Eddyville-Blakesburg schools discuss consolidation
Rod Shafer speaks about school district names at Thursday's meeting.
The Eddyville-Blakesburg school district reorganization committee held it’s first public meeting last night at the Eddyville Elementary Attendance Center. The meeting started off with opening statements from the reorganization committee. A committee member started off by explaining the reasons for consolidation with Fremont. Eddyville-Blakesburg and Fremont currently share classes. They also hold two joint school board meetings each year. The declining enrollment and failed bills from the state legislature relating to school consolidation have also been causes for concern that have lead to talks between the two schools.
Next, the process for consolidation was explained. Each school is required to have a reorganization committee. Both committees will hold joint meetings and together they will discuss some of the essential information of the “new” school (Name, motto, mascot,colors, number of members on new school board, and whether they are elected at-large or from sub-districts). All of this information will then be put onto a resolution and delivered to the AEA Office in Ottumwa. In the September School Board Elections, voters from both districts will vote on the consolidation issue. If both districts pass the issue, the schools will consolidate on July 1st 2012. If the issue fails, the schools must wait 6 months before they talk about consolidation again.
The reorganization committee then opened up the meeting for comments from the public. Community member Rod Shafer expressed concern over what the name of the new schoo0l will be. Shafer cited other confusing school district names(Ar-We-Va Schools, OABCIG Schools) as the result of consolidation. Shafer said that if the school wants to name the school for every town in the district, they might as well name it B-M-C-E-K-C-F schools. Shafer proposed that the school district name its district Eddyville Community Schools because of the fact that the majority of the district’s facilities are in Eddyville.
Eddyville School Board Director Ed Glenn also spoke on the issue. “I think it is the survival of these two districts (Eddyville-Blakesburg and Fremont)” said Glenn. Glenn also spoke on the need to better inform the school district about the meetings so that the district can get an accurate understanding of how the voters feel about this issue.
School Board Director Ed Glenn speaks at the meeting.
Superintendent Dean Cook cited enrollment numbers and failed statehouse legislation as a necessity for consolidation. The failed legislation that Cook mentioned was legislation from Senator Matt McCoy that would allow any school with less than 750 students to consolidate together. Cook said that after consolidation, the district will have 850 students within the school district. The district will also have around an additional 100 open enrolled students for total enrollment of 850 to 950 students.
Before adjourning, the board encouraged any members of the public to attend these meetings. The board stressed that the input of the public is needed on this matter. The next meeting will be a joint meeting between the Fremont and Eddyville-Blakesburg Reorganization committees on Monday March 14th at 6:00 pm in the Eddyville-Blakesburg District office. The District Office is located at 222 Walnut Street in Eddyville.
