Administrators Urge OC Board To Look At 'The Big Picture'

​Although board members from Clearwater-Orchard had very little to say about their site location dilemma, administrators spend 20 minutes Monday urging them to look at “the big picture.”

Deliberation continues about site location with the counter proposal back in Orchard’s court as both boards met Monday for their joint advisory board meetings in Clearwater.

At the agenda item of the counter-proposal, Superintendent Dale Martin offered information about what he considers key benefits of operating as a unified school district.

“This is probably more for the public even more than board members, but I think everybody needs to have this information as we go through these discussions and be reminded of what we are all talking about,” Martin said.  “I do feel that we gain some things as unified schools and unified district.”

Martin said from a financial standpoint that the school district is saving money through shared administration and staff. He also said that shared resources lead toward a lower levy.

“There is no doubt that if we were three school districts here, we would have a higher levy. When we can pool everything together, we will have a lower levy. Right now, we are around 65 cents for our general fund levy. That’s a fairly low levy in our area,” Martin said. 
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He also emphasized that being able to enhance programming through shared resources and staff has been another strength - pointing to a shared agricultural program and National Honor Society as examples.
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Orchard Principal Cathy Cooper added, “Teacher collaboration is big as well. It is a great opportunity to share ideas.”

Martin continued, stating that a joint school district puts Clearwater-Orchard in a point of strength when it comes to longterm planning. 

“Any time you are talking about a district that is made up of 450 - give or take a few - that is a fairly good sized district in Nebraska.You can plan to be around for a while. . . . You are operating from a point of strength. We can plan for the long term, and I think that helps out. That also goes for the reorganization as well,” Martin said. 

Martin transitioned into reorganization and pointed out the opportunities that come with larger class sizes through academics, activities, athletics and diversity with the school district as points of strength.

“As we have talked and discussed and rediscussed and everything that has gone on, I think again maybe we forget the big picture things of why we do this. I hope why we do this is still about providing a good education for the kids,” Martin said. 

Clearwater Principal Mike Sanne presented very preliminary projected athletic participation numbers for both combined schools and standing alone.

“Those numbers are going to get lower as the years go by. . . .  We started cooperative football a few years ago because we had 11 kids at our site,” Sanne said. 

Sanne mentioned that low numbers was a previous challenge before the cooperative football program, and he  raised the question of what would happen if there were injuries during the season with an 11-man team.  

“There is plenty of talk about separation and not co-oping and not doing this and not doing that,” Sanne said. “We need to take a step back and look at what we have with the programs. We do have good numbers in band, one-act, chorus, speech and all the athletics. Those are all important to be successful. Keep in mind, if we choose to not to stay together, what will we have separate that is better than what we have now?”

Martin said, “This cooperative has been a good thing. It has been able to operate from a position of strength. We have had quality education going on - I have heard no one say otherwise -  and we have quality programs. I think it would be a terrible thing if we did not continue to have those things happen.” 

Martin recommended that the boards step back and look at the big picture and continue the discussion. 
“Keep in mind of what is be for the kids that we have. I think that most of the kids would say keep us together if at all possible. With that, my recommendation is to continue to talk.”

Both board presidents thanked the administrators for the information they provided as they continued discussion.

No action was taken on the site location. Clearwater’s advisory board met last week and presented Orchard with an amended counterproposal. Orchard now has the opportunity to respond to Clearwater to keep the districts negotiating toward an agreement before the May deadline Orchard set for an agreement to be reached.