Feasibility Study Presents Options To Unified District, Ewing

By Natalie Bruzon and Carrie Pitzer
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The results of the long awaited feasibility study drew more than 100 people to the Orchard gymnasium Monday night, along with more than 150 individuals watching online.

The Antelope County News streamed the entire meeting, which is still available at www.MyAntelopeCountyNews.com/live-streaming.

The Nebraska Unified District #1 and Ewing Board of Education held a conjoined special meeting to hear the feasibility results together. What they discovered is that building a “cornfield school” for 5-12 has a lower tax rate than they’re currently paying while a new PK-12 school is almost a wash as compared to now.

But the feasibility study also showed a new combined facility would result in staffing cuts, along with transportation issues. On the flip side, it would mean an opportunity for expansion in both core and vocational classes.

The study, which has been ongoing for several months, was completed by Dr. Gerald Ehlers, who spent more than two decades as superintendent at Ainsworth. Since his early retirement, Ehlers said he has conducted 41 feasibility studies with more 100 different schools, including previous feasibility studies involving Ewing, Clearwater and Orchard.

Ehlers began the presentation by outlining each school’s current situation, discussing  demographics, enrollment trends, facilities, transportation needs, curriculum, staffing and finances.

He then presented the boards with three different concepts, which explored different possibilities and options for the schools to consider in moving forward.

“This feasibility study provided three windows,” explained Ehlers in a post-meeting interview. “First window is for Orchard and Clearwater to help them determine where they want their middle school and high school to be. The second scenario obviously is if Ewing is in the mix, how does that play out in terms of now three districts and what that does mean educationally and financially. And the third thing is if you throw the issue of a new facility in where all three communities give up their sites and then proceed with the new facility as a fresh start”

The goal of the feasibility study, according to Ehlers, is for each board to make an informed decision on how to proceed.

“The next step for me would be to advise them between the Ewing system and the Clearwater-Orchard unified system they form some type of joint study committee,” he said. “You’ve got to get at the table to talk about the issues.”

Enrollment & Projections
Ehlers laid a foundation for board members by showing both district’s current enrollment and projections.

In a 10-year enrollment prediction, based on the past 10-year enrollment numbers, Ehlers predicted that both Clearwater and Ewing will see a decrease in resident students. According to Ehlers, Ewing could experience a 23.7 percent decrease in enrollment for grades K-12 and Clearwater could experience a decrease of 25.2 percent.

Using the same method of prediction, Ehlers predicted that Orchard will see a 44.8 percent rise in K-12 resident students.

“One of the things I’d like to point out, you see various numbers from Ewing, Clearwater and Orchard, when you combine them they have a leveling effect,” explained Ehlers during the presentation. “It does that because you’re talking about three districts pooling together for larger numbers. As a result, they can kind of balance things out in terms of your numbers, so you don’t get the drastic swings that you would get when you’re talking about smaller numbers.”

Ehlers also looked at the two districts in terms of full-time equivalent employees (FTE) and how many each currently utilizes. Ehlers said FTEs have the highest effect on budgets and, by combining schools and full-time staff, the budget can see a significant change.

Concept A
After reviewing the current state of each district, Ehlers outlined three concepts with various options.
According to the report, in the first concept would only impact the site locations of Clearwater and Orchard at the 5-12 level.

The first option kept location the same with 5-8 in Orchard and 9-12 in Clearwater. The second option switched the sites with 5-8 in Clearwater and 9-12 in Orchard. A rotation between the two locations was not mentioned in the study.

Separately both communities are predicted to see fluctuating numbers in school-age residents in the 10-year outlook, but Ehlers predicted an overall enrollment increase of 4.4 percent in the next 10 years for the district.

Under Concept A, Ehlers identified what he referred to as “inconveniences” in both sites’ facilities. Examples are Orchard’s multi-level facility and Clearwater’s industrial program building, which is across the street from the main building.

Furthermore, Ehlers identified a total of two students in Clearwater that live further than 10 miles from Clearwater and eight Orchard students who live 10 miles or further from Orchard.  

This concept would not change the tax rate and at the current valuation and budget, it would be $.6255.

Concept B
The next brought Ewing into the district and identified various different options for site locations and the effects unification could have on both schools.

Under Concept B, Ehlers presented six different options, each with various site locations. While all three sites would have grades PK-4, each option showed a different location for the middle school and high school.

Ehlers said all options under Concept B provided “a significant decrease in the general fund tax rate for the Ewing school system and a small decrease for Nebraska Unified #1 school system.”

By unifying, Ewing and Clearwater-Orchard would combine resources and FTEs and therefore cut down on budget expenses.

