Hear from Gov. Kim Reynolds as she introduces legislation aiming to allow all per-pupil funding to follow students to public charter schools.
A charter school may be coming to the site of a decaying former one-room schoolhouse in Ankeny.
The land at 2715 SW Oralabor Road mostly a gravel lot and overgrown weeds also includes the Nagle, one of more than 12,000 one-room schoolhouses that used to operate in Iowa.
It is unknown what developers' plans are for the former schoolhouse built around 1900. But documents filed with the city show Ankeny's first charter school may be built on the land.
The Ankeny Plan and Zoning Commission and Ankeny City Council have approved an application from School Development HC LLC, a company tied to charter schools in North Carolina and Florida, to develop a charter school on about 4 acres.
There were no details about construction plans or a timeline. Annette Iraola, the contact listed for School Development HC LLC, did not respond to requests for comment.
Construction plans will need further city approval.
Fairmount Education Inc. bought the 0.8 acres the former schoolhouse stands on and the neighboring 3.2 acres to the southeast for $640,000 in 2019, according to Polk County property records.
Fairmount Education's school in Des Moines at 3720 E. 29th St. is part of the OneSchool Global network of schools. A spokesperson for OneSchool Global said Fairmount Education purchased the land while looking at options for a future campus.
But officials there decided not to develop the site, and "Fairmount Education is in the process of selling this land to an independent third party and is not aware of the purchaser's plans for the property going forward," the statement said.
The site was valued at $313,000 in 2025, according to property records.
Support for public charter schools is a current priority of Gov. Kim Reynolds. A bill Reynolds proposed in the current legislative session would bring state funding for public charter schools in line with the money public schools receive and clear the way for charter students to attend public school for drivers education courses, take part in public school athletic programs and do their course work at their resident public school districts. The bill passed both legislative funnel deadlines.
As of March 1, School Development HC LLC's project would be the only charter school in Ankeny, according to the Iowa Department of Education.
What is the history of the Nagle in Ankeny?
The schoolhouse used to be one of several near Ankeny. One-room schoolhouses functioned as independent school districts and typically educated students through the eighth grade. That changed when Iowa law required districts to have high schools.
The Nagle school became part of the Ankeny school district in 1952. The district sold the school at auction and the building became a family's private home by 1957.
A trucking company later bought the land and used the building as an office.
Fairmount Education described the former schoolhouse to the Register in 2023 as vandalized, in poor condition and having uncertain structural integrity.
The city had looked into the possibility of saving the school, maybe by re-purposing it or partnering with a private entity to relocate it.
But hurdles have been the high cost of a relocation and buying new land for it. And community members who have previously discussed saving the school ran into the same cost issues.