The 1956 and 1957 additions to the Traer Public School campus. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles documenting the history of the school buildings in North Tama County Community School District courtesy of the Traer Historical Museum.

TRAER – On August 20, 1954, Traer voters passed a $185,000 bond referendum to build an addition to the school building. The school was crowded, with several departments in need of more space. St. Luke Lutheran Church’s basement was rented for kindergarten classes. Enrollment increases were expected from the baby boom and the eventual closure of rural one-room schools.

Iowa had recently passed legislation to expand school curriculum and to encourage school consolidation. The Tama County Superintendent of Schools and Board of Education were working on a county plan reorganization. The next 10 years saw many changes in school district boundaries.

The new gymnasium-auditorium was the largest part of Traer’s new addition. Cement blocks were used for the interior walls, brick on the exterior. The gym entrance corridor walls are glazed tile. The interior woodwork is birch. The basketball floor is 50×84 with a 20×50-foot stage at one end. A new girl’s locker room, public restrooms, ticket booth, and trophy cases were also included.

Accordion-type bleachers with six tiers of seats were installed on both sides of the gym floor. The bleachers are folded up against the walls by hydraulic power. With the bleachers raised, the gym has two full size practice courts. Portable bleachers on the stage during basketball season allow additional seating.

IMAGE COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Folding chairs are used on the gym floor for seating during music and drama programs. Storage racks slide under the stage when the chairs are not in use.

The new band room and practice rooms was a welcome change. Band members were packed like sardines in the old band room and the acoustics were terrible. The new shop provided a drafting room, wood finishing room and a large area for equipment for woodworking, metal working and motors. The old shop was crowded and caused safety concerns with machines placed close together.

The old shop and music rooms on the first floor became additional grade school and kindergarten classrooms. The old stage and lower portion of the auditorium seating were removed for a kitchen for the hot lunch program and storage rooms for food. The old gym became a multi-purpose room used daily as a cafeteria, a gathering place for students, and a practice space for basketball and wrestling.

The balcony of the auditorium became the new home of the vocal music department. The balcony was split and one half used for vocal music and the other half for visual aids. Balcony seats were removed and new raisers built for desks and chairs.

Some taxpayers had the impression that the bond issue was mainly for a gymnasium used for playing two basketball games a week and for basketball practice during the winter months. The old gym was actually the most used room in the school building. Physical training classes took place 31 hours each week.

Traer Public School’s swing band pictured in 1957 performing in the new gymnasium-auditorium. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

School enrollment continued to grow. By 1957, there were 66 additional students. In 1950, Traer had 338 students and projected enrollment for 1958 was 547 students. Voters passed a bond issue in March 1957. Three classrooms were completed on the north side of the old gym in the fall of 1957.

The County School Board appointed a citizen’s committee in 1956 to explore school reorganization in the county. After working for almost two years, Tama County Board of Education adopted a formal plan for reorganization in March 1958.

The proposed county plan called for three school districts in Tama county, a northwest district including Dinsdale, Gladbrook and Garwin; a northeast district including Buckingham, Clutier, Dysart, Geneseo and Traer; and a southern district including Chelsea, Montour, Tama and Toledo.

Meanwhile towns were reorganizing with rural schools. Traer, Buckingham and eight (8) one-room school districts voted to reorganize in 1958. The schools operated separately until the fall of 1959. Enrollment in the Traer Community School District was 651 students in 1959. The junior high school was moved to Buckingham, filling the building to capacity.

Smaller high schools were feeling pressure to reorganize. Dinsdale invited Traer and Reinbeck to discuss a possible merger in April 1959. The proposal included three elementary schools and a new high school between Reinbeck and Traer, possibly at Dinsdale. The proposal never got past the discussion stage.

IMAGE COURTESY OF TRAER HISTORICAL MUSEUM

In 1960, Dinsdale initiated another proposal to combine all the schools in north Tama County into one district, with three high schools, one in Gladbrook, Traer, and Dysart. This proposal also never got beyond the discussion stage.

Clutier was in the process of reorganization with country schools. The State Department of Public Instruction and the County Board of Education supported Clutier’s goal of maintaining an elementary school. Clutier organized with country schools in Carroll, Onedia and York townships.

Reorganization of the four schools in northeast Tama County would have required a new centrally located high school building. Geneseo school directors indicated that they would hang on as a separate district. Dysart was discussing reorganization with Garrison.

The Clutier district preferred the four-school reorganization plan. Disappointed that it did not proceed, Clutier held discussions with Dysart and Traer separately. In February 1961, voters approved the formation of the Traer-Clutier Community School District.

In December 1961, Dinsdale voters decided to wait to reorganize and operate without state accreditation or financial aid.

A group of Dysart citizens planned a meeting in June 1962 and invited members of the Dysart, Traer-Clutier, and Dinsdale schools boards to attend. The meeting was cancelled when opponents threatened to interfere with the proceeding and the northeast reorganization plan was dead. One Dysart school director resigned from the board.

Traer-Clutier needed more classroom space and hired an architect and consulted with the State Department of Public Instruction and hired an architect to proceed with plans for an elementary building to free up the top two floors entirely for high school classes. Voters passed a $500,000 bond issue on Friday February 15, 1963.

Future installments

Be on the lookout for the next installment in this series covering the 1964 building addition/remodeling and the formation of North Tama County Community School District.