Grand Valley's Final Bell, 1991

BURMEISTER, JACKSON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 6/14/2013 at 06:10:48

Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Iowa
date clipped off

School district awaits final bell

By Mark Siebert, Register Staff Writer

With the Grand Valley school district's end near
a vote Tuesday will decide if
residents or the state will close it down.

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 ecomonic 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 consolidated [continued on page 7B which is missing]

NOTE: The last Grand Valley graduating class was the Class of 1991. Final disposition of Grand Valley Community school district was in the fall of 1998.

Submission by Theola Weeda

Transcription & note by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2013

Des Moines Register photograph: Pricipal Camille Jackson, front, and her staff and 40 students are all who remain of the Grand Valley school district.

http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/schools/GV/GV_finalbell.htm
 

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