Clearwater: No Activities Co-Op If 'Not Chosen For Education'

While Clearwater's Advisory Board is continuing to negotiate with Orchard on site locations, the board has made it clear that an activity co-op is only possible if the two districts educate together.

At Wednesday's special meeting, board members amended their proposal to Orchard that was created to determine site locations. Board members also took 15 minutes for public participation to hear from stakeholders and answer questions. 

Board members Amy Thiele, Tom Thiele, Regina Krebs and Duane Kester then spent about 15 minutes discussing their amended proposal and what it would entail. Board members made it clear they hope to reach an agreement, but they did state that should that not be possible, the activities co-op would end. 

“If it does come to a split, and we go back to our own PK-12, that we will not have an activities co-op,” president Amy Thiele said. “We feel like if we are not chosen to be together for education, that should be first and foremost, and so we won’t allow to be chosen for activities if we’re not chosen for education.”

Clearwater's proposal on Wednesday was the third version of a formula presented to determine site location. Clearwater proposed a formula on March 7 that utilized enrollment. Orchard's advisory board then countered a week later with similar, though not identical, language but which also included land valuation as being the overall deciding factory.  

Clearwater board members said they waited to amend its proposal until after the Unified District board meeting. 

At Wednesday's meeting, Thiele said she had spoken to all of her advisory board and came up with an amended version. The board then discussed the amendment in public session and together made several adjustments before finalizing their new proposal and giving it to Orchard.The proposal is on the Joint Advisory Board agenda for Monday, April 4, for discussion or possible action to approve. 

In this amended version, Clearwater proposes utilizing student enrollment for site location determination and land valuation as a tiebreaker. It also changes the date used for enrollment to the end of the first quarter, which would be similar to that of the Nebraska Schools Activities Association and land value certification. 

"When you add valuations in, that to me completely restructures reorganization, and we're not willing to restructure reorganization. We're only looking to address the problems with the significant change over a specific period of time," Thiele said.

With the amended version, option students would be counted as students in the district they are opted into. But home school students would not be counted "since they are neither part of the original district’s boundaries or have not been enrolled and attending the reorganized educational system."

The board spent several minutes explaining to the stakeholders land valuations and comparing unification, reorganizing and consolidation. Thiele said the issue between the two districts is ambiguity.

"This is what we all came up with that we feel is the best for students, is the best for reorganization, is the best to keep this thing going and just to stick with the decisions that were made and just improve the decisions that were made and to clarify that wording," Thiele said.

Clearwater Advisory Board Amended Counter Proposal
In order to address the ambiguity of the “significant change over an extended period of time”, we propose the following to be made into the inter-local agreement that was voted on unanimously in Nov 2015:
The Clearwater-Orchard High School location will be based on percentage of students that are enrolled from each of the original districts over a three-year period.
An original district will need to pass 2 out of 3 of the following groups of students: 8-11, 7-10, 6-9.  If an original district has 50.1% or greater (based on the formula below) of the student population in two of the three groups names above, then the high school (9-12) will be located in that original district’s site building for a period of 3 years.  At the end of the 1st quarter of the last year of stated years above, the percentage of student population in grades 8-11, 7-10, and 6-9 would be recalculated.  If the current site still retains 50.1% or greater of the reorganized district in two of the three groups, it will stay there for the next 3-year cycle.  Once again, in the 3rd year of that second cycle, the student population will again be determined by original district and based on the 50.1% in two of the three groups.
If the percentage of students falls between 50% and 50.1%, then the high school would stay in the current location for a period of 1 year until the next January.  At which time the percentage would be recalculated and a determination as to the high school site location for 3 years can be reached.

Certified Valuation will be used as a determining factor if and only when a tie breaker is needed for one of the three groups.  At that point, the district with the higher certified land valuation will determine the outcome of the tied grouping of students.  Example: If Clearwater passes one grouping of students, Orchard passes one grouping of students, and the third grouping of students ends in a tie at 50% each, then the district with the higher certified land valuation will break that tie and determine the third grouping.

FORMULA FOR DETERMINING STUDENT POPULATION
At the end of the 1st Quarter in October the number of students from each original district in grades 8-11, 7-10, and 6-9 would be counted.  These students must be currently enrolled in the reorganized district and have been enrolled in the reorganized district during the entire 1st quarter of the current school year. Option In students will be counted as students in the district they are opted into. (Home school students shall not be counted since they are neither part of the original district’s boundaries or have not been enrolled and attending the reorganized educational system).
You then divide the total number of students in grades 8-11 into the number of students from each original district in grades 8-11 to come up with each original district’s percentage for that group. And the same would be said for each of the other two groups.