High school students in a northwest Iowa school staged a walk-out on Wednesday after the proposed merger of the Battle Creek-Ida Grove and Odebolt-Arthur School Districts failed. On Tuesday, voters in the Battle Creek-Ida Grove district overwhelmingly voted in favor of the merger, but 57 percent of voters in the Odebolt-Arthur School District voted against it. Terry Kenealy is the superintendent for both districts. He says teachers were going to have some professional development time Wednesday afternoon, so an early dismissal had already been planned for the high school.

 

Students who didn’t want to participate left for home or stayed in the school cafeteria. The majority of students, though, chanted, “Ask the students!” as they left the school.

 

The superintendent says school boards in both districts will meet next week to discuss what’s next.