HASTINGS, Iowa (KMTV) — Elementary students at East Mills celebrated the end of the school year frolicking in mountains of foam. It's also the last week the elementary school will be at its current location along Highway 34 outside Hastings.
East Mills Community School District consolidated almost two decades ago. The former Malvern and Nishna Valley districts merged and Malvern became home to the Jr-Sr high school and Nishna Valley, in rural Hastings, was the location for the elementary school. Starting this fall, all students will be on the same campus in Malvern and the former Nishna Valley will be converted into a technical school.
- "There are some people that are sad, and some people that are excited and a lot of anxious about what it's going to look like with us all being together, but I think it's going to be great in the end for our students and our staff,"Principal Melissa Nielsen said.
- Video shows: school children playing in piles of foam, kids being served treats outside their school.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's the end of an era here at East Mills Elementary School in Hastings. I'm your Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel.
The kids are celebrating not only the end of the school year. They're celebrating the last days at this building.
Next year, they'll move from the rural Hastings campus to a campus in Malvern where they'll share space with the Jr-Sr. High.
Principal Melissa Nielsen is looking forward to a brand-new facility.
"There are some people that are sad, and some people that are excited and a lot of anxious about what it's going to look like with us all being together, but I think it's going to be great in the end for our students and our staff," Nielsen said.
PTO parent, Meagan Schnoor, is also president of the advisory board for SWITCH, a technical school taking over the elementary building this summer.
The PTO wanted to give the kids, and the building, a big send-off, so they came up with the idea of a foam party with cotton candy and sno-cones.
"The community is excited. I'm excited because the building is still going to be used and it's going to be a real asset to the community,” said Schnoor.
This campus will be a tech school for multiple area districts and the work to renovate it has already begun. It will open in the fall.
Celebrating the last days of school, in Hastings, I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel.
