The school building, which served as a learning domain for thousands of children in southern Webster County and northern Boone County, was closed nearly 10 years ago when a sharing agreement was reached between Southeast Webster-Grand and Prairie Valley school districts. Middle school students were moved to Burnside and high school students to Gowrie, leaving the aged building empty. The building has been without heat or electricity since closing.

At the March 8 school board meeting, the Southeast Valley school board voted to begin the process for demolition of the vacant site.

“Unfortunately, reorganizations and the closing of school buildings is a harsh reality in public education in Iowa,” said Southeast Valley Superintendent Brian Johnson. “I became superintendent after the Boxholm building was already closed. I am trying to make the best of an unfortunate situation. My recommendation to the school board is to make the situation the best we possibly can with the town, all while decreasing the legal liability for the district.”

Akin Muench, one of the men who laid the school cornerstone in 1916, was the great-grandfather of Lori Ferrari, who currently serves as the Southeast Valley Middle School family and consumer science teacher in Burnside. Four generations of the Muench family walked the hallways of the Boxholm building including Akin’s son Orrie Muench Sr.; his son, Orrie Muench Jr.; Ferrari and her siblings; and even Ferrari’s four children — Torrie, Jossie, Jaynie, and Rylie.

-Photo courtesy of Julie Vinsand
The original gymnasium at the Boxholm school building was once filled with cheering fans and athletes.

Orrie Muench Sr. not only attended high school in Boxholm, but also drove a horse-drawn school “bus” to transport country children to the new town school.

“My children all loved attending school there,” said Ferrari. “They still talk about it being their favorite building to attend. I’m not exactly sure why it was their favorite, but they would say they got the entire building for just fourth through sixth grade. I think they felt like they got to rule the school. They had two gyms, their own lunch room, and lots of room to claim as their own.”

The brick building includes two gymnasiums known as the “little” and “big” gyms. The little gym, said Ferrari, reminded her of a cement swimming pool with its four high cement walls with high seating above.

“I could only imagine what a varsity basketball game might be like, peering down at the court from above,” said Ferrari, who graduated in 1985. “That gym was used for recess and basketball practices when I was a student there. We literally bounced off the walls and pushed off the cement while running killers. It was loud and echoed like a canyon.”

The big gym was used for varsity and junior varsity sports and also included the stage for theater productions and graduation.

-Photo courtesy of Julie Vinsand
A painted mural remains along with a few magazines and books in what was once the library at the Boxholm school building. The building is currently slated for demotion.

That same stage in the big gym was also utilized by band teacher David Swaroff, who taught in the Boxholm school for 14 years. Swaroff taught on the stage of the gym as well as a nearby room which used to be the home ec room.

“I had very supportive parents, staff, and hardworking students,” said Swaroff. “One of my favorite memories at the Boxholm school was when the sixth-grade band agreed to practice marching outside in January because it was so nice outside and so we could say, ‘We marched in January!'”

The big gym was also used for physical education class activities and for the annual prom.

“My favorite part as a child was when we got to roller skate all the time in PE class,” said Hallie McGuire, a 2012 graduate who also worked in Boxholm as a paraeducator.

“Prom was always a big deal,” added Ferrari. “Each year the junior class would transform the entire space into a magical land. I can still remember touring the gym as an elementary student in total awe of the transformation. One prom stands out, themed ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ The juniors had literally built a spiral staircase in the middle of the gym going up to the vaulted ceiling.”

-Photo courtesy of Julie Vinsand
Once the Family & Consumer Science room, this classroom was transformed into the Southeast Webster-Grand band room during the building’s final years of students.

The lunch room was also a popular meeting place for students despite its small size.

“One thing that was really cool as a kid was that we got options of strawberry, chocolate or white milk,” added McGuire. “You could pay 50 cents, I think, for soft-serve ice cream, too.”

“Lunch was always homemade and delicious, something we took for granted,” said Ferrari.

Denise and Randy Nissen, of Dayton, met while in ninth and 10th grade at the Boxholm school and graduated in 1978 and 1979. They’ve now been married for 43 years.

“Mrs. Grillo was our favorite teacher,” said Denise Nissen. “She taught English and speech. We have a lot of good memories at the school. We drive by the school and talk about all the fun we had and all the dumb things we did, and the friends that we haven’t seen in years.”

-Photo courtesy of Julie Vinsand
The lunchroom of the Boxholm school building once had students milling about during the lunch hour. It now sits vacant as the building awaits demolition.

Throughout its 106 years, the building housed thousands of students in a variety of classrooms from preschool to transitional kindergarten through to 12th grade.

“When I was in middle school in Boxholm, two of us got to go out and put up the American flag each morning,” said Brittany McClendon, a 2014 graduate. “They would pick two people to do the morning announcements each day, too, which was always fun.”

At the March 8 school board meeting, the Southeast Valley school board approved exhibits that will be presented to the School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) that would allow the district the authority to use one-time unexpended cash for the purposes of the demolition of an unused school building.

According to Johnson, when the reorganization vote passed on March 1, the architecture firm that had been working with the district for several months was given the go ahead to distribute plans to general contractors for demolition. Those bids are due on April 6 and should be approved by the board at the regular April board meeting, pending the decision of the SBRC, which is May 3. If the SBRC grants the district authority to use the unexpended cash, the demolition would proceed soon after with a completion goal of fall 2022. At this time, Johnson said the district has no plans for the land once the building is demolished and the lot is reseeded.

“There was something majestic about that two-and-a-half story brick school house,” said Ferrari. “The brick and mortar exterior with ceiling high glass block walls above the windows. Inside, the ceilings are high and the hallways and stairs are beautiful terrazzo.”

-Photo courtesy of Julie Vinsand
Southeast Valley Superintendent Brian Johnson stands outside the school building in Boxholm in which thousands of students have passed through. The rural school building hasn’t housed students for nearly a decade and is currently slated for demolition.