Merger Talks Shift To Absorbing Clearwater, Leaving Ewing

Maps of the Neligh-Oakdale, Clearwater and Ewing school districts were handed out Monday during the board meeting.

If a three-school merger goes forward, Neligh-Oakdale board members made it clear Monday night that they prefer a potential school with Clearwater and Ewing no further than 4 1/2 miles from Neligh.

That’s if it’s outside of city limits at all.

Board members also discussed taking Ewing out of the merger mix completely and simply absorbing Clearwater into the Neligh-Oakdale school system as a way to lower the levies of both Neligh-Oakdale and Clearwater. Discussion indicated that absorbing Clearwater would mean adding just one teacher to Neligh-Oakdale’s staff and could eliminate other faculty costs in Clearwater. Support staff was not discussed.

That suggestion came as Neligh-Oakdale board members settled on their four potential site locations for a new school — the Royal Road, near Bomgaars, near the county jail or at the current Neligh-Oakdale school.

Board President David Wright said the four locations were only suggestions because merger talks could end on Wednesday when the three full boards meet at Neligh-Oakdale.

“All we’re looking for is suggestions because the group boards are going to have a discussion. It might all end on the 11th,” Wright said.

Monday’s four-hour meeting had many action times, but it also included a two-hour executive session for board members to discuss Superintendent Scott Gregory’s evaluation and contract renewal.

With a 4-2 vote on his contract, Neligh-Oakdale offered Gregory another two years of employment and a 1.75 percent raise, increasing his salary from $118,000 to $120,059 per year. Gregory did not state whether he would accept the two-year offer to remain at the school.

Board members Ryan Koinzan and Cory Furstenau voted against renewing Gregory’s contract. Furstenau questioned Gregory many times during the public portion of the meeting, repeatedly asking about surveys he said were not provided to the board and for an explanation of why he was no longer advertising an open science position, which Gregory said would be online again in a few days.

Eminent Domain
Gregory provided the audience with a map of the three school districts. Wright said he looked at it about a year ago and found the Royal Road was “about the center of it.”

Wright said he contacted the school attorney, who said having a bond without a site “would be rough” but that the boards could enter into a purchase agreement pending passage of a bond through an interlocal agreement.  
​
Another option, Wright said, would be for the three school districts to take the land they want through eminent domain.

“Mr. Uhing, or however you say it, he had told us that a school district does have the right to eminent domain, which I was not aware of that,” Wright said. “A school district can say, ‘We’re going to take that piece of property.’ ”

Wright said he would like to have three sites in hand when the bond passes. He then suggested building a $40 million school on the Royal Road, along Highway 275. That would be 4 1/2 miles from Neligh, 5 miles from Clearwater and 15 miles from Ewing.

Furstenau asked why the center of the district was important to the discussion. Wright said it was because everyone will have to travel. Koinzan asked why students from Neligh or Oakdale should have to travel.

“If it’s a neutral site, everyone will have to travel to the site,” Wright said.

Furstenau then asked for Neligh-Oakdale’s enrollment, which is 352 (k-12). He then asked for the other enrollment, which indicated Neligh-Oakdale represented about half of the total enrollment of the three schools combined.

Reinke said he didn't want to argue over the locations and said, “I don’t see a point of bottom picking or top picking. Let’s have opinions out there and let’s go.”

Furstenau disagreed, “See, I don’t believe there should be opinions used at all. I think there should be facts and figures used to make this decision,” Furstenau said. “What facts have we used so far? Have we used demographics? Where are all of the students located in our district? How far are our students located from our current school? How far would our students be located from the new school? What are the transportation costs for all of our students to go to the proposed site?”

Reinke said having a neutral site would “keep the emotions out of” the site location decision.

Selecting Neligh
After Reinke said he saw opportunity in having a neutral site, Koinzan asked Reinke point blank, “Kenny, would you like to move the school outside of city limits?”

“If that’s where the site makes sense, Ryan, absolutely,” Reinke said.

Reinke suggested the districts compromise and not “dig their heels in the sand.”

Wright then asked Furstenau and Koinzan what site they would put the new school.

Koinzan said he would like to look at Neligh-Oakdale’s current location being the site for the three schools.

“Ninety-five percent of consolidation uses the current facility in the state of Nebraska,” Koinzan said. “Finally, after kicking this can around for a year, we finally got it on the agenda to talk about a site location. For a while, it was secret. And the last meeting you wanted to pass a bond, then decide where the school will be.”

When asked where he wanted the new school, Furstenau responded, “Sixth and J,” which is the location of Neligh-Oakdale’s current facility.

