001okay we're going to bring this uh joint meeting into order um roll sign Pledge of Allegiance Pledge FL the United States of America the for stands Nation indivisible and okay this is an open Forum um anybody we don't have a sign up so anybody wants to come up and talk come up to the podium here what we are looking for is if you have other questions you need other information if you have other concerns um last week when we met in Greenwood on Sunday night uh there was only a couple questions a couple commentary uh items and then uh Mr Green and myself kind of went through some of the FAQs that that were out there so as of right now there are 34 questions out there uh we have answered 33 of them we
002will get the 34th unanswered uh tomorrow so uh and you can see that each district has it on their website uh fact sheet and an FAQ um question sheet so uh there were some fact sheets out when you walked in so with that you have any comments questions please come forward Adam Smith hello I've got one question um I was thinking here tonight we had a meeting very similar to this two years AG where parents could ask questions but the board did not answer very many of them what's the difference between this meeting and that meeting two years ago December this is a public form so we do have that this is something that communities wanted so they could go back and forth that that was a regular I believe a regular meeting listening s
003thank you um so a public form we have some dialog back and forth okay uh so we will go through a few questions maybe that will uh spur some thoughts or concerns or questions uh the number one question is why are the two districts uh considering consolidation and what you need to remember is that this is an advisory vote uh it is a non-binding uh it is for boards to have a direction um in in moving forward both districts are faced with ch challenges so whatever happens however you vote I guess I want to just say we want you to vote whether you vote Yes or No we want you out there to vote um and just know that if you vote yes that is going to have a situation with some people maybe not
004happy because of the Consolidated and and affecting students if you vote no you will have a another issue that you have to look at and that is keeping a operating referendum that may cost a little bit more as we go because of the enrollment um decrease in enrollment in both districts um that and the prices or the the needs have become more and and with re going down and expenses going up uh that that is that is something why Mr Green myself took a look at it um got the boards involved really talked about collaborating uh as much as we possibly can um and that has kind of brought us up to this point um and this is something that we are looking at on the road this is not a tomorrow or a next
005year item this this would take some time we talked about anything anywhere from 28.9 to later than that so how can we pull our resources uh so we can have less expenses and what I mean by that is whether it's superintendent whether it's dealing with Seaside and their services uh how can we be a little more efficient with those services and with are our teachers so the big big question is why consolidation why are we even considering consolidation um to me it's pretty plain and simple uh in anyone I talk to in community taxes continue to go up the cost of running a school and any other business continue to go up there's only a couple ways to to remedy that one way is to eliminate some expenses the other way is to figure out
006a more efficient way to operate consolidation is potentially a more efficient way to operate for two school districts 6 miles apart with similar Mill rates similar issues with declining enrollment zero debt that is an option to run more efficiently again the other way to try and Balance Books and meet the needs of taxpayers is to figure out how to do what you need to do for our kids with less resources I'm not sure that's feasible in a world with growing needs I don't know know that in Greenwood and I know that the needs in loyal aren't much different I don't know that we can continue to offer the programs and support our kids and trim our expenses I'm not sure that's possible there's are are there are there things that are concerning about consolidation of
007course um there's a lot of logistical things that come into play when we talk about consolidation and a lot of things that we worry about um but those are all things that with two communities that care a ton about their kids put those two communities together and I'm quite certain we can figure out a solution that benefits our kids now consolidating districts um you know when we talk about the consolidation of of the school districts of Loy and the school district district of greenw um you know some of the questions come up about you know schools and locations and where kids go and the boards have made that decision to find out what the will of the people is first do we want to pursue consolidation and if we do then as a Consolidated District
008we will have a conversation and research and do it together and figure out what is the most effective efficient way to educate all of our kids if we continue to talk about a school here a school there we'll never get anywhere we will find ourselves in 2029 asking our voters for at least in Greenwood I there's no question in my mind I will be asking our voters if we want to maintain services that we have now for an increased operational referendum I can look at the be study and I can see our our our enrollment is relatively flat uh We've flattened out we went through um a decline about 5 years ago uh We've we've flattened out and and so it's it makes it a little bit easier to predict but I can tell you
009like in in the be study we'll be looking at a 1.9 million referendum in 2028 and a $2 million referendum in 2029 those numbers will continue to well unless we figure out that we need to cut expenses or how to cut expenses that comes at a cost uh one of the questions I can answer partially the question that um we try and get a more detailed uh answer to early this week as Mr L said was about um what are some of those positions what are some of those duplicated positions that we would look at or that could be looked at I want I want to throw a couple things out one obviously is a superintendent position um and the question is well then well who's the superintendent that will be for a joint boord
010to theci side that that you know who the superintendent is of a Consolidated District um could be or would be for a joint board to decide they would make that decision how they move forward with gr leadership there are other dup duplicated positions when you have when you look at when you look at any other school district and you look at the the leadership in a school district you'll see there there are positions you know like in a district office that are you know one person where in the school district of Greenwood school district of Loy we have two positions those those are positions that the boards are going to have to talk about and look at for the how how to efficiently run a Consolidated School District and right now it would be speculation
