School District Awaits Final Bell

Kellerton, Ia. - The good folks here in Kellerton and near-by Grand River will go to the polls Tuesday to decide how their school district should die.

There are a few who still think the tiny Grand Valley district, enrollment 40, can hang on.

But most reluctantly admit it's time -- time to close the neat, three-story brick elementary building in Kellerton; time to turn the sportsmanship trophies over to history buffs; time to give in to the economic and demographic forces reshaping rural Iowa.

"This is one of the saddest things I've ever watched in education because it means the death of an institution," said Phil Burmeister, who splits his time as superintendent at Grand Valley and Mount Ayr. "It's just like watching a parent die of cancer. It's sad."

The vote Tuesday is over whether to dissolve the district and divvy up the land, assets and students among surrounding districts.

Rare and Not Easy

While many Iowa school districts have merged and cconsolidated, only once in the state's history has a school district voluntarily dissolved itself out of existence.

It's not an easy process.

There have been hard feelings, an active rumor mill and arguments over how best to divide the long, narrow district that straddles the Ringgold-Decatur county line.

There also is a feeling of duty.

If residents can't decide among themselves where the district's few remaining students will attend, someone else will come in and do it for them.

"Here's the message school board president Dennis Campbell sent recently to voters:

"We believe as directors of your school that now is the time to dissolve the district for the future of our children. With your help we will try to continue the fine tradition of the Grand Valley Tigers as we work together for all of the children of the Grand Valley Schools."

Even if Tuesday's vote falls, Campbell said, the school in Kellerton will not remain open next fall.

Officials would likely notify the Iowa Department of Education that the district was unable to meet state education requirements. Then the state would do the carving.

"There's a lot of mixed feelings about it," Campbell said. "There are a lot of people who feel real bad that the school district is closing."

First Signs

The first signs of trouble surfaced six years ago when the district decided to close the school building in Grand River. High school students were sent to neighboring districts through sharing agreements.

Not long after, more and more younger students began using open enrollment to leave.

Last year, Grand Valley had 62 students enrolled in the seven grades. This year, enrollment dropped to 40 - or an average of fewer than six students per grade.

The remaining group of pupils offers perhaps the most telling sign that the Grand Valley district was doomed: Not a single student in the school has a parent whose main occupation is farming.

The proposed dissolution map - there is one tacked to a bathroom door at the Kellerton Cafe - shows section upon section of land where no school-age children live.

Lucky Shoe?

A huge horseshoe is painted on Kellerton's blue water tower in honor of world champion horseshoe pitcher Frank Jackson. But that didn't bring enough luck to overcome such powerful demographic shifts.

'The school's closing just may be a sign of the times, but it is sad," said area farmer Richard Jackson, who also was a member of the district's dissolution committee. "You sign a death warrant for a community, just about. You're going to take the kids out of the community, and they're not going to come back."

Richard Jackson, a distant relative of Frank Jackson, might not be either.

He grew up on a farm north of town. He graduated from Grand Valley in 1961. His two children graduated from Grand Valley. His wife, Camille, is Grand Valley's principal.

But he said he's made up his mind he will relocate if she has to move to find another school job.

Unavoidable Impact

The impact of such departures on the town's small Main Street will be unavoidable.

Just ask Billie Miller.

She owns Billie's Place in Grand River, an all-purpose grocery store, cafe and community center where you can borrow a book, buy a loaf of fresh bread or just drop by in the winter and tackle a 1,000-piece puzzle.

Miller tries not to take sides in local arguments - bad for business, you know. But when the district decided to close the school in Grand River, business suffered, she said.

The old school building is occupied now by a business that puts Teflon coating on fishhooks. It's just not the same.

"You can really tell the difference in the business since we lost the school," Miller said.

The chances of the dissolution plan passing are unclear.

Campbell, the school board president, thinks it will. Jerri Worthington, owner of the Kellerton Cafe disagrees.

"It'll never pass," Worthington said. "Some of the older folks think if they vote against it, the school will stay open. But it'll never happen. The state will just come in and do it."

The dissolution committee's first map was somewhat clean, redrawing lines so large chunks of land would be parceled out to neighboring districts.

The school board, wanting to honor the wishes of students already attending the various high schools, gerrymandered the map to create jagged land bridges into both Kellerton and Grand River.

The plan calls for territory to be divided among Central Decatur, Lamoni, Mount Ayr and Murray school districts. These districts have been part of the debate because of objections they've had about letting buses from other districts pick up students in their territory.

Part of the problem is that the path to dissolution is not well worn.

The only other district to voluntarily dissolve was Boone Valley of Renwick in 1988.

