Pooling Their Knowledge

By Wendy Cole

The boisterous first- and second-graders of CAL Elementary School suddenly turn silent when Kara Pralle strides into the room. She commands a level of respect that even veteran teachers envy. One reason is that she is a high school senior and part of a group that teaches elementary students about the dangers of smoking. Today is National Kick Butts Day. "Who's going to kick butts and not smoke?" Kara asks the children. All 32 hands shoot up. After her 10-minute spiel, she doles out lollipops and temporary tattoos to help them remember her visit. But it also helps that Kara casually encounters most of the younger kids every day in the hallways of their shared school building in tiny (pop. 535) Latimer, Iowa. "Our kids see the high schoolers as role models and mentors," says first-grade teacher Joni Jensen. "They watch every move they make."

The 152 students who attend CAL-Dows High School, situated just down the hall, are a bunch worth emulating. The older students juggle calculus and physiology classes with school trips to Spain and statewide jazz-band competitions. Some make time every day to tutor first-graders in math or reading. Among last year's graduates, 98% went on to college.

Drawing from four farm towns, the CAL and Dows school districts, in a chicken-and hog-farming area about 90 miles north of Des Moines, are excelling despite declining enrollment. They have successfully negotiated the kind of consolidation that often tears schools and communities apart. And they serve as models for other rural districts with shrinking populations, especially in the Great Plains states.

Four years ago, the Dows district, 11 miles southwest of Latimer, had only 75 high school students and just six third-graders. It was on the verge of shutting down its schools. The CAL district--product of an earlier consolidation--offered a rescue plan that included a grade-sharing arrangement. CAL and Dows each retained its elementary school but consolidated their middle schools at the Dows campus and their high schools at CAL. "The first year there was a lot of us vs. them," said CAL-Dows High School principal Rich Wagner. "But people don't think like that anymore."

After teaming up, CAL moved ahead with expansion plans for the library and pre-K, though voters had twice rejected bond issues to pay for them. So CAL set out to collect $600,000 through private donations. Thanks to gifts of $10 to $45,000, that goal has nearly been reached, and construction started in April. In a district where teachers' salaries begin at $24,000, virtually all chipped in, with an average contribution of $1,200. "We are a family here," explained the superintendent of schools, James Jess. "What makes us special is the caring and the informality."

CAL Elementary offers two years of publicly supported preschool, while Dows provides space for a private preschool in its building. This early experience gives the students a jump start. "Kids need to feel comfortable in school, or they're not going to learn very well," says CAL Elementary principal Brian Costello.

Meanwhile, the two grade schools are learning from each other. CAL will introduce a Spanish-language curriculum next year based on one that Dows already has in place, while Dows instituted a program for gifted students that follows CAL's lead.