Eddyville-Blakesburg and Fremont School Reorganization Committees discuss school consolidation

The Eddyville-Blakesburg and Fremont School District Reorganization Committees met last night to discuss the possibility of school consolidation.

The Eddyville-Blakesburg and Fremont School District Reorganization Committees met last night to discuss the possibility of school consolidation. The committee’s have been meeting on their own to discuss the matters with their own respective districts. The purpose of the joint meeting was to bring ideas to the table and make decisions on some of the important parts of school consolidation.

The first matter that the committee considered was the matter of what the makeup of the new school board would be. In Iowa, school boards are required to have a 5 or 7 member board. The committee decided that the new school board would be composed of 7 members. It was the election of the new school board members that caused the most discussion. In Iowa, there are 5 different ways to elect school board members. Some ways require all of the board members to be voted at-large and others require board members to each be voted on only by voters in a particular sub-district. After some discussion, the joint reorganization committee voted unanimously to have their board members voted on only by the voters in a sub-district.

The committee next had to decided on the name of the new school district. It was noted by some members of the Eddyville-Blakesburg reorganization committee that a member from the public at their last meeting had brought up the name issue and discussed the con’s of having every school be a part of the new district name. It was proposed by one committee member that the new name be Eddyville Community School District. When brought to a vote, the proposed name of Eddyville Community Schools failed on a 3-7 vote. It was then proposed that the new school district name be called Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont School District. “I feel that small cities feel like they are losing their identity and things like that” said the committee secretary. One member noted that Fremont High School had closed its door in 1988 and referenced the fact that the new high school would be called Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont high school. “So are we going to revive Fremont High School?” said the same committee member. After much discussion, the committee voted 8-2 to call the new school district Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Community School District.

All the changes that the committee approved will be put onto a petition which will then be circulated for signatures for the matter to be placed on the ballot. When voters vote on the school consolidation matter in September, these changes will appear on the ballot.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail us at info@oskynews.org or visit us on our Facebook page.