Van Buren County Community School District

Van Buren County Community School District (VBCSD) is a school district headquartered in Keosauqua, Iowa.[1]

It is mostly in Van Buren County, and extends into Davis, Henry, and Lee counties. In addition to Keosauqua, it also serves Birmingham, Bonaparte, Cantril, Farmington, Hillsboro, Milton, and Stockport. It also serves two census-designated places in unincorporated Van Buren County: Douds and Leando.[2]

History

It was established on July 1, 2019 by the merger of the Harmony Community School District and the Van Buren Community School District.[3] The predecessor districts had begun a grade-sharing arrangement in which Harmony-zoned students attended Van Buren schools for grades 7–12 in 2016.[4] The state of Iowa had changed its scheme for funding public schools, and the numbers of students in area schools had decreased.[5]

In January 2018 the administrations of the Van Buren and Harmony districts began to consider merging. In February 2018 83% of the voters in the Van Buren and Harmony districts voted to merge, with 94% (of 637 voters) in favor in the pre-merger Van Buren district and 72% (of 619 voters) in favor in the pre-merger Harmony district.[6]

The requirement for a merge was for both districts to each have over 50% of voters in favor.[7]

There was a single superintendent and school board for both areas beginning on July 1, 2019.[6]

Schools

The schools are:[8]

  • Van Buren Middle/High School - Keosauqua
  • Douds Elementary Attendance Center - unincorporated Van Buren County, adjacent to the Leando CDP
  • Harmony Elementary Attendance Center - Unincorporated Van Buren County, near Farmington

References
  1. "Home". Van Buren County Community School District. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  2. "Van Buren County" (PDF). Iowa Department of Education. Retrieved 2020-04-05. - See also Map of Douds and map of Leando from the 2010 U.S. Census, U.S. Census Bureau
  3. "Iowa Educational Directory 2019-2020 School Year" (PDF). Iowa Department of Education. p. 175. Retrieved 2020-04-05. (PDF p. 177/186) - From section "REORGANIZATION & DISSOLUTION ACTIONS SINCE 1965-66"
  4. Aguirre, Joey (2016-05-23). "Harmony sends off its final graduating class". The Hawk Eye. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  5. "Voters approve consolidation of two Iowa school districts". Newton Daily News. 2018-02-08. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  6. Niehaus, Michaele (2018-02-06). "Van Buren, Harmony to merge". The Hawk Eye. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  7. Niehaus-Steffensmeier, Michaele (2018-01-14). "Voters could derail consolidation of districts". The Hawkeye. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  8. "Van Buren Directory". Retrieved 2020-04-06. Elementary School - Douds Center 14574 Jefferson Street Douds IA 52551 [...] Elementary School - Harmony Center 33727 Route J40 Farmington IA 52626[...]Middle School 405 Fourth Street Keosauqua IA 52565 [...] High School 405 Fourth Street Keosauqua IA 52565 - Compare the elementary school's address to the Leando CDP map


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.