| Benton Community School District | |
| Motto: | Quality Education for a Lifetime of Learning |
| Type: | Local school district |
| Grades: | K-12 |
| Location: | Van Horne, Iowa |
| Region: | Benton, Iowa and Tama counties |
| Country: | United States |
| Coordinates: | 42.010319, -92.086204 |
| Superintendent: | Dr. Pamela Ewell |
| Asst Superintendent: | Doug Embray, Dr. James Bieschke |
| Schools: | 5 |
| Budget: | $29,520,000 (2020-21)[1] |
| Us Nces District Id: | 1904830 |
| Students: | 1702 (2022-23) |
| Teachers: | 102.96 FTE |
| Staff: | 110.13 FTE |
| Ratio: | 16.53 |
| Conference: | WaMaC Conference |
| Mascot: | Bobcats |
| Colors: | Blue and Yellow |
The Benton Community School District, or Benton Community, is a rural public school district headquartered in Van Horne, Iowa.[2]
The district is mostly in Benton County with portions in Iowa and Tama counties. It comprises seven rural municipalities: Van Horne, Atkins, Blairstown, Elberon, Keystone, Newhall, and Norway.[3] It also serves Watkins;[4] additional students come from Marengo, and Garrison.
Dr. Pamela Ewell was hired as superintendent in 2019, after previous positions as superintendent at Mount Vernon and Van Buren County Schools.[5] [6]
A consolidated school board from Keystone, Van Horne, Newhall and Blairstown met from 1962 to 1964 for the planning of the consolidated BCSD, which was officially formed in July 1964.[7]
In 1988, Benton Community joined the WaMaC Conference after the Eastern Iowa conference was disbanded.
The Norway school district merged into the Benton district on July 1, 1995.[8] The schools themselves consolidated earlier in a grade-sharing arrangement in the fall of 1991. From this consolidation, the movie The Final Season portrayed the final state title of the Norway High School baseball team.