011to say what any of those positions are or or what they would look like because there's an election in April with board seats up and there will be an election next April with board seats seats up so some of those decisions that would be made about positions and consolidation will be made by potentially entirely different people because these board seats are you know could change but what I can tell you is there's a ton of savings simply in service contracts school district of Greenwood spends 300 roughly $350,000 on cesa 10 and I think loyal is real similar two districts together streamline that a little bit there's a ton of licensure licenses we both have real simple terms we both operate a website probably to the tune of $ 15 to $20,000 there's a ton of
012that we both operate a student information system Greenwood uses Skyward loyal uses Infinite Campus and Skyward for different pieces we're both paying those companies tens of thousands of dollars for those and that's just a cost of doing business streamline those Services we now have one student information system software licensure there's a ton of those there's a there's a lot of savings and and and can we put a number on it I know the the the number of million dollars I don't think that's farfetch I don't think that's Farfesh in the year in in the first year but I don't think it's fair to say an exact number right now either because you know the boards right now are looking for an advisory referendum they're looking for advisory voices from the community on whether or not
013to pursue we're not they're not looking for the yes or no it's going to happen today they're looking should we pursue it and I know that there there's a ton of questions out there and there will remain there will continue to be questions out there but the the Sy why are we pursuing you know the advisory referendum of consolidation it's because we continue to hear and feel our communities are stressed with taxes they're stressed with the the the amount of the the increase in taxes and that's not going to go away so we have to figure out do can we continue to to provide those increases in operational referendums that was another question on there do we you know if we had if we continue with operational referendums are we going to go bankrupt no
014if both communities continue to vote Yes on operational referendums and the increase to maintain Services we would not go bankrupt we would continue to operate the way we are both districts about 50% of our revenue is is operational referendum I can tell you that the state formula isn't going to change I can tell you the federal formula right now is a little bit in question both districts I I think uh have four or five positions funded by federal dollars some of that money goes away to the tune of $4 to $600,000 we're both going to be looking to figure that out as well so there's there's some more of those question marks out there also um Athletics would be another area you know in a Consolidated District doesn't mean that everything has to be Co-op
015not necessarily but it would make would it make sense I think when you look at the enrollment numbers it'd be hard to argue eighth grade and below I think it'd be hard to argue that we're not going to need each other to to to be sustainable and that's a huge savings we're both spending at least a couple $1,000 on athletic programs those are savings that can be captured pretty quickly so again why why consider consolidation to be more efficient be more effective and be more responsible with our taxpayers dollars add a few things here uh there's talk out there that um where the high scho is going to be that there's been taught or where what what where the kids going to go what buildings are going to be used um as of right now
016those are things that we need to we need to look at um just like is said last week um we don't want to we want to be efficient with this so that's why we are asking you um we want to do a facility study and put more money into something that we don't own Direction until after April 1 so um where're the buildings there's no reason why we can't operate as is as a one school district um and figure that from there talking to um Jill Iber from clar County Economic Development uh we sat down with her a couple different times and I know I believe we had couple community members talk a little bit about this about um if we don't do something together we will both be facing major issues and I'm not
017just same school but talking Community um we take a look in loyal alone in the last four or 5 years we have lost four or five businesses so things we need to start working together thinking together and and dealing with how can we not only survive but Thrive together uh Mr Green talked a little bit about enrollment uh so our our sophomore and juniors are our biggest classes one is 48 and one is 44 um when they leave so we are sitting at approximately 480 students in our district when those two classes leave moving probably down to like a 435 all right once our eighth graders we get moving down into I should say fifth grade once there sixth graders now you are going from sixth grade right now in loil is 40 kids all
018right after that you are talking high 20s to low 30s all right from 4K through 5ifth grade so those are some major hits that our enrollment takes that is revenue that comes into our into our district um that we need to we need to face so those are the things that I talked about earlier also whether you vote Yes or No you're going to have we're going to have some some issues either way all righty uh question or or whatever uh talk about with that operating referendum you know ours will be at 2728 will be 1.5 million uh and with those enrollments going down we are going to face a larger need a larger amount um black shared programs where we at right now um we have kids we have gwood kids coming over for
019College English um construction we had uh Greenwood teacher come in bring over kids Greenwood kids went into construction that teacher the Greenwood Tech teacher taught our kids well um we have kids loyal kids going to agree with from CAD classes um body structure and it it's back and forth and and like I said earlier it's not there's not an issue with the kids I believe the kids get along very very well um drama we have one act play and threea play together Middle High School cross country boys and girls Middle High School Football middle and high school wrestling with Neelsville Middle and High School softball Middle School baseball Middle School track High School Marching Band summer rack softball and baseball Sharon athletic trainer uh we have cheerleading together in the fall uh and then we
