LOYAL, GRANTON BOARDS MEET
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 -- 10:28 AM
The Granton and Loyal school boards got together Monday night to discuss ways to possibly work together to save money while maintaining options for students.The meeting didn?t include any serious talk about consolidation, but did include some discussion about sharing teachers, programs and administration.
"After the failed referendum we had, we need to look at other options," explained Loyal Superintendent Graeme Williams. "The community was pretty supportive of that. We're looking to possibly plan for the immediate future...and potentially look at a long term plan."
DIFFERENT BUDGET CONCERNS
Loyal is facing a $400,000 deficit next year. The district?s voters have overwhelmingly turned back two revenue cap exemption referendum. While they still may try to pass a referendum in the Spring, the board has already explored a sweeping list of possible cuts, which would likely lead to more students open-enrolling to other districts.
Granton?one of the smallest schools in the state?isn?t up against the revenue cap and has a healthy fund balance, but has been losing state aide because of declining enrollment. The result has been skyrocketing tax rates?jumping 25% this year alone.
TRUST FACTOR
The districts co-oped football and some other sports a few years ago, but the Loyal board abruptly ended that partnership.
Loyal board member Paul Gries tried to allay fears that Loyal couldn?t be trusted. "The community support Granton has, I'm jealous of. It's tremendous. This isn't something we thought of on the 2nd of November so we could pass a referendum (in the spring)," he said.
It?s a bit unclear how the sharing of teachers would work. It?s likely that one of the two districts could hire a teacher with the understanding that person would travel to the other district for part of the day, or on alternating days.
Granton superintendent Arnie Snook, who spent much of his career in Iowa, explained a shared administrator between the two schools is a possibility.
"(They) could be interviewed and hired jointly by the two school districts...I come from a state where sharing superintendents is very common, and more and more common," Snook said.
Snook pointed out the movement away from smaller, family-run farms has led to a steep drop in rural enrollments and it doesn?t look like those numbers are going to recover anytime soon.
The two boards seemed to agree in principle that sharing makes sense. No decisions were made, but the administrators from the two districts?and possibly others?will sit down and develop a list of options.
Loyal and Granton will hold another joint meeting on January 13th.
Loyal is scheduled to meet with the Spencer school board on Wednesday night.
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