Iowa Mennonite School (Kalona, Iowa, USA)
Iowa Mennonite School (Mennonite Church USA), Kalona, Iowa, is a Christian high school established to counteract through Christian education the secularism of the public schools and to offer high-school training to a considerable number of youth who would otherwise not have received such training. It serves the compact Kalona-Wellman Mennonite settlement in Johnson, Iowa, and Washington counties.
The school was founded in the fall of 1945, offering the 9th and 10th grades. Grades 11 and 12 were added in succeeding years. The school is located about eight miles (13 km) northwest of Kalona and the same distance northeast of Wellman, directly south across the road from the Lower Deer Creek Church. It was operated under the direction of the Iowa-Nebraska Conference, with a Conference-appointed board, originally of six members. Other governing groups of the school were a local board composed of lay members, and a religious welfare board composed of personnel from the other two boards. In 2007 the board was composed of 12 persons from area Mennonite churches.
Ministers who led in organizing the school were Amos Gingerich, J. Y. Swartzendruber, and S. J. Horst. The charter faculty was S. J. Horst, Samuel B. Nafziger, and Esther Detwiler. Administrative officers of the school through 1955 were S. J. Horst, principal 1945-1949, Paul T. Guengerich, principal 1949- , Samuel B. Nafziger, dean 1945-1952, Alvin J. Blough, asst. principal 1952- . The enrollment in 1954-55 was 184.
The physical plant in 1955 consisted of a nine-acre campus with a 50 x 72 ft. three-story brick building (erected in 1948) for classrooms and administration, and an 80 x 140 ft. brick and glass block auditorium-gymnasium with supplementary classrooms and farm shop (erected in 1954). The auditorium had a seating capacity of 1,800.
Spiritual benefits already were obvious as the youth found, in addition to their secular training, an added sense of loyalty to Christ and the church. Among the 182 alumni in 1955 were quite a number who were in further preparation for a positive service to the program of the church.
Additional Information
Iowa Mennonite School website
| Author(s) | Paul T Guengerich |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Guengerich, Paul T. "Iowa Mennonite School (Kalona, Iowa, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Iowa_Mennonite_School_(Kalona,_Iowa,_USA)&oldid=95373.
APA style
Guengerich, Paul T. (1956). Iowa Mennonite School (Kalona, Iowa, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Iowa_Mennonite_School_(Kalona,_Iowa,_USA)&oldid=95373.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 53. All rights reserved.
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