020had a Greenwood student want to cheer with our students at our basketball games in the winter uh we share a school counselor our FFA organizations work together uh they teach tractor safety together and share a lot of transportation to local and state and National events um we have a joint professional development that we try to get our teachers to collaborate together on certain um classroom curriculum Title One greeing specialist we share uh and we share the same busing service so there is there's a lot of things that we are already doing to help be efficient with with our money question was uh where are we at Federal fundwise uh if if they take it all away we are looking at uh for loyal $700,000 all right we need to figure how we going to figure
021that out right if that that goes that direction I agree with Mr Green the state funding is not going to change right they haven't changed in 30 some years uh and our B annual budget for the next two years um doesn't look real great we hear a lot of you two two sides to it but um reality does not look like it will be added like they're H so it'll be interesting to see we have any other we have any questions or at this time Chris in the loyal School District Green graduate my question is do we receive any money in either School District or any op kids that are in our community this is one thing that has not been addressed that I'd like to see because in 1962 all country schools were closed
022that you go in either one of our school districts every one of those that was closed in 1962 is now operating again but we're looking at the loss of students operating both communities you know where they are that's my question is I getting anything from these communities for students that we do not get any state aid for Amish or mate students that do not attend a building uh interesting fact what we do get um common School fund is a it's a state state fund that um funds all public school libraries and the interesting piece to this so those dollars are all all made through the interest earned on government loans um it it a law that was created a long time ago and it's it's really the only funding that funds our our Public School
023libraries uh the interesting fact of that is you know both Greenwood and that's that is based on total membership in your school district so it's not the kids that come to school it's your total membership of of school AED kids in your community both greo and loyo get paid common School fund money for about 1,200 kids that's how outnumbered we are that's that's that has gone up 3 years ago it was 900 in Greenwood yeah we got common School fund for 900 Kids 3 years later we're getting common School fund for 1,200 kids there's a trend so when we got the you get a sheet a form that comes to you got to fill out so on that form there were three Amish schools and one St Anthony's private school right I know we have
024a lot more than that so Mr Green and myself I talked to him and said hey I'm going to go out and just see what we have and then talking to people out there um Township people and things like that uh when we were done roil itself we had seven amage schools and five minight schools for the total of of I want to say 300 to 350 kids in those schools so and our district just bumps up like they go above um um okay there's a little one that goes into the Kobe District but there's a bump that the the school is in our district right and the same thing on the south end where it's Granton it's like this and all of a sudden there's a little bump right this is ours and that's
025where another in school is so that is been a that has been an issue for our decreasing in open I will talk real quickly about private vouchers also also um Greenwood does not have anything for private vouchers private voucher is um we we pay out of fun 10 um um $125,000 to have students go through private schools so whether it's Columbus or or whever so that becomes $125,000 that we are taking out of our fund our budget or our fund 10 and it goes whether districts or other schools that we have to pay um so just understand uh we talk about special ed um that is another key that that has to be zeroed out at the end of the year um I believe ours is $400,000 that we pull from fund 10 to make
026sure that is zero uh I we was 600 last year 600,000 so those are things that yes when they look at the B budget they're looking at increasing that from 33% to 65% Aid great but we need to see it and and that Aid is not enough right now anyone else another question that was on the FAQ page I think is extremely important advantageous to all of our kids was regarding Tech schools U Mr ler talked about group of loyal students coming over to Greenwood and taking a body structures class that class is taught by a Greenwood High School teacher uh and those loyal high school students are getting MTC credit for that uh the ironic thing is and I you say crazy annoying thing is that if I put a Greenwood student in that
027same class they would not get credit through NTC because of where they live um this has been um something that that I've been working on along with a couple other superintendents for a couple years now um not making a whole lot of Headway with it uh because the tech schools can be very territorial um especially cbtc uh so I was able to have a conversation with the president of the tech school board in Wisconsin a week week and a half ago and I talked her her specifically about consolidation and her answer about consolidation was if you have residents that would not change the tax area so those that are paying their taxes toward NTC and those that are paying taxes toward cbtc that would remain the same they would not change those lines because of
028consolidation what it would do is open the door because in a Consolidated District we would have taxpaying members in the NTC Zone and taxpaying members in the CBT Zone Zone that would open doors for students in both or all areas of the district to pursue get opportunities from either tech school it's a plaw system right now and this is actually something that could help that there's a question out there uh will we still need taxpayers to support for an operation referendum dollars in a Consolidated district and the answer is yes it would be an operational referendum um the whole goal would be obviously to be more efficient so that would be less than what both districts ask for individually um we talked anywhere you know we through the be study we can put that possibly
029a million dollars or so that could be saved um so that would be a definite effect um but yes to answer that question we would need to Goot to an operating referendum whether it's the first year second year or whenever we guess that will be there of the other question that um Mr Green asked or said um if we continue to pass operating refs will we will be go B no we'll be fine just understand that that will be Contin to increase because of the loss that renue through declining enrollment um the added onon a question to this was how long could we survive if our operating referendums did not continue to be approved um and a lot of our fund balance you're talking both districts of 2 years possibly three so just so be
