Pekin Community School District is a rural

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

headquartered in Pekin, an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Jefferson County, Iowa Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 15,663. The county seat is Fairfield. The county was formed in January 1839, and was named for U.S. President Thomas Jeffers ...

, near Packwood. It serves the following incorporated communities in

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

, Keokuk, Wapello, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

counties: Packwood,

Hedrick Hedrick may refer to: * Hedrick, Indiana * Hedrick, Iowa * Hedrick, Missouri Hedrick is an unincorporated community in Dent County, Missouri, Dent County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. History A post office called Hedrick was established in 18 ...

, Martinsburg,

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, and Richland.

Unincorporated areas An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

served by Pekin schools, aside from Pekin, include Abington,

Highland Center Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

, and Rubio.

History

The school facilities were built on a former runway that was once used to train pilots. In 1986 there was a proposal to merge the Pekin district and the

Hedrick Community School District The Hedrick Community School District was a school district serving Hedrick, Iowa. The town had a school for around 100 years. The school experienced a population decline as Hedrick's economy faltered; in its final year it had about 200 students ...

. By 1990 Iowa law allowed students to attend schools in other school districts, but at the time students had to pay tuition there. Hedrick sued the Pekin district over accepting students for free that should have been counted as out of district, as they lived with Pekin district-resident family members or friends of their family but not with their primary caregivers. A jury decided that the Hedrick district was damaged by this. The law was later modified so that a student can attend another school district for free. In 1991, the district incorporated territory from the former Hedrick district after that district closed. The expected enrollment for all Pekin schools combined for fall 1991 was 800 students. A draft of a state proposal to merge much of Hedrick into Pekin anticipated that Pekin would take in about 85% of the Hedrick students.
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. In 2016, the district agreed to begin a superintendent-sharing arrangement with the

Sigourney Community School District Sigourney Community School District is a rural public school district headquartered in Sigourney, Iowa. The district is completely within Keokuk County and serves Sigourney, Delta, and Hayesville. It operates a preschool/elementary school an ...

. The district proposed a $55 million bond in 2017.

Schools

The district operates two schools in a single facility near Pekin: * Pekin Elementary School * Pekin Community Junior/Senior High School

Pekin Community High School

Athletics

The Panthers compete in the

Southeast Iowa Superconference The Southeast Iowa Superconference, also known as the SEISC, is a 18-team athletics and activities conference based in southeastern Iowa. The conference was created in 1991 from the merger of the Deerwood Conference and the Southeast Iowa Conferen ...

in the following sports: *Cross Country ** Boys' 2-time Class B State Champions (1967, 1968) ** Girls' 3-time Class 1A State Champions (2008, 2010, 2011) *Volleyball *Football **10-time Class 1A State Champions (1970, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014) *Wrestling *Basketball *Track and Field ** Boys'1979 Class B State Champions *Baseball ( Keaton Winn, pitcher for the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

, is a graduate) *Softball

Student body

In early 1991 the district had about 576 students.
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. Early that year 32 children who lived in the boundaries of the Hedrick school district attended school in the Pekin school district, prior to the absorbing of much of the Hedrick district.

References

External links

Pekin Community School District
* {{authority control School districts in Iowa Education in Jefferson County, Iowa Education in Keokuk County, Iowa Education in Wapello County, Iowa Education in Washington County, Iowa