When Kevin Hosbond was teaching English and coaching speech in the rural southeast Iowa school district of Fairfield, his position was on the chopping block three separate times. Each time, students and parents convinced the school board to save his position.
But in 2017, amidst financial crisis in the district, the Fairfield school board eliminated dozens of positions, including an elementary art position held by Hosbond’s wife. Tired of the disrespect, as Hosbond called it, the two uprooted and moved to Grinnell, a rural town of 10,000 in central Iowa home to Grinnell College.
Hosbond and his wife both took teaching positions at Grinnell-Newburg High School (GHS), hoping to escape the constant threat of budget cuts that loomed over them in Fairfield.
Read more from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
