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LOYAL BOARD REACTS TO GREENWOOD REFERENDUM DECISION
Thursday, February 17th, 2005 -- 2:16 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
The Loyal school board has decided to put off a planned study on consolidation in light of the Greenwood school board’s decision to ask voters for a 5-year, $500,000 revenue cap exemption.
Last week was a roller coaster ride for the two schools.
It started on Monday with a very friendly joint school board meeting that ended with the two boards voting unanimously to get the ball rolling toward consolidation with an in-depth study. They were backed with a nearly unanimous show of hands from the large crowd in attendance.
Things took a turn on Wednesday night when the Greenwood school board met and voted to send the five-year referendum to voters. Superintendent John Eitenmiller had recommended 3-years, but after emotional testimony from some in attendance and spearheaded by school board member Bill Herr, who stated he wasn’t ready to give up the school, the board unanimously went with the 5-year referendum.
Loyal school board member Dave Clouse described their board as “disappointed” with Greenwood’s decision.
"We're here to educate children," Clouse says, "Both boards spoke up and said Monday night that this (consolidation) is in the best interest of our children to offer more electives."
Because the playing field is still very much unsettled, Clouse said the Loyal Board felt it didn’t pay to do the $15,000 study at this time.
"Studies are kind of like an apple: they do spoil at some time," Clouse says, "We might as well wait and see what the results are in April and then the Loyal board will have to make another decision."
At last week’s Greenwood school board meeting, many speakers noted that their district would probably lose their high school if consolidation were to occur. They reasoned that Loyal wouldn’t be as open-minded toward consolidation if the shoe were on the other foot. If the referendum passed, they felt they’d at least have more leverage. But Clouse says it doesn’t make sense logistically to bus students to Greenwood.
"It's probably wiser from a strictly economic standpoint to bus less children and Loyal does have the larger numbers."
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