030aware of that that's where that will be um Can the boards of Education make a decision to consolidate without public input uh each board has the authority to pass a resolution of a consolidation without a binding ballot referendum um if both courts decide to do that the residents of either district will petition to let let's say down the road this is an advisory vote let's say so you have the direction Bo have the direction of of moving forward um and continuing the process of of looking at consolidation and working towards that um which in talking to our lawyer you said that it would be very beneficial for our board and I think our board Loyals board even said that they would really want public input of where where they're at with that consolidation so the
031advisory vote goes through um I think before they we have a resolution with the boards only there will be definitely input from the communities involved so with that the residents of either District so let's say the board's decided to pass a resolution uh the residents of either District can petition for a referendum question the petition requires signatures so if if you disagree with the resolution um you can petition petition uh and petition requires signatures from 10% of the voting population in the most recent governor election if a petition is filed both districts would be required to add a binding question to the next election both boards have stated several times that they want commun input on this decision there was an informal survey of in 2024 and now a formal nonbinding question on the April
0321st B both districts have to approve the resolution in order for consolidation to move forward there any questions timeline any questions period I know you guys decided on a question but hypothetically if you would have a question stating where the school will be would that possibly move the title [Music] up what's our earliest Co-op date 2029 school year if if we had a location of the schools and a plan for our students could that be moved up or or it moved back is there any way that a different question would determine a different outcome for the starting date of a new P together so what you're saying is if to move the DAT if there's a question on where students are all right for school high school elementary how that's going to be split up
033will that could that push back the the are moving forward um to save to save money probably no because there's a lot of um here's a couple things that I let Mr GRE talk um right now both districts have referendum operating referendums going through the 27 28 year school year uh and this is one of the reasons why we talked about uh 28 29 being the earliest uh because we do have those referendums and I believe what we are working on is being very working together and being collaborative together and sharing whatever we possibly can um to move that up and I let Mr Green because as you can see there's a difference in numbers in in the board and if this continues to move forward um that needs to be a equal amount of
034board members on each because it will become a intrum board and right now it's 7 to5 so there is any you tell me there will be some time that you would need to add to board members C would need to add two board members which would have to happen in the at the 2025 annual meeting so this this September um if if the will people is to pursue consolidation then I would advise the Greenwood board to add two board members so that when we get to consol you know but when we get to a point of a resolution then it will be equal representation in each community on a joint board that's for an a after resolution um moving that I mean there's really two timelines to stick to an 18 month the 18mon consolidation
035statute um the the timelines would dece December of 2020 it has to happen the resolution has to happen in December because that's that 18mon window that you would start the fiscal year out on July 1 so December of 2025 would if if the boards made a resolution December of 20125 and they would start in the 2728 school year which as Mr L said that we would then we would not lose but we would cut off the last year of our operation both operational referendums um which also so because there's no elections in odd years you would not be able to ask the community for a resolution in November of 25 because there's no election in in od years so that's also why going with December of 2026 um that would give both adequate time to
036make sure that there's equal representation in both communities and if the board decides to go resolution go to a binding referendum it could happen at the November 2026 election and then and then the resolution could be adopted and that would be binding is it all is it all possible that you have a made of five each from each School inste of s the only way to do the only way to do that I don't say anything um the only way to do that is if the school dist of loyal reduced to positions because by Statute when you by Statute when you adopt a resolution when both districts adopt a resolution to consolidate that 18mon period is simply a combination of the Two school boards coming together and and they operate together so the only way
037to to do that and I guess I'm not even sure if it is possible because of the I don't know how you who gets to go I don't I don't know how I don't know how you reduce that sure you can do that position they have to theop one then probably next year a two or three process depending on which two board members you're going to so I would assume at the annual meeting the community because at an annual meeting everyone can vote the community would vote on how to reduce positions or how to reduce the board but that makes sense that we would have to allow those whatever was reduced to finish out their term so I'm not sure that that would allow I think the cleaner way is for Greenwood to have two
038position and it's more in a more Tim man never thought of that question uh one other thing that I've stumbled upon I stumble upon it like when we we talked earlier about sparcity Aid and consolidation Aid there's been some questions about you were years ago the state had offered a much larger uh fund I guess for districts considering consolidation and they've taken that away although I will say there is some conversation back in the joint finance committee about this um I think there's conversations being had around the state about consolidation um but we would so in in in a Consolidated School District student um the district would get $150 per student for 5 years and then they would we on that after that um that's not a lot it's not near what they used to
039offer but it's something um on the flip side both districts qualifi for Spar in the and we had thought that we would not we would lose some of that Spar Aid um and I don't know that that's true because when we were talking about losing Spar Aid we were talking about current numbers and current numbers uh in order to qualify for the level of sparity we get right now which is a pretty I don't know off the top of my head um what it is it's 400 400 a student I think we were thinking it was going to go down to 100 it was going to be significantly reduced um but when you look at enrollment and projections when you you take out the current High School numbers and you look at K8 and we
