MANLY, IOWA-The Rockwell-Swaledale and Sheffield- Chapin Meservey, Thornton school boards are considering reorganizing their two districts. But they arn't the only ones.
Nora Springs/ Rock Falls and North Central Schools in Manly are also considering merging. For the last three years they've been involved in a whole grade sharing contract.
They use the same Superintendent, athletic teams, and have their students attending the same schools, but now they are thinking about taking this a step further and making it permanent.
The idea of reorganization is simple.
Steve Ward Superintendent says, "you'd come under one master contract, one school board, one Superintendent and you become one school district."
There's not a big difference between what Central Springs school is doing now with the whole grade sharing program, and Superintendent Ward describes it like this...
" it's moving from an engagement to a marriage."
In the "engagement" or current sharing phase, each party involved can technically get out of the agreement, but when reorganized or "married," the schools become one entity and cannot break apart.
Ward says, "it's a logical progression, we've seen it, it works well we've provided many new opportunities for students of both school districts, the student bodies have blended very well as the communities have..we both have excellent facilities, it just seemed like the a logical step to take."
Ward says the reason behind that step is so teachers and staff get equal contracts and pay.
Students are able to get more of an expert educator in certain areas, and one board serves the school and financially, Ward says it will help but is not the main reason.
Ward adds, "the across the board cuts they do impact districts, is this a knee jerk reaction to it, I don't think so, I think it's a logical progression. I think that whether your two separate schools and loose that same 10% you'll loose that same percent if you were at one district."
The school boards must file a petition with the area education agency. Then, the AEA goes through various steps including holding community meetings.
The AEA 267 says community feedback is usually positive with just a few concerns regarding change and finances.
Bruce Jensen from the Area Education Agency 267 says, "I think really as schools look at this its not just finances it's about what's best for kids how can we bring together for the best education for kids."
Elections give the public the final say before any reorganizing takes place.
The local AEA 267 says it takes up to six months to process a petition. Nora Springs/ Rockfalls and North Central school districts are planning to discuss reorganizing on Monday.
