Council Bluffs Community School District history

The first public school building was built in 1864.

The district built the first version of Washington School in 1866 on Washington Avenue at North Main Street.

Franklin Pierce School, built in 1867 at Frank and Thomas streets, functioned for a short time as both a grade school and high school.

In 1869, the district built Center School on the northeast corner of South Sixth and 13th Street.

Clark School at Bennett and Franklin avenues and McMillen, often called Eighth Avenue School, at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue, were both built in 1877.

The first Bloomer School cost $8,000 to build in 1880.

In 1883, the first Longfellow School at 20th Avenue and South 10th Street had only four rooms.

In the 1889-90 city directory, the two Pierce schools are identified as East Pierce School on “East Pierce and Little Frank,” and Pierce School at “East Pierce and Franklin.”

In 1908, Oak Street School was built at Oak and Broadway.

When Thomas Jefferson High School was built in 1921 at 25th Street and West Broadway, it served grades seven through 10, but the district had grown so fast that the district felt two high schools were necessary.

The Carter Lake School was built in 1950 to replace the original building.

In 1966, Glendale, Sunnydale, Lake, Carter Lake and Crescent merged with the Council Bluffs School District by mandate of the State Legislature and vote of the residents.

In 1967, it became the new Abraham Lincoln High School, while Eastside moved to the old A.L. building and became Kirn Junior High School.

However, the 19th-century structure that first housed Council Bluffs High School, then the first Abraham Lincoln High School and finally the first Kirn Junior High, became history in 1976 when a fast-moving arson fire destroyed the building.

Beginning in the 1985-86 school year, seventh- and eighth-graders attended either Wilson and Kirn Junior High.

The Glendale building, used for years as the PACT center, was sold in 2007.

Sixth-grade students began attending Kirn and Wilson in the 2009-10 school year, when both facilities became middle schools.

The schools opened in 2011.

In 2019, renovations began at Kirn Middle School.