Can they survive? Grundy County school districts face realities of declining enrollment

    The Grundy Register and Conrad Record will explore the future of the five school districts serving Grundy County and the biggest challenges facing them in a three-part series. Today’s first part explores enrollment trends and begins to look at the economic angle of small schools.
    The number of school districts in Iowa has decreased rapidly over the past half century. Many small, rural districts, especially those outside of growing population centers like Des Moines and the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor, are being forced to make tough decisions in order to stay afloat as enrollment numbers and state funding dwindle.
    In Grundy County, where five different school districts serve a population of just 12,453 (according to 2010 census figures), the reality of this changing educational landscape can be seen firsthand. Faced with a large budget deficit, the Grundy Center Board of Education recently voted to close its upper elementary building, and more cuts are on the horizon. The Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District faced a similar budget adjustment a year ago while AGWSR is set to close its aging Ackley Elementary building (and move those students into an expanded high school building) within the next month.
    Since the 2007-2008 school year, AGWSR, BCLUW, Gladbrook-Reinbeck and Grundy Center have experienced gradual decreases in enrollment while numbers at Dike-New Hartford are slightly up overall, largely as a result of the district’s close proximity to Cedar Falls.
    “You don’t really see the effect year to year, but it’s one of those things that, as the saying goes, happens very gradually and then all at once,” BCLUW Superintendent Ben Petty said. “When you lose six, eight, 10 kids per year, another year and then another year, it keeps compounding on itself.”

For more of this story, see the Nov. 6 Grundy Register.