Greenwood, Loyal superintendents provide update on joint board efforts

Stakeholders in the Greenwood and Loyal school districts have had intentional discussions with each other over the past couple of years about how the districts can best work together to share resources. Those discussions have taken place primarily in joint board meetings, and in recent months boardmembershavebeguntomoreseriously consider the idea of consolidating the two districts.

As the school districts prepare to pose an advisory question regarding consolidation on the spring ballot, the district administrators from each district have taken the opportunity to provide an update on where the discussion stands currently. To that end, Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green and Loyal District Administrator Chris Lindner issued a letter Jan. 3 which reads as follows: “Hello Loyal and Greenwood families: We wanted to take a moment to give you an update on the happenings of the Joint Board meetings with Greenwood and Loyal. First and foremost, our boards are committed to finding ways to maximize safe and positive opportunities for our students, engage them in high levels of learning, ensure highly qualified staff are in place to support learning, and do this within a budget that is acceptable to our communities. Small, rural districts like ours continue to see a slow decline in enrollment but needs and costs continue to increase. This, coupled with an outdated state funding formula that requires over 80% of districts in Wisconsin to rely on local operational referendums to survive, leads our school board to continue finding ways to be sustainable.

Recently, the Greenwood board met with the Loyal board. At this meeting, which was open to the public, both boards decided to put a question on the April 1, 2025 ballot asking residents if they support the consolidation of our two school districts. There are many questions that surround this question, but ultimately the boards are looking for direction from our communities on whether or not there is support for consolidation. If the answer is no, then we can discontinue work in that direction and look for other ways to meet the goals listed above. If the answer is yes, then our boards know to continue pursuing this. This advisory question is not binding; instead it will simply guide the future work of both boards.

Questions about a consolidated district, including facilities, locations, colors and mascots, would not be discussed or determined until after a decision to consolidate has been made. Historically, this has been the stopping point for these discussions. Both boards agreed that if a consolidation decision is made, the new consolidated board would be charged with the research, community engagement and decisions that are beneficial to all the students

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of the consolidated district, instead of pitting the two communities against each other.

The boards also discussed potential savings that could be captured by consolidating and maintaining current operations while doing the research to determine the most efficient model. There is no question that the bulk of savings would come from personnel or facilities. Putting the facilities aside, there are a number of positions that both districts have that could be reduced to one in a consolidated model. The district administrator is an example of those positions. The boards are looking at comparable districts to anticipate potential savings. Both boards agreed to let natural attrition (employee turnover) run its course and help with any reduction of staff that could happen over time. Both districts are anticipating retirements in the coming years and within a consolidated district, it is more likely to not have to replace many of those positions. A consolidated district may still need to rely on an operational referendum, but that referendum would likely be lower than the current needs of each district.

If the vote is in favor of consolidation, there would be two potential timelines. At the earliest, the first year of consolidation could be the 2027-2028 school year. It may be more practical to consider a timeline with the first year starting in 2028-2029, as that aligns with the current operational referendums in both districts. Either way, we want to assure you that decisions have not been and will not be made quickly. The timeline determination would include discussion about current referendum dollars, election cycles, board seats and sufficient time to prepare.

Lastly, we would encourage you to ask questions along the way. There will be opportunities for discussion at joint board meetings or regular monthly meetings. The next opportunity is Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Loyal High School gymnasium. This meeting will start with a public forum. Your thoughts and ideas are always welcomed and your feedback is appreciated.

Sincerely, Joe Green – District Administrator, School District of Greenwood Chris Lindner – District Administrator, School District of Loyal” Background information In the latter part of 2022, the school districts of Loyal and Greenwood formed a joint school board committee, including members of both boards, to discuss how to grow the opportunities for all students and increase collaboration between the districts. The joint board committee and members of the administration traveled to Whitehall in January 2023 to see an example of a collaboration at work between school districts. In June 2023, the school boards held listening sessions in Greenwood and Loyal to get public feedback on collaboration. The following month, the boards of both school districts participated in WASB governance training together. The first joint board committee meeting listed on Loyal’s meeting agenda website was on Aug. 22, 2023.

In November 2023, the full boards of both school districts met together for a joint board retreat. Also that month, both districts’ teaching staffs got together in the Loyal High School gym to take the first step as staffs to collaborate and start building the relationship between the two district’s teaching staffs, and they planned to meet again in February.

As the relationship between the two school districts progressed, they transitioned from having a joint board committee to having the full boards of both districts meet with each other, as all board members felt they needed to be a part of the discussion.

In February and March of 2024, the school districts conducted a community survey, online and through the school newsletter, asking residents if they would support consolidation. Loyal had 350 respondents and Greenwood had 217. For Loyal, approximately 75% were pro-consolidation and for Greenwood, approximately 71% were pro-consolidation.

The two boards have continued to meet jointly, approximately every other month, with six meetings in 2024. Most recently, the discussion has been around referendum timelines and formulating a ballot question.