Boards Vote To Consolidate Schools; Positivity Is Promised

Terri Hergert’s voice quivered and the tears fell when she spoke Monday night.

Earlier in the night the longtime Orchard school board member voted against consolidating Orchard, Ewing and Clearwater, but before adjourning, Hergert’s words were met with applause  — from both the crowd and board members from the other schools — when she picked up the microphone and said she would work positively on the merger.

“Over 20 years ago on the Unified (Board) I had to vote to close the Royal school. Never ever did I think I’d be in a position to close the Orchard school,” Hergert said. “However, now that the motion has been made and passed, I will work on this project positively and do everything I can.”

​After decades of merger talks between the three schools — and plenty of tension in recent years — the three boards met Monday in the Ewing gym and approved consolidation, contingent upon the passage of a bond issue to build a new school.

Many details remain unknown from the timeline on a vote to the location of the school, but there are two certainties — the stakeholders of the three districts will make the final decision on consolidation, not the boards, and the three schools will co-op most activities beginning in the fall.

There were three key items on the agenda, all of which passed, but only the final one was unanimous by those board members in attendance. Clearwater board member Regina Krebs was absent.

Decided on Monday were the following:
• create a co-op for volleyball, basketball, wrestling, golf and track for the 2019-20 season. Not included were speech, play production, music or football. Football is currently in the middle of a two-year cycle and cannot be changed.    
• consolidate the schools, contingent upon the passage of bond votes in all three communities, beginning June 4, 2020. The unification between Orchard, Clearwater and Verdigre will end June 1, 2020.
• approve KSB Law Firm to proceed with a request for proposal for an architect and construction management at-risk company, along with directing the three schools’ administration to begin selecting a financial agent.

​The vote to consolidate was a unanimous 6-0 for Ewing and 5-0 for Clearwater. Orchard, however, passed by a narrow 4-2 margin when Hergert and Terra Williby both voted no.

There was little time wasted in the meeting before Robert Johnston of Clearwater asked for the survey results from last Wednesday’s community meeting when stakeholders were asked to share if they were in favor of or against consolidation.

Orchard Principal Cathy Cooper said 128 people responded to the informal survey with 85 against pursuing the consolidation and 43 were in favor. Board President Candice Hoke said out of more than 700 voters, less than 17 percent responded to the survey.

Several people, including Ewing resident and Clearwater graduate Mark Walton, said the consolidation should have happened years ago.

“This discussion was had in the ‘70s when I was in high school, and it didn’t go anywhere. It should have,” he said. “Everybody’s afraid to lose their school. I understand that. But if we don’t do something, we’re going to lose more than our school.”
He added, “The problem isn’t the kids. The problem is the people in the stands. I’m not blaming any one person, but we’ve got to figure it out.”

Ewing board member Ed Nordby said consolidation was “on the table in the ’60s, ’70s and ’90s.”

“It’s time to stop being afraid of what could be or what we could be losing, and I think it’s time to move forward and reach out for those good things that can happen if we come together,” Nordby said.

Looking at the financial aspect during last week’s community meeting, Nebraska Unified Superintendent Dale Martin showed the audience that Orchard’s levy would be nearly the same no matter if it consolidated or was alone, ranging from .49 to .52. But Clearwater and Ewing would see dramatic differences in their levies without Orchard. However, if Orchard unified with Verdigre, the levy would increase to .68

Projected general levies (not including the bond for a new school) are as follows:
• Clearwater-Orchard consolidated: .5040
• Orchard-Ewing consolidated: .4938
• Clearwater-Ewing consolidated: .6103
• Clearwater-Ewing-Orchard consolidated: .5102
• Orchard-Verdigre Unified: .6860
• Orchard Alone: .52

A new building could add up to 17 cents on the levy, which would make it .68 for Orchard-Clearwater-Ewing. Both Orchard and Clearwater currently have a levy of .64, so a new school could raise their current levy four cents with 2018 valuations.

Several Orchard patrons talked about the number of students for class sizes and athletic classification. With a three-school merger, the new school would likely be Class C2 but not have more than 40 students per class, which Rachael Cheatum said isn’t as big as some may think. Cheatum attended Page through junior high and Orchard in high school, graduating in 1996.

“Our three schools together are going to be what Orchard was 30 years ago when we were all in school, and none of us thought Orchard was very big. I know you all thought Page was really little, and I had 13 kids in my class,” she said. “I think that might be our biggest class here now. Looking at that way now, I didn’t think Orchard was big, and we had 23 maybe in my graduating class here….We’re talking about having classes of up to 40 kids. That’s going to be what we all went to school with.”

​Athletic directors from the three schools were expected to meet immediately to start working on athletic schedules for the fall season.