Greenwood board votes yes on co-oping all school sports, Loyal to seek more input

ADs share details on full co-op plan

By Valorie Brecht After hearing from community members and discussing the issue, the Greenwood School Board voted to approve the two school districts co-oping for all sports except volleyball starting with the 2024-25 school year, and volleyball starting with the 2025-26 school year. The reason for delaying volleyball is the deadline to submit paperwork to the WIAA for next season has already passed.

The Loyal board did not make a decision, but instead decided to host a parent meeting on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Loyal High School gym to gather additional feedback.

The joint school board meeting took place last Wednesday, Jan. 10, at Greenwood. At the previous two joint school board meetings, board members from both districts had talked about the need to put a “stake in the ground” and move forward with co-oping all sports, because they didn’t want to keep having the same discussion repeatedly. They asked the athletic directors of both districts to come up with a presentation detailing what a fully cooperative athletics program would look like.

To that end, Loyal Athletic Director/Assistant Principal Jeff Bell and Greenwood Athletic Director Jenni Mayenschein shared some logistical information at the January meeting, including about the hiring process, uniforms, bussing, practices and games.

“I think it would need to be just one athletic director. That way there’s just one point of contact. Because right now, we’re both getting emails for co-op teams and it can get confusing,” said Bell.

“Also, it would be a sole position, where that person’s not doing other things, because that’s a full-time position on its own,” he said.

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He also said a big reason the school districts were having this discussion now is the WIAA deadline is Feb. 1 to submit co-op proposals for the next winter sports season. He also said it would be good to get the ball rolling because the sooner coaches know, the more time they have to plan.

“A fall sport is not just in the fall; a winter sport is not just winter. For those of you who’ve been involved, you know it’s a yearlong thing,” he said.

Another step would be both boards approving a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two school districts for co-oped sports and what the expectations are. After that is done and the WIAA approves the co-op application, the schools can begin the hiring process for girls and boys basketball, track and baseball. The administrator or designee and the athletic directors for both schools would make up the interview committee for head coaches. The head coaches and athletic directors would make up the committee for the lower levels. The goal would be to interview for 2024-25 winter coaches by April 1 and spring coaches by June 1.

“After the head coaches are hired, we would begin ordering uniforms,” said Bell.

If no mascot is chosen, the uniforms would be a generic black, white and grey with “Loyal-Greenwood” on it. The middle school will be on a rotation for new uniforms, with spring sports receiving theirs in 2024, winter sports in 2025 and fall sports in 2026. Until ordered, seventh grade would wear Greenwood uniforms and eighth grade would wear Loyal, or whatever fits the needs best based on numbers.

There are four gyms between the two schools. Bell liked the idea of having more practice spaces for the schools to work with, as sometimes it is a challenge currently to schedule practices. He said the plan would be for athletes to practice at one school for one week, and the other school the next week. However, that would depend on participation numbers.

“You’d have to decide as a board where that cutoff would be. So let’s say 80 percent of the athletes are from Greenwood, then you would set Greenwood as the priority district,” said Bell.

For winter sports, the plan would be for all athletes to travel on one bus — so the athletes practicing in Greenwood would ride the bus to Greenwood, and that same bus would take the ones practicing in Loyal back to Loyal. Then the bus would return athletes at the end of practice.

For basketball, the tentative plan is for boys to practice at one location and girls at the other location. Middle school will be the same, but at a later time or vice versa with the high school. When there is a home game, teams can go to the other location for practice. C-team games could be at 4 or 4:30, which would open the door for more C-team game opportunities.

In the spring, baseball would be at one location and softball at another with gyms. Track and field will be able to use the hallways.

Mayenschein also clarified that the plan wasn’t set in stone.

“We can sit down with the coaches of each sport to see what will work best as well,” she said.

Bell also talked numbers of each program. If the schools were to combine, they would have the following numbers of kids out for high school sports: volleyball 46, boys basketball 40, girls basketball 30, baseball 43 and track 37. Girls basketball is the sport in which both schools could most use a co-op, as on their own, Greenwood would have only 14 and Loyal 16.

“I looked back in our records as far back as the 90s, and at one point Greenwood had 36 out for (high school) girls basketball. Now, combined we would have 30,” said Mayenschein. “They are definitely workable numbers, actually ideal numbers for a program.”

For boys basketball, Loyal is not as in need of a co-op as Greenwood, as Loyal would have 24 on its own while Greenwood is down to 16.

Football is already planned to be cooped; there are 25 athletes signed up from Greenwood and 32 from Loyal.

Bell also shared WIAA division information. For basketball, Divisions 1 and 2 are for schools with enrollments of 600 or more. Division 5 is for the smallest 128 schools. The remaining schools are split evenly between Divisions 3 and 4. Mayenschein said it was hard to say for sure, but she anticipated the combined team would stay in Division 4.