Hedrick also was dissolved, but that was done forcibly by the education department in 1990 after the district failed to meet state minimum academic standards.

End Is Near

Eventually, all the haggling over Grand Valley territory and whose property goes to what district won't matter.

District residents will go to the city halls in Kellerton and Grand River Tuesday and vote yes or no.

Camille Jackson, the school principal, compared it to approving or rejecting the district's last will and testament.

Either way, it appears, the last class in Grand Valley history will graduate next spring. There will be no more noisy recesses on the school playground, no more sleepovers at the school.

Sixth-grader Dustin Stark will be the last student council president in the school's history.

There will be a party, Dustin said. "It'll be fun," he said. Maybe a dance, food, some games and other stuff.

Then it will be time - time to wave goodbye to the Grand Valley school district for the final time.

Chelsea Lilienthal, from left, Tia Brown and Alexis Dewey - who make up the school district's first grade - take part in a math exercise in class. Their teacher, Chyre Diveley, at right, also teaches the school's two second-grade students. Each grade at the school, which handles kindergarten through sixth grade, has an average of six students. High school students were parceled out to surrounding school districts six years ago under a sharing agreement.

NOTE: The last Grand Valley graduating class was the Class of 1992. After the highschool closed, Grand Valley continued as Elementary for 6 more years. Final disposition of Grand Valley Community school district was in the fall of 1998.

Grand Valley Voters Decide to Dissolve District in Vote Tuesday

Mount Ayr Record News
September 25, 1997

Grand Valley Community school district voters overwhelmingly voted to dissolve their school district effective July 1, 1998, when they went to the polls in large numbers Tuesday.

The unofficial vote was 248 voting in favor of the dissolution plan for the district and 52 voting against the dissolution plan, or 83 percent for the issue. Over 40 percent of the eligible voters took part.

Official results will come with the canvass of the vote Tuesday, Sept. 30, but there is no doubt that the issue passed because only a simple majority was needed.

The district becomes only the second school district in the state to vote to dissolve their school district. The other district was the Boone Valley school district at Renwick.

The approval of the dissolution means that the district property will be divided among four school districts that share boundaries with the present Grand Valley district - the Central Decatur, Lamoni, Mount Ayr Community and Murray school districts.

The approval still leaves up in the air the designation for one portion of the district, the small section in the northeast corner of the district that had originally been offered to the Clarke Community school district. The Clarke district decided not to accept the property because of problems in being able to transport any students from the area to Osceola in the one hour time limit school districts have to transport students. The Iowa Department of Education will make the determination where this property will go - to either the Murray or Central Decatur district.

The decision to dissolve the district passed in both the Grand River and Kellerton precincts, though Grand River voters approved the measure by a wider margin.

Absentee voters in the election voted six in favor and one against the proposed dissolution. Grand River precinct voters voted 142 in favor and 24 against the dissolution proposal. Kellerton precinct voters voted 100 in favor and 27 against the dissolution proposal.

Now that the dissolution has been determined, the Grand Valley school board will have many decisions to make before the end of the school year on how some of the school district assets will be disposed.

Probably the most important is what will be done with the present elementary school building in Kellerton. At least two groups have shown interest in the building. The South Central Consortium and Southwestern Community College have discussed using, the building for a vocational education and alternative school center.

Another group is looking at the building with the possibility of turning in into a shelter for battered women.

If the school board does not make a decision on the building, then the building will be transferred to the Mount Ayr Community school district with the property in Kellerton that will go to the MAC district.

There is a $50,000 fund setup to use for tearing down the building if a suitable use is not found for it in three years.
If the building is being used at the end of the three year period, the money would be distributed among the school districts receiving property on the same basis as other school district assets and liabilities.

Under the dissolution plan, some 48.18 percent of the taxable value of the district will be going to the Mount Ayr Community school district, 33.76 percent will go to the Central Decatur school district, 11.09 percent will go to the Lamoni school district and 6.47 percent will go to the Murray school district.

The dissolution plan that was approved by the voters will continue to give students in the two communities in the district - Grand River and Kellerton - a choice of school districts 10 which students can be transported.

The plan left a connection to Grand River for both the Central Decatur and Mount Ayr Community school districts. Kellerton will be connected to both the Mount Ayr Community and Lamoni school districts for possible transportation.

While students will now be placed in one of the four school districts by the new boundary lines, open enrollment to the district of their choice is still an option.

Districts have not been able to agree on a way to transport open enrolled students within other district's territory, however, so open enrolled students must find their way to a bus route in the district they plan to attend if they want to be transported.