Furstenau said that is his opinion, and he doesn’t have facts to back it up and said demographic and transportation studies are necessary before moving forward.

Furstenau suggested asking patrons for their opinion on where the site should be located. Board member Ron Gilg said he looked at the current facility and said they would have to add seven elementary classrooms if Neligh-Oakdale housed students from all three schools.

Gilg said his location choice was near Bomgaars and said Neligh is a hub for many amenities from agriculture to the hospital. He said the Royal Road location is his second choice.

“I see a lot of tough things trying to put it in Neligh because we just don’t have the land,” Gilg said.

Wright said if the argument of city sewer and water is used then Clearwater could argue the same and suggest the school be located in Clearwater.

Furstenau disagreed and said, “You also have to get 2,000 people from Neligh to vote to move it to Clearwater.”

Furstenau said he will support whatever will pass, but he won’t push a bond he feels will fail. “We can’t stand another failed bond in this community,” he said.

Koinzan said compromise is great, but “to me moving the school that far out of town, what is Neligh really gaining?”

Reinke replied, “Having a viable school with a tax base able to pay the teachers to keep the curriculum that we currently have.”

Koinzan asked if “borrowing $40 million would lower everyone’s taxes?” Wright responded that Neligh-Oakdale patrons would be responsible for just $20 million. He said Clearwater board member Regina Krebs has run the numbers showing the costs.

“Regina has showed that if we move forward with this, Neligh will save over $1 million a year themselves,” Wright said.
Furstenau snapped back, “And apparently we’re going to lose the school in our town.”

Koinzan added, “I don’t see moving the school out of the city of Neligh for the villages of Ewing and Clearwater, point blank . . . . I don’t have to be ashamed of who I am and compromise down.”

He then suggested another option of building a school near the county jail by Bill Kuester’s land between Highways 14 and 275.

No Ewing? Absorbing Clearwater?
Wright reminded the board that Clearwater and Ewing residents were likely watching the meeting and hearing how they felt about the locations. The Antelope County News livestreamed the meeting, as it has for the last four years, with over 2,000 viewers watching the meeting.

Fursenau said Neligh-Oakdale has an average of 27 students per grade. Gilg said with Clearwater, the average would be 37-40 students and about 50 per grade with Ewing also included.

Gilg said by adding just one school to Neligh-Oakdale, they could remain having two elementary classrooms, but if there were three schools, it would require three classrooms.

Furstenau then asked if Neligh-Oakdale’s facility could absorb Clearwater’s student body at its present facility.

“Do we have the ability right now — I’m trying to be as delicate as I can with this comment. Leaving Ewing to the side right now, do we have the ability to take all of Clearwater’s students, pick them up and place them into our facility and only add one teacher to our current staff?” Furstenau asked.

Furstenau said he would like to have the conversation with Clearwater because it would expand the tax base and lower the levy drastically.

Furstenau started asking about how the Neligh-Oakdale levy would change if Clearwater was absorbed, but Wright interrupted him and asked for a vote on potential sites for a merger with Ewing and Clearwater.

Votes were as follows:
• Location of existing site at Neligh-Oakdale: All board members voted yes.
• Location near Highway 14 & 275 near jail: All voted yes except Reinke.
• Location near Royal Road: All yes except Koinzan and Furstenau.
• Location west of Bomgaars (1 mile out of town): all board members voted yes.

Public Concerns
With more than a dozen people in the audience, Monday marked the first time in years that the district had such a large audience that more chairs had to be brought into the superintendent’s office.

Among the concerns voiced by two members of the public was the science position vacated by Frank Gade, who resigned in February. Gregory said he has received just one application but was still hoping to fill the position.

Another concern was having porta potties for restrooms outside of Neligh-Oakdale’s nearly half million dollar track complex. Gregory said the sewer issue occurred during the football season and had not been fixed yet because local plumbers didn’t have time to repair it. Gregory said he has authorized his custodian staff to seek other plumbers.

Two individuals voiced opinions on a potential merger. One requested the board look at building a school near the Royal Road and the other asked the board to consider not raising taxes by building a new school and to utilize current facilities, should a merger move forward.

A sixth individual requested that everyone start getting along.

New teachers
Four new faculty members were given contracts. The board approved contracts for Caitlyn Kester, Hunter Vanness, Jamie Sehi and Ashleigh Olson for the 2018-19 school year.

Kester and Olson were approved to teach the fifth-grade classes, replacing Jennifer Korus, who taught sixth grade and will be a new title teacher at Neligh-Oakdale, and Collin Crilly, who taught fifth grade and will teach in Madison. Gregory said he received 11 applications for the elementary positions.