- North Scott Community School District
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The North Scott School District is a public school district in Scott County, Iowa. Based in Eldridge, it spans 220 square miles (570 km2) in northern Scott County.
North Scott consists of seven schools: a high school; a junior high school; and five elementary schools, each located in the main communities of the district. The district is governed by a seven-member board of directors, which meets bi-monthly at the district's administration building in Eldridge.
The school district is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and the Iowa Department of Education.
Contents
History
The North Scott School District became a legal entity on July 1, 1956, and resulted from a special election in December 1955. Thirteen independent school districts - each serving individual townships or towns - merged to form the new district; another district joined in January 1958.
Because of its central location in the new district, Eldridge was selected as the site for a new junior-senior high school building. The selected site was the southwest corner of LeClaire Road and South First Street, at the time the east edge of town. Construction began in 1957, and was completed in time for the 1958-1959 school year.
North Scott's first superintendent was Charles Hahn; the first high school principal was Melvin Heiler. Heiler would succeed Hahn in 1964 and guided the district through a period of great growth during the late 1960s and 1970s. He retired in 1980, a year after a successful push for the construction of a 900-seat fine arts auditorium at the high school.
Elementary students in kindergarten through sixth grades continued to attending either rural one-room schoolhouses in various parts of the county (or if they lived in town, an older school building). Students assigned to a particular building depending their grade level and where they lived in the district. By 1961, district leaders began the first of several attempts to pass a bond issue to replace these older school buildings with modern elementary schools. After several failed attempts, voters finally approved a measure in July 1965 to build four elementary buildings: one each in Eldridge, Donahue, Long Grove and Princeton.
The elementary buildings were completed by 1967, with each of them named after astronauts (in paying homage to the space program). The older school buildings were either converted for private uses or abandoned.
North Scott's enrollment continued to surge in the early 1970s, with several district buildings receiving additions to accommodate this growth. A new junior high building was erected in Eldridge in 1975 (and opened in January 1976), while another elementary school building - in the fast-growing Park View - opening in 1976.
Several major additions have been completed to the high school through the years, most notably an auxiliary gymnasium in 1971, a fine arts auditorium in 1981, additional administrative offices in 1983, an expanded media center and computer labs in 1987 and a new science and fine arts wing in 1999. Each of the elementary schools and the junior high also received numerous additions in the late 1990s.
Dr. Tim Dose led the district as its superintendent from 2001 until his unexpected death on July 1, 2008. During his seven-year tenure as the district's top administrator, he was credited for leading the district through tough financial times, punctuated with the layoff of several teachers to offset declining revenue. He had most recently been a driving force in advocating the renewal of the district's physical plant and equipment levy and 1-cent local option sales tax, special funding mechanisms which provide the district with extra revenue for building, technology and infrastructure projects. [1] Dr. Dennis Rucker, who had served school districts in Illinois and Iowa during the past 30 years, was named interim superintendent a month later.[2]In March 2009, the school board named Jeff Schwiebert as its new superintendent. Schwiebert had served as superintendent of the Mount Vernon Community School District. [3]
Other superintendents during North Scott's history were Robert "Bear" Stevens (1980-1984), Douglas Otto (1984-1987) and Pascal V. "Pat" DeLuca (1987-2001).
List of schools
High schools
- North Scott High School, 200 S. First St., Eldridge.
Junior high schools
- North Scott Junior High School, 502 S. Fifth St., Eldridge.
Elementary schools
- Alan Shepard Elementary School, 220 W. Grove St., Long Grove
- Edward White Elementray School, 121 S. Fifth St., Eldridge
- John Glenn Elementary School, 308 N. Main St., Donahue
- Neil Armstrong Elementary School, 212 S. Park View Drive, Park View
- Virgil Grissom Elementary School, 500 Lost Grove Road, Princeton
Facts and figures
Enrollment
Year District-wide High schools Junior high schools Elementary schools Other programs & adjustments 2005-2006 3,008.6[4] 1,055 487 1,517 -50.4 2004-2005 2,972.4 1,073 489.1 1,461 -50.7 2003-2004[5] 3,129 1,065 484 1,554 26 2002-2003[6] 3,108 1,043 533 1,510 22 2001-2002[7] 3,040 985 536 1,504 15 2000-2001[8] 3,088 978 517 1,593 0 References
- ^ Dooley, Sheena, "North Scott Superintendent Tim Dose dies unexpectedly," Quad-City Times, July 1, 2008. (Accessed July 2, 2008) [1]
- ^ Dooley, Sheena, "North Scott names interim superintendent," Quad-City Times, July 31, 2008. (Accessed August 1, 2008) [2]
- ^ Dooley, Sheena, "North Scott picks Jeff Schwiebert as superintendent," Quad-City Times, March 5, 2009. (Accessed March 9, 2009) [3]
- ^ Iowa Department of Education: Audit Confirmation Certified Enrollments: HTML Excel (XLS) PDF URL accessed on May 19, 2006
- ^ Iowa Department of Education: Certified Annual Reports for FY03-04 (Spreadsheet) URL accessed on May 19, 2006
- ^ Iowa Department of Education: Certified Annual Reports for FY02-03 (Spreadsheet) URL accessed on May 19, 2006
- ^ Iowa Department of Education: Certified Annual Reports for FY01-02 (Spreadsheet) URL accessed on May 19, 2006
- ^ Iowa Department of Education: Certified Annual Reports for FY00-01 (Spreadsheet) URL accessed on May 19, 2006
- Eldridge Centennial Committee, "Eldridge, Iowa: 100 years, 1871-1971."
- "N. Scott District formed in 1956 is largest in Iowa," The Observer, DeWitt, Iowa, Centennial ed., July 1964.
See also
External links
Categories:- School districts in Iowa
- Education in Scott County, Iowa
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