040average 29 and 23 Andes combined 50ish um we would still fall under the 745 or 750 threshold for the same level of sparcity Aid so I'm not sure that we would lose any funding as far as sparcity Aid goes uh which would be a good thing for Consolidated District question here what are some potential concerns of of consolidation uh there have been some concerns of consolidation shared with both boards we will continue for facts ring these concerns we'll continue add to this list as they are shared um unfortunately we may not have all the answers we'll continue to add factual information to this document uh so a couple things that we talked about Transportation uh where your schools you can be a uh one District that is mileage that that will add your add to
041your transportation um and depending on where schools are uh the moment of time students are on the bus uh location of schools um colors mascots name of the district uh a number of things that have been asked have been talked about um but right now like we've talked earlier and we've talked for the last whatever um those are things that I believe can get figured out um we are just asking for your advisory to we continue moving forward and and looking at this and continuing that process just a couple couple things to add um one is Mr Green mentioned about sports um it's more like uh 340,000 I believe with our transportation cost includ just a royal I understanding is when we combined football this past year it was a savings to both districts because
042of of sharing their cost so um that's just one example um one of the things that you know may have come up or may be thinking is you know are we looking at discussion with other districts and we although we haven't looked at um you know including other districts right now in the collaboration we have reached out to other districts and and if they're interested in collaborating and and working with us we're certainly willing to do that you know what does that look like going forward we're not sure we don't have the answers on how that will all come to be if if they want to be included whether it was a you know consolidation or just uh sharing resources but that we certainly are interested in that and we have't reached out um you
043know I personally talked to one of the superintendents of a neighboring District at a at a meeting that I attend attended in February and that person said that they are um now on the same timeline um school calendar is what we have so it it appears that they're interested in wanting to to work with us um so we don't know what that's going to look like but you know I'm I'm interested in what the Strategic plan is going to look like that's going to be presented I believe in April or or May at the latest um you know the people who spent time looking at that for the loyal area and personally I would like to to somehow um encourage continue to encourage you know how can we keep kids who graduate from from our
044school and and and even thinking green with schools how can we keep them um employed in this area if there are job openings I think we need to work more closely with business to be able to see what their needs are um a year ago I attended a session at and I shared this already at the previous meeting but I'll share it again I attend a session where four school districts over in Northeast Wisconsin work together and they they each have a specialized agriculture program students can attend the program they desire they have a nursing program that c that's off time to get certified in the nursing field they have a diesel mechanics program that was dropped by Northeast Technical College and now is is housed in one of the schools and students can get
045a degree or work towards certification and diesel mechanics and they also have a volunteer fireman program so that they can help K that each Community relies on volunteer farm so help provide training for those people you know I look at our area and I look at some of the businesses whether it's Trucking whether it's welding whether it's um pluming whether it's construction um whether it's working in Factory of you know dairy products you know how can we help keep kids in those programs what I'm saying is if there's ways that we can provide by having people the kids in the programs there's ways that we can encourage them to get U certified or cut off the time that they would need to get certified and and they can stay in our area that's a win
046um because they they want a lot of kids want to be in this area but you know the jobs are available and look at Future teachers you know we're and and and certainly if we look at combined um you know it's been mentioned that we would look at attrition as much as possible so if if we're looking at this over the next 3 4 years to think of the number of teachers that could be retiring or leaving you know if they chose to leave after a number of years for a different opportunity the first thing we would look at is is can we share resources so that we can save save some money there and so provide the education those kids well what can we do future beyond that we could help kids that want
047to be teachers get some experience um I don't know what that looks like but that's just a possibility so it's just I just throwing out some ideas here and I'm looking forward to seeing what the strategic planning committee is coming forward with with their ideas um certainly this as was mentioned already is a financial issue and it's communities we want to provide the best education we can with the the resources we have but it's a matter of you know how do we how do we uh operate efficiently without having to ask more money from the uh Community if you think of the example that Mr Lindner Shar we're down 45 students 2 or 3 years from now at $11,000 a person that's a half million do are we you know how can we reduce expenses
048if we're not going to ask for additional monies from for operating referendum um Staffing is 70 to 75% of our budget with our benefits I don't want to start having cut staff that would be a tough decision so that's that's my thoughts on it um as management um looking at these numbers K 4K through 8 um greenw if you got 18 kids well you got 29 you probably got three teachers if you had a combined School you probably down two you know I was talking to teachers from different districts 29 is probably is too many for one now we did a share you do from the management side is financially a lot smarter you have a lot more options to do get the kids in the same grade and the same the other thing is
049over my years of experience collaboration is great but it's to the point now that collaboration is getting overwhelming and consolidation is the next step um I guess what I'm looking for from tonight we haven't had a whole lot of questions I want to know what your concerns are you know what what is your your biggest fear so that we can address those concerns that's kind of the purpose of this we can sit up here all night and and go through the frequently asked questions but I guess that's why we're having a public meeting and we're we're ready to try to answer your questions and give you our thoughts uh but I would like a little more public input of can you know what are your fears what are you what are your worries about this