For track, Division 1 is the largest 128 member schools, Division 2 is the next largest 136 schools and Division 3 is the rest. Loyal-Greenwood would remain in Division 3.

Volleyball is still up in the air because it has four divisions currently and will move to five divisions for the 2024 season. The WIAA will release more information in a meeting next month, but Mayenschein anticipated it would be set up like basketball.

One of the members of the public asked if the athletic directors had talked to the coaches on their thoughts on co-oping. Bell said they had and there were a variety of opinions; some coaches were for it, some against.

“I will say, just my personal opinion, I was at the (Greenwood versus Loyal) girls basketball game last night and saw some pretty talented players on both sides. I thought, ‘Wow, what would a combined team look like?’” said Mayenschein. “I think it would be a positive thing and that way our girls would not be thrown in as sophomores and freshmen for something they are not ready for.”

Tara Scheel, Loyal parent, asked what the football co-op was going to look like and if the athletic directors could provide any details.

“We plan to model it off of middle school football, so one week we will have practice at Loyal and one week at Greenwood,” said Bell. “They will travel together, middle school and high school. Home games will alternate between locations.”

A member of the public also asked if the football uniforms had been ordered yet. Bell said they hadn’t been ordered, because of the ongoing mascot discussion. He said the plan at this point was to order generic uniforms with black, grey and white. He also explained that there will be six assistant coaches, with the cost split between the two districts. As of the meeting, four interviews had been completed, with two left to do. The co-op football team will be Division 6.

There are also plans to have a parent/ coach informational meeting for football in the near future, said school administrators.

Loyal volleyball coach and special education teacher Jaedyn Pieper chimed in.

“Before we do all these co-ops, a lot of the parents and a lot of my girls had no idea that this was even happening, so I know that Feb. 1 is the push and I’ve been told that you’re looking at the five-year or 10year plan, but what about the students right now? How is it fair to the students right now? The parent/player informational meeting should definitely be happening before even the Feb. 1 deadline. It only seems fair. And now football’s having theirs after the co-op’s already been approved; so it just seems a little backwards,” she said.

“I know we’ve been discussing this and different matters for well over a year,” said Greenwood School Board member Dean Lindner. “Basically a couple months ago, we had our first joint board meeting and what we got out of that was, ‘Let’s pick a date that we want to move forward from’ and that’s what the ADs kind of put together for us. From a Greenwood standpoint, I am ready to move forward with a co-op.”

“I agree with Dean. I think that we in Greenwood are ready. I personally think that it’s what’s best for our students, speaking on Greenwood’s behalf,” said Greenwood School Board member Eliza Ruzic. “I do think that it is important to involve the parents and the students as we go forward, but the question I guess I have is, do we need to say, ‘Yes, we’re moving forward’ and then start making decisions, or is it that we have to have everything figured out and then say, ‘OK, we’re going forward’?”

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Ruzic said she hadn’t heard any Greenwood feedback against co-oping that evening, and she had reached out to parents and coaches and felt good about voting on it. She made a motion for Greenwood to co-op all athletics with Loyal starting next school year, with the exception of volleyball, which will begin in 2025. Dean Lindner seconded that motion and it was approved unanimously.

However, Loyal was not ready to make that commitment quite yet.

“I guess where I stand on this is, I don’t think Loyal should try to approve anything tonight; I think we should have a parents’ meeting,” said Loyal board president Dennis Roehl.

He suggested having the meeting sometime before the regular Loyal School Board meeting on Jan. 24, so the board could take the parents’ input into consideration when making any decisions at the regular meeting.

Loyal board member Tom Odeen agreed that a parent meeting should be held.

“I guess I would like input on, OK if you don’t want it for next fall, are you OK with looking at it in two years and in the meantime, continuing to move middle school in that direction? When’s the right time to do this? I guess that’s the question, because numbers fluctuate,” said Odeen.

The other Loyal board members were in favor of a parent meeting as well.

“No one is dead-set against a co-op; they’re all just like, why is everything going so fast?” said Loyal board member Harlan Hinkelmann. “And I agree that it is probably going fast. The comment was also made that maybe we should try football and see how that goes first. So maybe we should put it off a year. But we need to have a parent meeting and see how the parents feel.”

Loyal board member Carrie Becker said she was also in favor of a parent meeting, but “I do agree that we need to decide when we are going to co-op, what date. And it may not be this year, but we need to have a plan, a map or something saying when.”

Ruzic questioned whether Greenwood people would be welcome to attend the Loyal parent meeting.

“I just have a question, would Greenwood people be invited to that meeting? Is this just a Loyal meeting? All of our joint board meetings have been listening to both sides thus far,” said Ruzic.

No one answered her directly. The board did settle on a meeting date, however. The parent meeting will take place this Sunday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. at Loyal High School.

