What's Next For School Merger Talks?

The three-school merger talks abruptly halted last week but could potentially be back on with different schools in the mix.

After Ewing unanimously voted Wednesday to withdraw from discussions with Neligh-Oakdale, the potential merger between Clearwater, Ewing and Neligh-Oakdale dissolved. But little time was wasted until discussions from Ewing shifted to replacing Neligh-Oakdale with Orchard and whether Orchard would be interested in future talks.

In the last nine months, Orchard has remained relatively silent on merger talks, but two board members — Terra Williby and Terri Hergert — on Monday night said they were open to discussions.

Hergert said in the last few days that she had fielded a call from Ewing stakeholders asking questions and showing interest in merger talks.

“I think we need to keep looking at it, if that includes Verdigre. I want to throw that out there,” Hergert said. “We have to do what we can to keep them in the formula. There has to be some way to make it work.”

Curriculum & Finances
Clearwater members have said they remain open to all discussion. On Monday, Clearwater President Amy Thiele clarified that her district was originally interested in a merger with Ewing and Neligh-Oakdale because of the curriculum benefits it could offer, which she said potentially outweighed the levy increase of building a new facility.

“That was still worth it to Clearwater because we wanted to expand our curriculum. How do we provide more to our students,” Thiele said.

Ewing Board member Pete Funk went through the financial aspect on Wednesday. He said with a merger and construction of a $40 million facility, Neligh-Oakdale would see a nearly 30 percent decrease in its levy, Ewing 9 percent decrease and Clearwater’s levy would actually increase.

“Neligh-Oakdale had a win on curriculum, a win on location and a win financially. Clearwater had a win on curriculum and a win on location and they lost financially. Ewing had a win on curriculum and two losses on location and financially, so that’s why we voted the way we did,” Ewing Board member Tim Larson said during their meeting Thursday.

Thiele asked if the Unified Board was only “in this to save our taxpayers money” or if expanding curriculum was key to them as well. She said to give students more career pathways and hands-on learning, the Unified District will need more staff, which means increasing the budget.

“If you want to make the Unified District appealing, how do we get new towns to come in? How do we get Clearwater to stay? Don’t sit around and wait for Clearwater to make a decision. Let’s be proactive. How do we make the Unified District appealing to people?” she said.

Is Expanding Unification An Option?
The Nebraska Unified District contract between Orchard, Clearwater and Verdigre runs through June 2020. Ewing or other schools could join the unification, but the district could also be disbanded.

Orchard has remained firm on both with wanting to remain unified and retain a relationship with Verdigre while Ewing previously opposed joining the unification. Ewing Board President Mark Ramold said during his board meeting that it’s time for everyone to start fresh with all topics.

“I’ll repeat my collective amnesia comment,” Ramold said. “I made a comment in the past that  all three boards — and potentially all three towns — need to develop collective amnesia and just forget about all of the things that made you mad in the past. We all know what we need to work toward. Let’s put stuff aside and get after it.”

Ramold said building a new school on the Royal Road was a tough sell for Ewing stakeholders. When asked by the public if building near Summerland Road was still in the mix, Ewing Board members said they believed it was possible.

All of the boards said they were open to communications, and the members of the public suggested they have meetings as well to discuss merging Clearwater, Ewing and Orchard. Ewing Principal Greg Appleby said that could make a difference this time around.

“Maybe that would be something different that would make it work,” Appleby said. “If it came from people of the community of all three, I think it would definitely help and be a different way than it’s been tired to be done in the past. … A lot of things get done when the people want it.”

Consolidation Not Absorption
A turning point for merger talks came a week ago Monday when Neligh-Oakdale board members discussed absorbing Clearwater and no longer including Ewing in the mix. Neligh-Oakdale suggested four potential sites for a new school, all of which were no further than 4.5 miles from Neligh. Three of the sites would be within city limits, pending annexation.

“We are always open to keeping doors open. However, I would like to address that we have never once said that we are interested in closing our building down and sending all of our students to Neligh. Some people call it absorption. We are not interested in being absorbed," Thiele said immediately after Ewing withdrew from talks with Neligh-Oakdale. "That’s never been on our radar. We started this project to increase our offerings for our students, flexibility in our staff schedules and there was a bonus on some tax savings on the side of that. We don’t want to be absorbed. And we can keep the doors open but, if that is the road you want to pursue, we just want to say that we are not interested.”

Thiele, who is originally from Neligh, said no board should have more control than any other in making decisions.

“I’d like to address, our doors are open. But, I think there were some concerns that because one school was bigger that the others district, people were worried that they were going to have more say. Or they were going to have more control. Well, we are all on an equal playing field. I remember hearing Ryan (Koinzan) say at one meeting, 'I grew up on 411 K, and I am from Neligh.' Well, I would just like to say, I grew up at 210 D, and I was from Neligh," Thiele said. "And we are all here to educate our kids. It doesn’t matter how big our town is, how many students. We are on an equal playing field because we all have one job sitting up here. And that is to provide the best education for our kids. And nobody is compromising down. Nobody. We are equal.”

What About Neligh-Oakdale?
Ewing’s motion to withdraw from talks only included withdrawing from talks with Neligh-Oakdale. Clearwater said it’s open to continuing talks but clarified that it wouldn’t consider absorption.

If talks of a three-school merger shifts to replace Neligh-Oakdale with Orchard, the question remains — what about Neligh-Oakdale?

After Ewing withdrew from talks, all of Neligh-Oakdale’s board sat mute, except for President David Wright, who pleaded for talks to continue and said the schools needed to merge because the state legislature wasn’t going to cut their property taxes without increasing other taxes to make up the shortfall.
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“The Lone Ranger isn’t on the other side of the hill,” Wright said. “The calvary’s not coming. It didn’t come for Page. It didn’t come for Inman. It didn’t come for Emmet. They’re not coming.”

It’s unclear if any of the future merger talks will include Neligh-Oakdale.