050and you know I mean tell us we have to we have to know what what the fears are so that we can address them Grace gin loyal I guess my concern is what about all the people that will leave because we can follow day like people having closer to Granton to Millville to Owen to Spencer are you really taking those numbers to account with pursuing this a fair question um absolutely fair question I think the uh the opposite can be said too um you know what do we what do we stand the game um I try to be more of an optimist in in any of these like what do you know by by pooling our resources and and building something bigger and stronger you know we know that there's districts um not so far
051away but also struggle what do we stand to gain if if we're able to put a more Dynamic opportunity in front of our kids um some of those kids that live on The Fringe do we have just as likely a chance to attract as we do to see people go the other way I mean you know as as a parent um and I've said this before I live was far away from our school district you know in our school district I live as far away as as you can in our district like 12 miles to the to the West on God's country right it it I'm going to send my kid to the place that's going to give them my kids if this if this happens it'll just be one um I'm going to send
052him to the place that's going to give him the best opportunity to be successful down the road and and I think that that's if we keep our eye on the prize the prize is is trying to figure out how to put together a more Dynamic opport you more Dynamic just more robust opportunities for all of our kids and and I would hope that parents make decisions in similar fashion to send their kids where their where the kids are going to have the most opportunities to build a better future and prepare them for their Futures a little bit better and if that means 6 more miles I that's get milk so I mean I I just I don't I don't see Transportation myself as a barrier I see what are the opportunities we can build by
053a sharing resources and making it stronger I want to build to share the resources a board um we passed another thing on breing if we had more kids that my question was we're not going to be any more teachers and they like well if you don't have enough kids enroll in this class whichever kids enroll the most you would be Consolidated you could probably have both classes just to go off Mr Green also talked about um you're right do we stand a chance of losing uh students to other districts yeah but exactly what he said there's other districts especially in Park County Clark County that are are having issues too right with enrollment and things like that um would that be a bigger better thing down the road possibly um going to a couple uh
054different superintendent conferences uh Mr Green and I have heard from a number of them saying the state the superintendents in the state are watching what we're doing what these two districts are doing right now because they want to know cuz we are kind of looking outside of the box and not just throwing kids in in a building or or in certain areas they are looking at what happens between Lo and Greenwood um they already understand that we share a lot and we're doing a lot of things together they're interested to see where does this go and what direction would the students do go uh because I do believe there's more districts in Wisconsin that are looking at this um and that that was another question why aren't more districts doing this all right um and
055we've talked last week and we've talked throughout uh our districts as Mr Green said last week we listen to be no debt Mill rates are very similar proximity Is is right there um and there's people that you know don't agree with I understand but there something like I said at the beginning of the session here something something is going to be if you w vote vote no you are going to have a dilemma of something down the road all righty enrollment is going to be an issue if you vote for it you still have a because you are you got to wait to see when where where the boys want to have the buildings where the kids are going so there there needs to be a future for both districts be Vicky peer loyal um
056of the big pushes it seems like that a lot that we've heard is opportunities that that a consolidating district can provide um first of all huge compliment to our district for what we already provide I think that our kids have Vol this opportunities if they want to reach out and do it thanks to our our educational staff and our [Music] board but how much more of the W as far as opportunities like how many kids are I don't know stats I'm actually curious how many kids are taking EP classes and still not able to use those credits for college maybe they didn't pass it I don't know the technicalities for it but um I don't know how many opportunities do we have to offer off the top your head what are three new opportunities that
057Consolidated District What could offer our kids that they don't already have on the table and all to choose from thank you a time women wrestling girls wrestling it's offered now State we have enough girls that would want to try wrestling we would we would potentially have four gyms that we could off we could coordinate um coordinate uh practice times and so forth uh forensics I don't think either of us are offering are you offering you are okay if you're offering forensics I don't believe we are so good staff willing to do it just have oh okay okay I correct myself we didn't have to have the people want to do it so that's those are just two that I thought initially just a couple programs I don't know as far as education wise if there's
058other classes that we could be offering that are available and then I guess I don't know what they answer the question the on just but uh Joe said earlier the Texs have avability two Texs and get the credits rather than one this is something I'd love to dig in more if if this is the direction we're going but I can say you know when you have two districts that are offering um trigger Kel and you have four five kids in each you know five six whatever it is um both distri offer those classes but once you say okay now I have one class of 12 or one class of 15 now I just freed up a teacher to teach something new that's just a math you know that's just a math may maybe it's a
059a tech school dual credit class that they didn't have time in their schedule before um in language arts maybe it's a little communication that they're able to do do do we do they have opportunities to do some of those they do they have some opportunities through sweeten that Network and things like that also cost money um if we're able to take a look at our own staff who are very highly skilled and and combine some of those Ser services and combine some of those classes so that frees them up to teach other classes um also could be cost savings for districts one thing that I think we don't really think about as an opportunity but I absolutely think is is the opportunity to make friends with other kids not that they don't already interact in
