(Radio Iowa) – State officials say ensuring schools start the fall semester in two flood-stricken northwest Iowa cities is a priority. Iowa Department of Education director McKenzie Snow says public school districts in Spencer and Rock Valley and the Rock Valley Christian School are dealing with extensive damage. “Lost curriculum and instructional items, electronic learning devices, school buses and vans, (Career and Technical Education) program equipment,” she said, “and educational enrichment spaces and materials that range from playgrounds to gyms to libraries and band rooms.”

Snow said some progress has been made, but her agency has been involved in finding portable classrooms in other school districts that can be transferred to Spencer and Rock Valley.) “We are also focused on transportation needed to best serve all students,” Snow said, “especially students who have been displaced or students who are experiencing homelessness.” Governor Kim Reynolds says the first day of school is just around the corner — and the goal is to get kids in a classroom for in-person instruction.

Last year, more than two-thousand students were enrolled in Spencer and the public schools in Rock Valley had just under a thousand students. There were 236 students enrolled in Rock Valley Christian School for the 2023/24 school year.