According to Ehlers, a concern for the options in which Ewing has the middle or high school is Ewing’s limited facilities. He said Ewing would be one to two classrooms short for the middle school and four classrooms short for the high school.

“Ewing has four major classrooms - math, English, science and social studies. They have a distance learning room, which won’t be needed for middle school,” explained Ehlers, “and they have another room beside it that would be some use by probably a Spanish class in the middle school. That leaves them with 5 and a half classrooms.”

Ehlers pointed out some options, such as moving the fifth- and sixth-graders to the elementary school building if the middle school were in Ewing as shown in Options B-1 and B-4, and emphasized that administrators can make it work, but that would be a tight fit for the students.

This concept would change would decrease the tax rate to $.5998 or $.5958. There is a slightly lower rate for not utilizing Ewing facilities for the middle or high school. Ewing’s rate is currently $.6942.

Concept C
The third concept explored the possibility of building a new “cornfield” facility for Ewing and Clearwater-Orchard. This school would house various grade levels, depending on the option considered. By adding Ewing, the assessed valuation of Ewing, Clearwater and Orchard would be $1,123,160,167.

Ehlers discussed potential costs of the schools that would require a bond. An analysis of facility needs and projected costs was prepared with the assistance of Bahr Vermeer Haecker Architects of Lincoln while the tax rate was assisted by Ameritas and calculated at a 20-year bond at 5 percent.

Option C-1 looked at constructing a new facility for grades PK-12, which Ahler’s described as being located in a “central location,” possibly along the Orchard Road. According to the report, this would allow the three communities to combine resources and expand the high school curriculum. It would also result in a “substantial decrease in the general fund tax rate for the Ewing school system and the Nebraska Unified #1 school system.”

The facility was estimated at $38,804,220 at an additional levy rate of 27.72 cents. The athletic complex would be $1,169,550 at an additional levy rate of 8.4 cents.

In Option C-2, the three sites would house their own grades PK-4 while grades 5-12 would be in the new facility. The facility was estimated at $30,637,035 at an additional levy rate of 21.86 cents. The athletic complex would be $1,169,550 at an additional levy rate of 8.4 cents.

One of the major considerations for this concept, according to the feasibility report, would be the bond needed for the new facility.

“In order to finance a new school facility, a bond would need to be approved by the legal voters in the Ewing, Clearwater, and Orchard school districts to provide the necessary funding,” Ehlers said.

Combining the staff could result in a reduction of force, depending on the policies in place. The elementary class size would average 20 students per teacher with the secondary classes averaging 25 students.

This concept would decrease the general tax rate to $.5300 with the new 5-12 facility and $.6188 with the new PK-12 facility. However, there would also be the added building cost, ultimately raising the combined tax levy to $.8994 in Option C-1 and $.7570 in Option C-2 for the duration of the bond. 

Conclusion
Throughout the two-hour meeting, Ehlers meticulously outlined the three concepts and options, explaining the way each option would affect students and the community. In concluding the session, Ehlers acknowledged that when looking at Concept A, it can be hard to find an ideal site location because both Clearwater and Orchard sites are comparable.

“It’s probably the most difficult one to deal with because of the comparability of the two sites,” Ehlers. Said. “ . . . As long as you have the arrangement of the middle school in one site and the high school in the other, someone is going to be inconvenienced.”

Ehlers encouraged the Nebraska Unified District #1 board to continue working on a compromise.

“The strides you’ve made in the past, in the last 10 years should not go unheeded,” said Ehlers. “You’ve made those strides, and I would encourage you to continue to find a way to make the system work. It is working. Is it going to make everybody happy? No, you can’t and you won’t. Some people are going to be more inconvenienced than others. But I encourage you to look at it in the perspective of what’s in the best interest of the kids in the long run and you’ll come up with the right solution.”

As Ehlers mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, the purpose of every decision the school board does should be with students’ best interest in mind.

In the post-meeting interview Ehlers stated his conclusion, which is that before any action with Ewing can take place, Clearwater-Orchard should compromise on site-location.

“I think first and foremost Clearwater and Orchard have to sort this out in terms of what’s in their best interest,” said Ehlers, “and then work Ewing into that dialogue and get them thinking in terms of now, what part of (Concept) B is pertinent to us and what, if any, parts of (Concept) C fit in this dialogue.”

Ehlers will be return, this time meeting in Clearwater, on Monday, Dec. 19, at 6 p.m. to meet with the Unified board and answer questions. The meeting will be open to the public.
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**This story was updated on December 8, 2016 at 2:30 p.m.