060some cases in sports but the smaller our classes get some of them are really gender heavy one way or the other so your options for who your friends are is really small so if you for whatever reason don't find your person it gives you more opportunities to find a friend that you know you can connect with which is a huge part of Education any other questions we're dividing all right crystal reath um from Royal I just wanted Dennis you said you wanted to hear our fears and um I don't expect an answer for this because I don't know that there is but this is something that is Weighing on my heart so um first of all I'm not you know for consolidation against consolidation I don't know I don't know and you know the more
061you talk to people you're like how do you feel like some of my really close friends are like yeah absolutely and other really close friends and family are like no way and it's you kind of are torn between but a fear that I have is that I hear I hear like oh we want to send our kids to the best school and the best opportunity I think there's a lot of folks who already feel that way and I am one of them I feel like my kids are already are already in the best place for them I I chose loyal I moved here from a different area 15 years ago we looked at houses in Granton Greenwood loyal Spencer Stratford Stanley we picked a house here we picked the school here and this is where
062our family is and where our kids go to school and and my kids I have babies toddlers elementary high schoolers they're thriving my kids are thriving here so a fear that I have is what happens if we consolidate and it isn't what we had hoped for and again I don't know there's no answer for that there's no there's no like oh that's easy there's a stat or a a percentage or number whatever that is my fear is that I already feel like we chose this District and this is where our heart is this is where my kids are thriving and we love it here so it's really hard to think about what it would be like if it was anything but what we have and again I'm not saying I'm I'm against it I'm not
063saying that I'm not willing to look at what what the future holds or that I don't hear any concerns that anybody has because I do but that is my fear is that what happens if we consolidate and it's not what we hope and then I see my littles not thriving like my my bigs didn't that's so I guess how I would answer that is um if you think we get a good education in Lo do you think the parents in Greenwood think that their kids are getting the great education I would probably say yes so why not together that we would all of a sudden go from a good education a good education to a bad education I don't see that as a possibility is I guess how I would say that I think we
064both give good educations and I think we can do better and I always think we can do better no matter what we do you should always be striving for that next step what is the next step and I think that we keep a positive attitude about all this and we work toward a common goal and everybody's pushing the cart and saying we're going toward a a perfect thing it's it's kind of hard to fail if everybody's pushing we know we're going to have to change things nothing is going to work out perfectly the first time we do it yes we're going to have to maneuver left and right we're going to have to but that's what you strive for and I think both boards and both school districts are willing to try and I think
065that's all we can do yeah we talk interrup I was educated in the Green School District I grew up East ow or west Owen Avenue and we attended church in La my kids attended school here both of these schools I I pretty much can say our family I family in both of these districts and this is a financial issue and we have a lack of kids that are coming to these schools and I think that we can understand that both of these districts have done a good job over the years but we're in a predicament right now that we don't have any main business we don't have a grocery store in either one of these towns we've lost a lot over the years but this is an opportunity we have to gain everybody El it's
066not just not just we need to look at this as as a community for both can you grab hey Chris myad can you grab we have some viewers out there that couldn't hear you did you just repeat real quickly give us we no I'm just saying I graduated from GR in high school back in the 70s we had 90 kids in our class that's when the schools combined it was a different time but right now I have family members in both of these districts I went to Greenwood a family that's went to Greenwood married kids to Loy my kids went to Loyal here and both of these communities have done a great job over the years but right now we have a financial issue and we have a lack of number of kids I stated
067is nothing against the menate yish communities but we are lacking numbers of kids what are we going to have 10 years from now how many I know my children l so but both of these school districts have done but they're both great communities that's why I move back thank you I just want to back to Crystal's concern there a little bit and I guess kind of what and this is this is me speaking here but kind of what's Driven me in this whole conversation is some of those fears of you know what what could possibly happen if one of the communities doesn't pass a cons or a um a referendum um we've had neighboring schools in those situations um those are those are scary conversations CU then we're talking staff and losing opportunities and I'd
068much rather control my future build a stronger school together um um and give us opportunities the other thing that concerns me is you know when I started on the school board a decade plus ago we had for openings for a teacher we had multiple multiple applicants dozens that's not the case anymore so I'd rather be a larger District um that has maybe a little bit more opportunities than in a small District so I guess those are just some of the the concerns that I have that's kind of driving some of the thoughts here also so I I I get it it's it's scary scary unknown fck get here my question is about the question does it make any difference whether other districts would like to work with us on consolidating does that if it's a
069yes does it mean we can't work with this CU it's only help oil Greenwood things like that no even in even in a Consolidated District we could still work with whoever we choose to work with one of the questions on the FAQ page was about you know would would the tax burden be less if we included more districts in the consolidation talk right um and that's that's unknown it doesn't mean that somebody couldn't join us later um but the unknown piece is again when you when you think about oil and Greenwood um again the proximity it's the zero debt um you know some districts that have debt nobody wants to pay somebody else's debt right so so you have to look at look at some of those things those have those have an impact on
