Moulton-Udell High School

Moulton-Udell High School is an Appanoose County public school located in Moulton, Iowa, that serves pupils from grades seven through twelve. It became consolidated school serving the former Moulton High and Udel High in 1959. The school mascot is the Eagle.

Moulton-Udell High School
Location
Moulton, Iowa

United States
Coordinates40°41′21.06″N 92°40′26.81″W
Information
TypePublic
School districtMoulton-Udell Community School District
SuperintendentBrian Vandersluis
PrincipalShane Brown
Faculty7.01 (FTE)[1]
Grades7-12
Enrollment80 (2019-20)[1]
Student to teacher ratio11.41[1]
Color(s)Royal blue and white    
Athletics conferenceBluegrass
MascotEagle
Websitewww.moulton-udell.org

History

In 1869, the Christian Church housed Moulton's first public school, and the first high school building was later erected in the northeast part of town. In 1897 a three story school was built, with a college on the third floor. Later came a gym, and classrooms were added to that building in 1938.[2]

By the end of November 1956, discussions had begun to explore consolidation of Moulton and Udell schools. In 1959, the towns decided on Moulton as the location of the new consolidated school.[3] After passage of a bond issue, the Moulton-Udell High School building was constructed in 1975. High school students from both towns moved into the new building, while younger students moved to the previous Moulton school building.[2][4]

Budget concerns were discussed in 2010, due to declining enrollment over the previous six years and state government funding cuts.[5] The Des Moines Register reported, "In 1894, Iowa had 13,433 public schoolhouses, mostly one-room rural structures considered to be their own districts. That's been whittled down to 338 districts as of July; in the last decade alone, 29 schools have been shuttered."[6]

In May 2020, teachers at Moulton proposed the school board consider moving to a four-day week, Monday through Thursday with no school on Fridays. The proposal included extending daily class time approximately 50 minutes to comply with state law mandating class minimum time of 1,080 hours per school year.[7] Advantages of the proposal included improved chances of recruiting and retaining new teachers, ongoing concerns in small districts, and increased family time for students. Parents raised concerns over increased child-care costs.[7] By 2022, Moulton-Udell was one of four Iowa school districts on a four-day week.[8]

Moulton-Udell has offered students annual career days,[9] and has partnered with Indian Hills Community College in a "$1 million grant through new Career Academy Incentive Fund to prepare high school students for success in college, postsecondary training and the workforce".[10] Career and technical programs offered in the Learn-to-earn Plan at Moulton-Udell include, "Agricultural, Food, and Natural Resources; Business, Finance, Marketing, and Management; Human Services; Health Science Technology".[11]

Challenges

A teacher and junior year students in 1999 violated school board rules on the allowable amount that could be raised for school trips, and set up a secret account for the cash raised for their senior trip. The teacher faced termination for his part in setting up the account.[12]

In November 2019 a Moulton-Udell school bus driver attempted to make a left turn at the crest of a hill, pulling out in front of a pickup. One person was injured in the collision and taken to the hospital.[13]

Athletics

The Eagles compete in the Bluegrass Conference, including the following sports:[14]

  • Volleyball
  • Basketball (boys and girls)
  • Wrestling (with Centerville, as Centerville-Moulton-Udell)
  • Baseball
  • Softball

References
  1. "Moulton-Udell High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  2. "Moulton: The Story of Us". Oskaloosa News. 2013-05-07. Retrieved 2022-06-09. As the town grew, Moulton looked at how to educate the children. The first public school was held in the Christian Church in 1869. The first ever high school in Moulton was built on the northeast corner of town. The town would eventually build a three story school in 1897. Something that most people do not know is that there was a college on the third story of the school. The college was meant to produce teachers, which was very common back than for schools to have colleges at their schools for that reason. They later built a gym and a few classrooms onto the three stories building in 1938. That gym is now the cafeteria, and the classrooms are still used for Shop, Ag, and Art classes. In November of 1956 a group of people met to explore the idea of consolidating Moulton and Udell schools. After much discussion they decided to consolidate the schools, making Moulton the place to have the school in 1959. Later on a bond was passed to build a new school for high school students. In 1975, high school students were moved to the new building and students in grades third, fourth, fifth, and sixth from Udell were moved to older building in Moulton. The community eventually built an elementary building, and tore down most of the old school building. The old school building basement is still connected to Moulton-Udell school, and used for storage.
  3. (29 August 1959). Moulton-Udell School Will Open on Monday, Centerville Collegian
  4. (6 February 1975). Moulton-Udell Students move to new facilities, The Iowegian
  5. Buhrman, Matt (2010-03-03). "School district official talks budget". KTVO. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  6. Litchfield, Jason Clayworth, and Charles. "Lost Schools: Final bell for some small districts". The Des Moines Register. Retrieved 2022-06-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Waldon, Beth (2020-05-14). "School committee proposes four-day weeks at Moulton-Udell". KTVO. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  8. "Cardinal to become 4th school district in Iowa to have 4-day weeks". Radio Iowa. 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  9. Waldon, Beth (2019-12-16). "Career Day inspires students at Moulton-Udell". KTVO. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  10. Desk, KTVO News (2021-02-15). "Indian Hills receives $1 million Career Academy Incentive Fund Grant". KTVO. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  11. "Moulton-Udell CSD - M-U Return to Learn Plan". www.moulton-udell.org. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  12. "Class, teacher hid cash for trip". The Des Moines Register. 1999-06-16. p. 14. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  13. "Crash involving Heartland school bus sends one to hospital". KTVO. 2022-06-09. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  14. "Bluegrass Conference". Bluegrass Conference. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
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