county first team.

Kellerton High School won its first Tournament championship in 1925, played against Mount Ayr High School. With neither team scoring during the second quarter, Mount Ayr held the lead of 3-2 at half-time. Rallying during the second half, Kellerton beat out Mount Ayr 11-10. The all-county first team included Kellerton's forwards MOSBARGER and BROWN, center LUTZ, and guard DOSER.

Kellerton lost the 1926 championship to Delphos, 13-10. Kellerton's guard ALLEN was named to the all-county first team.

In 1928, referee WHEELER of the Des Moines YMCA selected Kellerton's forward DINGMAN for the all-county first team.

The Ringgold Tournament of 1932 was held on February 18-20 at Diagonal. Diagonal won the championship over Kellerton, 38-17.

In 1934, Kellerton's GIBSON was named to the all-county first team.

In their 6th consecutive championship win, Diagonal beat Kellerton 45-18 in 1936.

Ringgold's County Tournament was held February 18-20, 1937 in Mount Ayr's newly constructed gymnasium. Kellerton came in third, William SHIDLER, Coach. A blizzard blew in on Saturday night, forcing most of the teams and spectators to spend the night at the new gym while others sought refuge at the courthouse, cafes, the town hall, and private homes. Another blizzard blew in during the championship game of 1938 when Kellerton lost to Diagonal. Diagonal, then, was defeated in an upset by Mount Ayr, 37-26. However, five weeks later, Diagonal won the Class B Iowa State Championship.

The 1956 Tournament championship game was played out at Mount Ayr on January 19th. The Diagonal team, led by Tom AUSTIN, beat out Kellerton, led by Jim HUNT, 68-52. This marked Diagonal's 15 championships out of 38 county tournaments.

During the 1957 final game was played on January 19th. Kellerton and Tingley were tied at 40 points each. With player Mike McDOWELL paving a path for the team, Kellerton defeated Tingley in overtime play, 48-42.

Other tournament championship games in which Kellerton was a contender was in 1952: Redding 32; Kellerton 28.

NOTE: The Kellerton Boys' High School Baseball team won the sectional tournament held at Creston in 1951. Monte BALLOU pitched a no-hitter for Kellerton.

NOTE: Kellerton's girl's high school basketball team won the sectional tournament in 1957, defeating Beaconsfield 54-52. In 1958, Joyce GIBSON won second place in the county-wide girls' free-throw contest, making 22 of 25 throws.

Mount Ayr Record News
Ringgold County Progress Edition
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa, 1980

"We see as much place in the future for a small school as a large school." That's what William HULLINGER, superintendent of schools at Grand Valley Community schools in Kellerton and Grand River says when looking to the future for the district which covers the eastern side of Ringgold county.

There may be adjustments such as sharing staff members between districts, but unless something new is mandated by the legislature, the Grand Valley school district will be here for a long time, according to HULLINGER.

With 230 students in the district, including 121 in [the] elementary center in Grand River and 109 in the junior-senior high building in Kellerton, the district can put an emphasis on quality education for its students, he said.

Improving this quality has been one emphasis for the past five years, according to Supt. HULLINGER.

"If a student can read, write, use mathematics and learn how to gather new information by the time they graduate, then we've accomplished our major purpose," HULLINGER said.

One goal for the past few years has been to get the ITED tests for the district above the state average, and this has been accomplished, meaning that the district's students are among the top students across the country.

Five years ago a program was started to update basic skills in the school district. New reading, math and social studies programs were implemented and reading instruction was extended into the seventh and eighth grades.

"It takes a while to determine what you set out to do, but we are confident that we are accomplishing the goals the new curriculum was designed to do," he said.

Another change was to toughen up the requirements for graduation by requiring 17 units for graduation, including three years of English and two years of math course work.

"I would say that academically right now this school is in pretty good shape and we don't have to take second to anyone," said Supt. HULLINGER, commenting on the job the teaching staff is doing at the school.

Some progress has been made in physical facilities over the five year period as well. Trying to do a little each year in the way of maintenance, HULLINGER said that rooms have been carpeted, roofs are in good repair and physical facilities in solid condition.

A program begun last winter to put styrofoam panels in windows in the buildings during the winter, combined with last year's relatively mild winter, combined for a 50 per cent heating savings.

School financing is the biggest problem on the horizon for the district, according to Supt. HULLINGER. The uncertainty of what kinds of aid will be coming from the state level and the discrepancy that comes when sparsely populated areas like southwest Iowa are treated the same way as schools in urban areas cause problems, he said.

The continued mandating of programs from the state level without the extra funding to do the job is another problem.

"The state shouldn't shove programs off to the school and taxpayers saying that they have to be funded without any input from the taxpayers that will have to pay for them," HULLINGER said.

One example is the talk of a future requirement of 10 vocational programs in each school some time in the future. "The numbers of students interested in a program would make it hard to merit a program of this magnitude in smaller schools," he said.

He said that more cooperation with area schools or other school districts would probably be the solution that school districts would turn to if this were mandated.

Supt. HULLINGER also mentioned a regulation that makes it mandatory not only to offer a foreign language, for example, but to have students take the course. Sharing teachers between districts for specialized courses would also be helpful for this kind of coursework as well as for vocational training, he noted.

Supt. HULLINGER said he had some philosophical differences about the degree that vocational education should be stressed at the high school level. "We think that the purpose of the high school is first to teach students to read, write, figure and have basic learning skills and that it's not really the high school's role to turn out individuals trained for specific occupations," he commented. He said the area schools provide these services on post-high school basis.

"If we do our job then students can go on to college or vocational training with the skills that will allow them to choose about anything they want to do," he said. "In a changing world where most of us will have to learn more than one occupation in our lifetimes, the basic learning skills are of prime importance."

HULLINGER said that all by 35 to 45 per cent of the students in the school district go on to some type of further schooling after high school and that a recent study showed that after two years a recent class still had 57 per cent of students in further educational pursuits.

"We will continue to do the best we can in the diversity of offerings and career programming, but our main goal is to teach basic skills so the youth will have the necessities to make their way in the world," he said.

Submission by Mike Avitt, May of 2012

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, October 24, 1991

Several Grand Valley patrons attended the school board's meeting to ask that the board should consider dissolution.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2016

Mount Ayr Record News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, September 24, 1998

Most of the items leading to the final disposition of property from the Grand Valley Community school district are in the process of being worked out. The Grand Valley Trust and Agency committee heard reports from school districts on acceptance of the mediated settlement between this group and the Grand Valley Community School District Charitable Trust, which was given the property by the Grand Valley school board, and began to work on several areas of the plan.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2012

Sources: Ringgold County History Compiled and written by the Iowa Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Iowa, Sponsored by Ringgold County Superintendent of Schools, Mount Ayr, Iowa. 1942.

AVITT, Mike. Pages and Pictures from the Past. . .Ringgold County, Iowa 1855-2005 Pp. 23, 60-1, 64, 81. Paragon Publications, Inc. Mount Ayr. 2009.

Photographs submitted by Ken Baker, March of 2009

Compilation & Tiger Mascot by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2009; updated May of 2012; updated July of 2012; updated October of 2016