Consolidation survey and joint mascot The boards had a few other items on the agenda, including finalizing the community survey and timeline, and summer recreation.

At the previous joint board meeting, the boards spent a good deal of time deliberating on what questions to include in the survey and ultimately decided on three questions, including: would the respondent support a consolidation feasibility study; would the respondent support consolidation and under what circumstances (with several options listed such as the location of the high school); and should the two school districts revisit the Wolves mascot with corresponding colors of black, grey and white. Although the boards had seemed fairly set on those questions previously, at last week’s meeting board members had a different idea.

“So Chris (Lindner, Loyal superintendent) checked with Abby and Colby, and when they did it, they just had one question. They just put it very simply, as in, would you like for us to look into consolidation? I think we can leave it at that. I don’t think we need questions two and three,” said Roehl.

“I agree; we can find out yes or no if they support it and then decide where to go from there,” said Greenwood board president Jamie Gardner.

“I do think because it’s been brought to our attention, we ought to revisit the mascot though. It’s very apparent tonight that people want their voice to be heard,” said Ruzic.

“If you want to take the mascot off the survey, that’s fine; but that doesn’t mean Wolves are selected, Wolves wins,” said Loyal board member Derek Weyer. “that’s why we come right back to what at least 10 people said tonight – more transparency and more community involvement. It’s probably not the right place to be matched with a consolidation survey question and that’s fine, but then you need to get with the parents of the sports teams and you need to actually have a collective effort and listen to the voices of what people actually want.”

Loyal board member Tom Odeen agreed that whether it was through the survey or some other method, the boards ought to poll people on what mascot they would like, or if they would prefer it just to be “Loyal-Greenwood” as had been suggested.

Chris Lindner received an estimate from Baird, the district’s financial services company, on what a feasibility study would cost. There are two options. The first option is a one-year impact snapshot, which would cost $3,000 per district. That would take about six to eight weeks to complete and would include calculations on the levy and mill rate.

The second option is a long-term impact study for $6,000 per district. It would take eight to 12 weeks and would include calculations on levy, mill rate, consolidation age and a potential budget forecast. Chris Lindner recommended this option because it was more in-depth.

However, determining the feasibility of consolidation would not be limited to the Baird study.

“The Baird model is just financial. We would likely have to do a building or structure study. That would look at what are the needs, what are the maintenance costs of our buildings and facilities, and how can we be the most efficient if we join together. So it’s not just financial,” said Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green.

He said that a building study would help answer logistics questions such as which building would work best for the high school and how much the districts would save by sharing facilities.

“There would likely be additional costs on the table. But I think the question we have to answer first is, should consolidation even be on the table? We can start with that, and then if the answer is yes, we know there will be more questions, whether that’s feasibility or a mascot,” said Green.

He also said the districts were not locked into Wolves as a mascot.

“It’s not a big loss to go back. Some sports have just been using LG anyway. So, it can be revisited but it doesn’t have to be,” he said.

Ruzic made a motion to have the survey contain one question asking if the respondent was in favor of consolidation or not. It was seconded and the Greenwood board unanimously voted in favor of it. Weyer made the same motion on the Loyal side, and the Loyal board also approved it unanimously.

The boards also talked about a timeline for the survey. Board members had initially floated a two-week timeline, but Weyer said he had heard concerns from people that two weeks may not be long enough as the postal service is slow.

Green suggested a three-week turnaround, to which both boards agreed. The school districts planned to mail out the survey in the near future.

Summer recreation The boards looked at cooperating for all summer recreation activities. Last summer, all girls softball was co-oped and almost all boys baseball was, except for 8U baseball, 10U baseball and the middle/high school Bronco League. The two school districts handle summer recreation differently, as Greenwood runs all summer recreation through Fund 80, the district’s community service fund, so it is a district-sponsored program. The umpires, field preparation and officials are provided by the district. Greenwood employs the elementary physical education teacher as the summer recreation coordinator.

On the other hand, the Loyal summer rec. program is separate from the school district; however, the program uses school district facilities. The Loyal and Greenwood programs both receive funding from their respective municipalities.

“It would be nice to have a shared summer rec. coordinator or a coordinator in each district,” said Green.

“Before you take action, maybe you could have an indepth conversation with the summer rec. coaches, before you take it to a vote,” said Gardner.

“I think it should not be voted on tonight,” agreed Chris Lindner. “The city’s been involved, the school’s been involved, or even the board has controlled it. So I think we need to have a discussion on what it should look like.”

The boards agreed to table the issue until they could have a separate discussion about it.

Upcoming meetings The Loyal School District will have a parent meeting regarding co-oped athletics on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m.

The next regular meeting of the Loyal School Board will be Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. in the district conference room. The next Greenwood School Board regular board meeting will also be Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., in the Greenwood distance learning room.

The next joint school board meeting will be Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Loyal High School gym.

All of the meetings are open to the public.