Consolidation,
from p. 8
amendment to their policies to add two more board members to the board. That way there would be seven Loyal members and seven Greenwood members on the interim joint board.
As a joint board, they would have to decide what they wanted the consolidated school district’s board to look like, whether it would be composed of five, seven, or nine members, and how many members would represent a certain area of the new consolidated district or be at-large members. As an example, Loyal currently has members representing the area north of Highway 98 and the area south of Highway 98, so those areas would change under a consolidated district.
Consolidation Aid and Sparsity Aid A consolidated district would receive $150 per student for five years, then gradually reduced each year. At around 750 students when combined, that would be $112,500.
“It’s nowhere near what they used to give for consolidation, but still something,” said Green.
To receive Sparsity Aid, the school districts have to have less than 745 or 750 students enrolled in all. Green said that he had previously thought the districts would lose out on that by combining, but looking at enrollment numbers K-8, it would be between 50 to 60 students per grade, so the overall enrollment would likely be low enough that the combined district would still get Sparsity Aid.
Concerns The biggest concerns that have come up so far are transportation and students being on the bus longer, the location of the schools, and colors/mascot/name of the school.
“Those are things that I believe can get figured out. We’re just asking for your advisory vote on, do we continue moving forward and continue that process?” said Lindner.
One Loyal parent, Grace Genteman, asked if the districts had taken into account the number of students that would be lost under a combined district because they were on the fringes and would open enroll to another closer adjoining district such as Spencer, Owen-Withee, or Neillsville.
“That’s an absolutely fair question. I think the opposite can be said too of what do we stand to gain. I try to be more of an optimist in looking at this. By pooling our resources and becoming a district that’s bigger and stronger, we know that there’s districts not so far away that also struggle. What do we stand do gain if we’re able to put a more dynamic opportunity in front of our kids? Some of the kids that are on the fringe, do we have just as much an opportunity to attract as we do to lose them?” asked Green.
“As a parent, I live as far away as you can and still be in our school district. I live 12 miles to the west out in God’s country, right? I’m going to send my kids, or my son who would still be in school if those goes into effect, I’m going to send him to the place that gives him the best opportunity to be successful down the road. And I think if we we keep our eyes on the prize, I think that’s to offer a more dynamic, robust opportunity for our kids. And I would hope parents make decisions to send their kids where the kids are going to have the most opportunities to prepare them for a better future. And if that means six more miles? I don’t see transportation myself as a barrier. I see, what are the opportunities we can build by sharing resources and making stronger?”
Loyal school board candidate and parent Crystal Rueth said she wasn’t sure what to think on consolidation and she had friends both for and against it. But she said she did have concern about maintaining the quality of education.
“I feel like my kids are already in the best place for them. I chose Loyal. We moved here from a different area 15 years ago and we picked the school here… My kids are thriving here. A fear that I have is what happens if we consolidate and it isn’t what we had hoped for? And there’s no easy answer or stat for that. I already feel like we chose this district and this is where my heart is, where my kids are thriving, and we love it here. So it’s hard to think about what it would be like if it’s anything but what we have. And again, I’m not saying I’m against it, but that is my fear is what if we consolidate and it’s not what we hoped, and I see my little ones not thriving like my older kids did.”
“How I would answer that is, if you think you’re getting a good education in Loyal, and I think the parents in Greenwood would say their kids are getting a good education, it’s hard to imagine that putting together a good education and a good education we would end up with a bad education. I don’t see that as a possibility,” said Loyal board president Dennis Roehl. “I think we both offer a good education, and I think we can do better. I think we should always be striving to better and keeping a positive attitude toward all this. If everyone’s pushing towards a common goal, it’s kind of hard to fail if everyone’s pushing. We know we’re going to have to change things. Nothing’s going to work out perfectly the first time you do it. But I think both boards and both school districts are willing to try, and I think that’s all we can do.”
Board member Dean Lindner from Greenwood said what’s motivated him to look at consolidation is avoiding what has happened to some neighboring districts that have failed to pass a referendum.
“Those are scary conversations, because then you’re talking staff and losing opportunities. I’d much rather control my future and build a stronger school together and create opportunities,” said Lindner.
He said his other main concern was staffing, as when he started on the school board years ago, there were dozens of applicants for a position and now they often had trouble finding anyone. So with a larger district, there is larger pool of staff to draw from.
The district administrators encouraged people to reach out if they had any other specific questions or concerns. Lindner can be reached at chrislindner@loyal.k12.wi.us or 715-255-8552, and Green can be reached at jogreen@greenwood.k12.wi.us or 715-267-6101.
“The superintendents in the state are watching what our two districts are doing right now. They understand that we share a lot and we do a lot of things together. They’re interested in seeing where this goes and what direction our students go. Because I do believe there are more districts looking at doing this,” said Lindner.
