Merger Update: Accusations, Refusal To Attend Meetings

An update on potential merger talks led to accusations between Neligh-Oakdale Board of Education members on Monday night.

The monthly board meeting included an update from the School Futures Subcommittee about a merger with Clearwater and Ewing, but it quickly escalated to Board Vice President Ryan Koinzan publicly refusing to attend future meetings.

“It’s like we’ve tried to put the cart in front of the horse,” Koinzan said. “I’m not against consolidation, but I have a responsibility to make informed decisions and I ain’t even close to making an informed decision.”

Koinzan said it was his understanding that the subcommittee was over and would no longer hold meetings. Koinzan said he did not know about the last meeting (March 5) until a Ewing board member mentioned it a few days before it happened.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” Koinzan said. “…. I have no desire to serve on this subcommittee. It’s turned into something that -- I don’t want to be associated with it. I don’t. I’ll no longer attend these meetings with the subcommittee. I’m done with it.”

Board President David Wright described the subcommittee meeting as “two hours of rehashing the same thing over and over again.” But Board Secretary Ron Gilg said he walked away from the meeting thinking each district was supposed to discuss possible sites to be considered for constructing a new school.

“I think that’s good to talk about. That’s been a burr in my side since this began,” Koinzan said. “I think location is a big deal to everybody and the communities. I wanted to discuss curriculum before we ever talked about location, but that hasn’t happened.”

Koinzan called site location discussion “a move in the right direction to get some things out on the table.” He added, “It’s unfortunate it’s taken this long. All of us have put this much time into (it) to start talking about this today.”

Wright was uncertain if curriculum would be discussed and asked Superintendent Scott Gregory for more information on potentially discussing curriculum. Gregory said the superintendents from each district are planning a trip to Wayne to look at curriculum before the next subcommittee meeting on April 11.

Gilg said a rubric is being developed that potentially could be used to help decide the best site location for a school, but Wright said he wants the site selection to occur until after a bond passes.

“So you would rather pass a bond without knowing the location of where the school will be at?” Koinzan asked.

Wright said that he made the suggestion because he felt selecting a site would hinder negotiations.

Board member Cory Furstenau disagreed and said, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about passing a bond if the voters don’t know where the school’s going to be.”

Koinzan then explain how the Husker Ag ethanol plant was constructed and the determination of location occurred. Wright asked him, “Your guy used some kind of rubex to decide what would be a good spot for this ethanol plant?”

Before a potential rubric could be discussed again, Wright said the subcommittee meeting was called to clarify the request for proposal for the architect and owner’s representative.

Koinzan again stated he would not serve on the committee. Furstenau then said he was concerned that “the committee is making some decisions possibly that should be back to the boards.”

While Wright and Furstenau sat side by side, they engaged in a disagreement for several minutes but did not look at each other. They disagreed on what occurred at the subcommittee meeting and who could authorize changes.

When Wright attempted to move onto the next item on the agenda, Furstenau circled back to Gilg’s comment earlier and suggested Neligh-Oakdale’s board begin talking about site location. Board member Kenny Reinke, who had been silent on the agenda item until this point, and Koinzan both agreed “to brainstorm what people’s ideas are.”

Wright agreed to put it on the April agenda. Furstenau suggested letting the other districts know it was being discussed and inviting them to the conversation, but Wright said “the other districts can deal with what the other districts feel is the right way to go.”

Wright then accused a Neligh-Oakdale board member of calling Ewing and saying an emergency board meeting was going on. Furstenau asked who the board member was, but Wright said he would “keep that one to myself.”

Koinzan then interrupted him and said, “I’ll let the patrons and voters of this school district decide if somebody is out of line or not. Not somebody from Ewing.”

In a rare time the two board members looked at one other, Furstenau again pressed for the name of the Neligh-Oakdale board member. Wright again refused.

​“Sounds like we should get our board under wraps,” Furstenau said with a laugh.

Watch the meeting in its entirety below.