School consolidation talks are shelved
By Ross Pattermann
Potentially consolidating the Colby and Abbotsford school districts appear to be over before it ever really began after the Abbotsford board of education chose to discontinue the discussions during their monthly meeting on Monday night.
The Abbotsford board of education approved a 3-2 motion to discontinue the consolidation study, with the decision made in part due to findings from an impact study done by Baird, a financial service company helping the two districts compile data on possible consolidation scenarios and outcomes.
“The consolidation team met on the sixteenth, and acknowledged that it’s pretty clear there’s really no financial advantage,” Abbotsford superintendent Ryan Bargender told his board of education on Monday “Talking about financials, you also have to look at there’s going to be a cost to outfit a building.”
While the results were only preliminary, Colby superintendent Steven Kolden noted the final numbers would not change the data points very much.
“It’s basically a wash,” Kolden conceded during the consolidation study meeting. He reiterated these comments at Colby’s board of education meeting on Monday This isn’t to say that there weren’t some advantages to be taken from Baird’s preliminary study “If you want to jump to the nuts and bolts, I think the biggest advantage for Abby is in the consolidation, your mil rate will go down because our mil rate is lower than yours,” Kolden said. “It would be a benefit at least in the first two years for the taxpayers.”
The disadvantage for the Abbotsford school district is the Colby School district has significantly more debt. Kolden told the study team that if the two districts combined, the Abbotsford school district would have to assume Colby’s debt.
“The inverse is the same for Colby,” Kolden said. “The advantage is we’re going to combine with a lower debt, thereby reducing our burden, but our taxes will go up.”
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There were also several study members who had questions related to the Baird study, specifically with the study’s projected fund balance.
Abbotsford superintendent Ryan Bargender said the issues relating to the consolidated district’s fund balance had more to do with creating a an equal field for Baird to work with.
“For 2021 it shows both schools have a surplus, but as you go it gets more and more deficit. The reason for that is because we projected out no increase in state aid, a zero across the board increase,” Bargender explained. “We don’t know what the increase will be. More than likely there will be an increase, but just to compare, we kept it flat.”
Both superintendents did not anticipate losing much in the way of staffing. Kolden said there may even be positions to add because of consolidation, or that some staff would still remain with the district, but change their job titles.
“Yeah, you’re eliminating one district administrator, but you need more staff to help support that,” Abbotsford study member Eric Reis said.
Bargender piggy backed off Reis’ comments, saying that the schools already have a combined five principals, but would probably need six. However, being a bigger district, the salaries might increase across the district.
Abbotsford’s district accountability coordinator Georgia Kraus said another impact for the Abbotsford district was potentially losing out on federal and state grants for their dual language and English language learner programs.
The committee did look at other potential ways consolidating the two districts would be beneficial academically. Three advantages that came up would be better course scheduling for students, less preps for high school teachers and the potential to offer more classes to high school students.
Abbotsford board member Kraig Schindler, who’s family moved from the West Bend school district, also pointed out that simply because a district offered a class did not mean a student would be able to take that class.
“My oldest could not get in to half of the classes that were offered and she wanted,” Schindler said. “It is nice to be able to offer those things, but realistically, they might not be able to get in.”
At the Abbotsford board of education meeting, the Blasel family, whose son Clayton is co-valedictorian for the Class of 2022, said that with today’s technology, even smaller schools like Abbotsford and Colby have ways of getting students access to higher academic and college level classes.
“Things are very different with distance learning,” Bargender said, agreeing with the Blasel family. “You name a course today and you can probably take it. We can have a kid that goes to Wausau and takes a class at the Wausau school district. If a kid says they really need a class, we find a way.”
Another sticking point from the consolidation meeting was the issue of facilities. Both schools facilities are currently in excellent condition, with Kolden saying “Colby is not in a crunch to add space.”
However, Abbotsford has seen an infl ux of students in recent years, and even after adding four elementary classrooms to their district in 2008, is in the process of adding a FEMA storm shelter to their district that would also double as extra classroom space.
Several consolidation study members voiced their concerns about transportation for students, and questioned the wisdom in taking students that live in Curtiss or Abbotsford and bussing them to Colby.
Nathan Jakel told the study team that his students could walk from their home to the Abbotsford school district, but was opposed to the idea of having to drive students to Colby.
At the moment, neither superintendent could say which buildings would operate as elementary, middle or high schools, and that would require a facilities study.
CESA 10 offered to do a facility study for $14,000, while HSR Associates offered a bid of $18,000 for a similar study. The cost of a facility study was also brought up at the Abbotsford board of education meeting on Monday.
“I guess the way I see it there’s more negatives than the potential positives, and even those seem uncertain. I chose to stay in Abbotsford because it is a small school,” Reis said. “For these reason I am not for spending any additional tax payer money on this study at this time . . . I am for continuing to look at non consolidation options, such as the consortium.”
The idea of a consortium between the two schools came up, and the study team agreed that this could be beneficial.
Thetopicof athleticswasalsobroached at both district’s board meetings on Monday, with both admitting there would be some problems with students able to play or start on athletic teams if the districts consolidated.
“Sports isn’t everything, but what happens to those kids who are starters and are now on the bench?” Reis pondered. “I know sports isn’t everything, but for some kids, it keeps them involved in their academic work, and that is a motivation for them to do well in school.”
While the two schools may only be two miles apart geographically, it appears that gulf is wider than appeared at first blush. With so many variables and more uncertainties that facts, Abbotsford has decided to step away from the talks.
“I’m not saying we can’t do some things better,” Reis said. “Certainly there are always some things we can do better, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
