Voters say yes to consolidation talks

Voters in the Abbotsford and Colby school districts threw their support behind the idea of studying consolidation in an advisory referendum held during Tuesday’s elections.

Two-thirds of the voters from the two neighboring districts answered “yes” to a question about whether district officials should further explore the prospect of combining the districts.

According to unofficial results, the total vote was 775 to 388 in favor of pursuing more information about consolidation. The results do not mean that the districts must merge at some point in the future, only that administrators and school board members will spend time and money on researching the idea.

Percentage-wise, support for the consolidation idea was slightly stronger in the Colby School District, which had significantly higher turnout. Sixty-nine percent of Colby voters answered yes, while 61 percent of Abbotsford voters did the same.

Of the 761 votes cast by Colby School District residents, 528 were yes and 233 were no. In the Abbotsford School District, voters registered 247 yes votes, compared to 155 no votes.

In nearly all of the municipalities that make up the two districts, a majority of voters cast their ballots in favor of pursuing the consolidation idea. Notable exceptions included the village of Curtiss, which had just four votes in favor of the idea, compared to 17 against it. The town of Hoard, located just outside Curtiss, reported just three votes, but two of them were against the consolidation idea. The town of Johnson, located on the far eastern edge of the Abbotsford School District, also voted against exploring consolidation, with seven yes votes and 15 nos.

Now that the results are in, Colby superintendent Steve Kolden said the “real work starts” to study the possibility of consolidation. He said the process will be directed by the two school boards and will most likely include some sort of task force of study group with representatives from both districts.

“I suspect there will be some sort of community survey asking which questions the community would like answers to,” Kolden said.

Abbotsford superintendent Sherry Baker, who is retiring at the end of the school year, said even though she won’t be part of the process going forward, she agrees with Kolden.

“There will be a lot to do moving forward,” she said. “There are financial, social, cultural, and community considerations to be studied. All aspects of a ‘study’ will be directed by the boards of education.”

The referendum was placed on the ballot after the two school boards met in January to initially discuss the possibility of sharing a superintendent after Baker left. That conversation moved into a larger one about possibly consolidating the two districts into one.

The two boards ended up voting to approve the same wording for an advisory referendum in both districts.

Dating back to the 1960s, many efforts have been made to combine the two neighboring districts, but they have always failed. Tuesday’s results mark a significant shift in public perception about the idea, but it still remains to be seen if local school board members and the public at large will support consolidation once a full study of the benefits and drawbacks is completed.

Abbotsford Middle/High School principal Ryan Bargender has been chosen to replace Baker once she retires, and Kolden has said he plans to retire in a couple of years, so it’s uncertain what the leadership situation will be if the districts move to consolidate.

School board races

The Abbotsford School Board will welcome one new member as result of Tuesday’s election.

Incumbents Kraig Schindler, Eric Reis and Ivone Vazquez all ran unopposed for new terms on the board, but there was a fourth seat available after Shanna Hackel moved out of the district. There was a registered write-in candidate, Danielle Treankler, but the district office could not confirm that she won the open seat.

Colby School Board members Bill Tesmer, Todd Schmidt and David Decker all ran unopposed for new terms on the board.

Jill Underly won Tuesday’s race for state superintendent of education, but local voters mostly supported her opponent, Deborah Kerr.

In all but a few local jurisdictions, the majority of votes went to Kerr, who won both Clark and Marathon counties by a couple hundred votes.