Greenwood and Loyal Residents Will Have a School Consolidation Advisory Question on April 1st Ballot

Thursday, March 13th, 2025 -- 9:00 AM

On the April 1st Spring Election ballot, the Greenwood and Loyal School District will have an advisory referendum question for members of both communities.

A non-binding advisory question will appear on the ballot, asking residents whether they support the consolidation of the Loyal and Greenwood School Districts.

This advisory vote will not make the final decision, but will provide valuable direction to the school boards as they determine the best course of action for the future of their schools.

Both Districts are committed to ensuring a sustainable future for their schools, providing safe and positive opportunities for their students, maintaining high levels of learning, achievement, and increased opportunities, and working within budgets acceptable to their communities.

Both Districts are exploring consolidation due to a combination of shared challenges and opportunities to improve operations and student experiences. With consolidation of the Loyal and Greenwood School Districts, we anticipate significant operational cost savings AND eliminating current staffing shortages.

Challenges that both Districts are facing include:

Declining Enrollment:

Fewer students means reduced state funding, making it more challenging to maintain programs, staffing, and facilities. Consolidation can create a larger student base, ensuring that a full range of academic, co-curricular, and athletic opportunities remain available.

Increasing Operation Costs:

Rising costs for staffing, utilities, insurance and maintenance are straining both Districts’ budgets. A combined district could pool resources and operate more efficiently, leading to savings that could be reinvested in student programs and facilities

Outdates State Funding Formula:

The state funding formula, established in 1993 does not adequately address the unique needs of small, rural districts. Combining districts may create efficiencies that allow for better use of limited funding.

They hope consolidation will provide enhanced educational opportunities. A consolidated district could offer broader academic programming, including Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dual-credit technical college courses, career and technical education (CTE) options, and specialized services for students with unique needs.

Combining resources could also enhance extracurricular activities, clubs, and athletic teams by increasing participation and creating more competitive offerings.

In fact, the two Districts already co-op a wide offering of academics, staff, and athletics. They also hope it will provide long-term sustainability. Without action, financial and enrollment challenges may worsen, forcing cuts to programs, staff, and/or facilities.

Consolidation offers a proactive solution to ensure both communities can maintain high-quality education and opportunities for students. A larger, more sustainable district would be better positioned to adapt to future challenges and changes in state or federal funding.

While it is difficult to predict the exact impact on the Mill Rate in this proposed scenario, both Districts have spent years aligning their tax impact and debt schedules in preparation for this consolidation discussion.

Currently, the Mill Rates for both Districts are nearly identical, and both Operational Referenda are set to expire simultaneously, leaving both Districts debt-free.

The most significant cost savings from consolidation would likely come from streamlining duplicative administrators, staff, contracted services, co-curricular activity costs, and licenses, resulting in approximately $1 million, or more, in operational savings.

If both communities vote in favor of consolidation, the Boards will begin further exploration of consolidation, including creating a timeline for implementation.

A preliminary timeline would see the planning phase for consolidation begin this year and continue through 2027. Greenwood and Loyal’s operational referenda debt would expire in 2027.

The earliest the districts could then consolidate is the 2028–2029 school year. From 2028, and beyond, the two Districts would continue as one. If the community does not support consolidation, the Districts will explore other avenues to achieve sustainability.

Both Districts would continue to rely on growing operational referendum dollars to sustain current operations and programming.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.