2025 in review: Education

This is the third in a five-part series for the CNA’s year in review.

With new policies adopted, Southwestern Community College expanding and the end of a storied district in Southwest Iowa, 2025 marked another year for Union County education.

Orient-Macksburg

The Nodaway Valley and Orient-Macksburg school boards each approved a whole-gradesharing agreement between each other in January.

The one-year agreement, which included all grade levels, is active for the 2025-26 school year, the last year Orient-Macksburg will function as a school district. Nodaway Valley will receive 70% of the cost of the student to provide programming, while Orient-Macksburg will retain 30%.

Orient-Macksburg will dissolve next year, effective July 1, 2026, with parts of the school district going to Nodaway Valley and Winterset.

SWCC

Almost two years and more than half a million dollars in grant money later, SWCC’s Transportation Training Center is now open and ready to accept students for future semesters.

Located next to the Agricultural Sciences Center on Green Valley Road, the addition brings a building expansion and concrete pad for range course driving to the site. The expansion was funded through a new state grant focused on creating or providing CDL infrastructure.

The fall semester saw seven students working through entry-level driver training course. Two tracks are available, the CDL driver test prep course and the CDL driver training program.

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Up to $6 million has been approved to go toward Southwestern Community College’s new Skilled Trade Center, the second project to come to fruition from SWCC’s long-term master facilities plan.

The center will be a 15,040-square-feet facility placed east of the existing Tech Center II buliding, with space dedicated to a 2,000-square-feet carpentry and trades lab, a 3,800-square-feet electrical technology lab and a 1,342-square-feet emergency management services lab, including space to house the program’s ambulance. Other space will include regular classrooms and a student lounge.

These programs were originally hosted in the Agricultural Sciences Center. However, with the addition of the CDL program, the first project in the college’s master facilities plan, the space is no longer able to accommodate these students.

Construction is tentatively set to begin in March or April 2026, with a completion date set for December.

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Under clear skies and a sense of optimism, community leaders, educators and industry partners gathered along Highway 34 in Osceola to celebrate the grand opening of the ORBIT Osceola Regional Business and Industrial Training Center in October.

The new over 9,000-square-feet, $3.2 million facility stands as a symbol of progress for Clarke County and the surrounding region, built to prepare students and workers for the future of advanced manufacturing and industrial technology.

In 2022, the Clarke County Development Corporation received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, supplemented by an additional $1.27 million from the Development Corporation to fully fund the project.

After construction began in spring 2024, the community came together to cut the ceremonial ribbon this year.

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Ringgold County teens will soon have easier access to SWCC resources with the addition of a new Career and Technical Education Training Center.

The new center, scheduled to open for the fall 2026 semester, will provide students access to programs such as automotive repair technology, welding technology, nurse assisting and education.

SWCC and the Mount Ayr School District received a $1 million Career Academy Incentive Fund grant from the Iowa Department of Education for the project.

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Even after threats and question marks around the service’s continued funding, TRIO Student Support Services at Southwestern Community College spent 2025 working through a new year, despite more struggles than expected.

Those fears are partially put to rest for now as TRIO‘s SSS program has received $1.625 million from the federal TRIO SSS grant to continue offering their services through 2030. SWCC will receive about $325,000 per year over the next five years to run their SSS programs.

Creston Community School District

Students in Creston’s kindergarten and preschool classes had a different start to the new school year than originally expected with many delays to the new Early Childhood Center building.

Families with children entering kindergarten had a two-week “soft start to school” experience in temporary classrooms. Kindergarten classes didn’t start in full in the new building until mid-September.

Delays and strained budgets plagued the final development of the new building, which began construction in summer 2024. A second phase, which includes preschool classrooms and a special ECC drop off area, is still in progress heading into 2026.

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In an effort to keep a local playground running, CCSD offered control of the playground on the former ECC campus to Creston Parks and Recreation. After several discussions on liability and the annual cost for park maintenance, discussions have begun for the city to acquire the playground.

Still, the district has opened bids for the former ECC property, as a whole purchase or in individual pieces, for anyone looking to acquire the property.

As discussions continue between the city and the school district, the district’s goal for the playground was noted by Superintendent Deron Stender to be community-focused, hoping to keep the playground available for the Creston community.

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The district reduced four district positions for the 2025-26 year following a heavy decrease in enrolled students and, therefore, state aid.

Between a decrease in approximately $430,000 in state aid and operating and pay increases, the district has an estimated $980,000 in new costs.

Approved for termination were Sheri Blair, a middle school counselor with a continuing contract, Ben Walker, a middle school math teacher with a probationary contract, Marge Welch, a high school science teacher with a probationary contract, and Antton Zuazu, a high school Spanish teacher with a probationary contract.

In order to make up some of this money, the TLC, a teacher leadership program, ended, with staff from the program moving to other positions in the district. Stender said the professionals terminated had done nothing wrong, citing the budget as the sole reason.

Creston retirements

Six Creston educators said goodbye to school and hello to retirement this year.

Sue Dake, high school administrative assistant, Wendy Hartsock, middle school teacher, Dan Little, custodian, and Becky Harris, paraprofessional, retired from the school district in May.

St. Malachy Catholic School saw one retirement this year, Ann Levine, who spent 47 years as a first-grade teacher. She still works at the school as a secretary.

At Green Hills AEA, Lora Hight retired from her position as a mental health school social worker.

East Union

Unfortunate circumstances from changes to education grants, East Union was unable to continue receiving state funding for their ECC. In what ECC Director Peggy Hardy described as “a surprising mess,” the district lost $75,000 from a funding source which has been in place for almost three decades.

The new grant program, the Early Childhood Continuum of Care, replaced a grant the district had received since 1997. The new grant required either preschool or childcare to be independent of the school district. Due to a lack of options in Afton, the district was informed they wouldn’t qualify.

The district has since partnered with a local option of Joyful Sparks Preschool with the hope this will allow for the funding source to be restored.

State policies

Iowa approved a law targeting cellphone disruption was introduced by Governor Kim Reynolds and is expected to be signed after passing both the House and the Senate. The ban would not apply to students with an Individualized Education Program or 504 plan, which requires cellphone access.

Both CCSD and the East Union School District adopted policies which effectively banned cellphone access to students while classes are in session.

Additional policies adopted by the state that continued to have ramifications included stricter attention toward chronic absenteeism and other conduct related policies.