070mill rate and then and then mill rate itself when Mill rates are are not as equal as loyal and Greenwoods are um that creates fluctuation when two districts or three districts come together that that debt and that tax burden gets spread out so then then you have winners and losers um so it's not it's that's that's why again that's why when you go back to some of the Beed work um oil and Greenwood are kind of a good fit because of those things adding more districts could complicate it um not to mention trying to figure some things out with two districts is challenging enough well I mean I forceed like yes it is challenging but the future is got to be more than cretive oil I mean I don't think anyone would argue that it's
071probably going to end up being a county school someday I mean you know what I mean so I just don't want to make this question to burden you know is only talks between the two districts you know how do you how do you add another question like to work with you know another District you know they got to put that on the ballot you know and it's going to just keep delaying time down the road you know so and then just to add on to this you know the government just shut down the Department of Education at the government I mean at the top level so I all back on the states what's going to change are we going to see maybe more funny maybe we need to have some representative from our district to
072reach out and see what's going to what what are we going to have available to us you know for our districts with that being shut down yeah I think that's that's not known that's what we're all nervous about that's what all 411 districts in the state and every other state are worried about is is that funding going to go um they've distributed it to a couple different departments um but whether or not they're going to continue funding U we've gotten zero indication they're giving us more money um zero indication of that which is unfortunate because most districts are transferring money to cover special ed cost so the federal money is pretty specifically special education Ida funding um which if you watch any the news whatever um education whatever she is director for didn't even know
073what Ida is so um which is individuals with disabilities Education Act so Federal funding pretty much covers special ed and and funding um we're not going to see more of that I there's been no indication of that there has been some concern that some of it could be less which would create honorship on districts Across the Nation um but again you're right Bucky I think just in a Consolidated District or if we're on our own we we need to work together with all of our neighbors and and open our doors we we talked about that two years ago like opening our doors to to each other and and if somebody has something that the other could benefit from or use it's there and and I don't see why that would be any difference whether we're
074loyal and Greenwood or loyal GRE Consolidated but we still I still think our district would open the doors to neighbors to share that has been talked about and and in the process we continue to share work together not just us to but other districts in the in the county how can we work together how can we share um some type of services so um that would be something on the road that we can definitely look at but it will be a continuous working together on certain services that are are open okay and a little bigger picture of things um even if we Consolidated districts we are still not even the average school size in the state and and again I didn't clarify but yes we as Mr Green Mr Lind said that we are interested
075in having other schools involved in in uh seeing how we can work with them I don't know how that would look if they chose consolidation with us I guess that would be a question we have to look at later but it or is is it something like where they would be sending students for classes um or other programs or would it be whole grade sharing which is now available in Wisconsin which wasn't available 10 years ago and we looked at it so a lot of things that could be discussed and you know certainly are willing to include other other schools and I think that is something that has I think the You' mentioned at the meeting before Mr Green that that uh 20% of the schools in the state have 80% % of the students
076oros oppos 80% 80% % small are small r% but they only have 20% of the population so so we're one of one of those small rural schools both are and that's where you know working together on various ways along with our neighbors is is what we see is is how we can can help provide education to our students back to crystals um one of my fears is with not having enough kids and going be given the opportunities we have are giving at this time up you're seeing with your kids in the older grades you know the other thing I did do was I did talk to Karen her um yeah there is going to be more funding you know the state is not in part of that um I confronted her about funding for consolidation
077because it was kind of negative because of the sparity a in that she said she was going to look into it we went through Co with all this internet classes and stuff why are there no internet classes anymore we I graduated in '98 we had several TV classes what's what's the deal with that we do have some English has been a big part and it all depends on what what the students want to take um but English is been a big one uh sports management in the past has been has been another one um so can't do any more you can't have y y we can there's there's a listing out there for a sweeten Network that and it's open to the kids it's what what do they want to take so so it it
078is being used um maybe to the extent maybe years ago it was we probably had three or four different rooms where we had maybe three or four kids in it for students and then one English class College English class like that so it's probably a little less in the last handful of years so but it's offered it's available and we just renewed our sweet Network both both districts for another year to offer that how much 15 15,000 be another savings if you did a Consolidated 15,000 so anyone else okay so I'll be closing it here um we we've Tau a lot and it's been for what 2 years yeah 60 60 some years um so I'm just going to tell you you know this could stay status quo for a year or two 28 29
079as how we are operating to figure out exactly what what is the best Direction and you're still saving money um so there's a lot of scenarios out there that that can be taken a look at um just also going to say you know close it here just get up and Goot all right please vote and and we will see um but I think there was a lot of dis great comments discussion questions tonight so okay with that please drive safely if you ever have questions in the next 9 days 8 Days uh Mr Green and myself available phone call come to school sit down visit all right with that thank you safe travels have a great night uh both boards need to adjourn motion I I [Music] s well anyway sorry [Music]