Rock Valley schools to start Sept. 5 with new temporary facility after floods

As the city of Rock Valley recovers from recent severe flooding, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the opening of a temporary school facility for the Rock Valley Community School District in northwest Iowa.

Rock Valley students will return to the school classrooms Thursday, Sept. 5, with some middle school classes hosted in the new temporary building. The 7,000-square-foot facility will have six classrooms, bathrooms, offices and a common area for use by 150 students in the Rock Valley district, according to a news release by the governor’s office. The modular school was built by Hegg Construction in less than seven weeks, at a cost of $2 million.

Joined by Rock Valley Community School District (RVCSD) and Rock Valley Christian School officials, Reynolds spoke in front of the new temporary building at a news conference Thursday. The governor reflected on her previous visit to Rock Valley in June when the public school building was “an island that was completely surrounded by water.”

“Following the flood, it really did seem unlikely that we could start on time or bring some students back to school,” Reynolds said. “But if I know one thing about this community, where there is a will, there is a way.”

Rock Valley was one of communities that faced the most significant damages from June flooding throughout northwest and north central Iowa. Reynolds said about 40 percent of the homes in Rock Valley were affected by the floods, in addition to the damages to school facilities, city buildings and businesses.

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All permanent public school facilities are still under repair, RVCSD Superintendent Matt Van Voorst said at the news conference. In addition to middle school students taking classes at the temporary facility, some elementary school students will have classes at a local church.

Van Voorst said that directly after the flood, he felt “lonely” as he looked for ways to address the damages and get ready for students to come back for the upcoming school year. But that feeling soon faded as community members, city and state leaders, nearby superintendents and contractors offered to help the district recover and rebuild in the days and weeks following.

“I think, saying the word ‘community’ has taken on a little bit of a new meaning to me,” Van Voorst said. “I think I’m going to bold caps and underline that from now on — community — it really is a whole other meaning.”

Sioux County, where Rock Valley is located, was one of multiple counties approved to receive federal disaster aid and assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency through President Joe Biden’s Major Disaster Declaration in June. Rock Valley schools in disaster-declared areas, both public and private, have access to $80,000 in federal emergency grants for necessities like food and housing for students whose homes were affected by the disaster, according to a release from the governor.

The state Department of Education also has directed nearly $600,000 in available federal education funds to reimburse schools in disaster areas for destroyed instructional materials.

Private companies and organizations, including Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Chevron REG and Corteva also are providing funds and materials to schools in Rock Valley and other disaster-affected communities, like Greenfield, for the 2024-2025 school year.

In addition to efforts assisting the school district, federal and state aid is also available to residents whose their homes and property were damaged by natural disasters. There were 542 homes and 60 businesses in Rock Valley hit by storms, according to the governor’s office, and $12.9 million in FEMA aid has been approved for more than 500 Rock Valley households so far.

In addition to Sioux County, federal assistance has been approved for multiple counties through three disaster declarations for severe weather this year. The governor announced Wednesday that Scott County was also approved for FEMA’s individual assistance program, as well as Dubuque and Jackson counties for Public Assistance for flood-related damages.

Vilsack responds to criticism over USDA aid

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday responded to allegations that the USDA hasn’t done enough for farmers in western Iowa hit by disaster.

Vilsack, a Democrat and former Iowa governor, held an “Investing in America” town hall in North Liberty covered by The Gazette.

Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, ranking Republican member of the Senate Small Business Committee and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, joined Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and the state’s all-Republican congressional delegation in calling Vilsack to adjust the USDA’s current disaster programs to improve federal assistance available to farmers.

Iowa has endured multiple disasters in just three months, including two tornadoes and devastating floods in northwest Iowa that severely impacted rural areas and numerous farms. The letter highlights the differences between USDA and Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster assistance programs and calls on the USDA to provide similar access to support for farmers.

Vilsack, speaking to reporters after the town hall, highlighted the USDA's online disaster tool and the various programs available to farmers.

“You can then go online and type in your name, the location of your farm, the nature of the disaster, and what will pop up is all the programs with contact information for people that can help you qualify for whatever the benefits are,” he said. “I think they're wrong. They're actually flat out wrong. There's been a tremendous amount of help.”

Offering the same level of low-interest or no-interest loans as the SBA would limit the number of loans available in other states, Vilsack said.

“If we were to do that for Iowa, then it would mean that a significant number of loans in other states could not be made because there's a subsidy rate involved in everything we do that impacts and affects how much money you can loan out,” he said. “And if you essentially alter that subsidy rate, you limit the number of overall loans you can provide. So to me, the best way of dealing with this is to encourage farmers to use the disaster programs that exist.”

The Gazette’s Tom Barton contributed to this report.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.