OC Agrees To Co-op With Ewing Only As Cyclones

As long as the Tigers agree to become Cyclones, Clearwater and Orchard will co-op junior high sports this fall with Ewing.

The Orchard-Clearwater advisory boards officially approved the co-op during Monday night’s board meeting, but that wasn't all that was discussed. The boards also heard from several parents regarding student safety with busing for practices, as well as possibly rehiring Tammy Cheatum at the part-time level.
 
Orchard President Candice Hoke made the motion that, “We co-op junior high sports with the exception of football for the next two years with Ewing, as the Cyclones—green, black and silver. The OCE Cyclones, green, black and silver.”
 
The final step in the process toward a junior high co-op will be approval by the Ewing board, which will meet on Thursday at 8pm. 
 
The practice rotation schedule, although not listed on the agenda as a discussion topic for the night, also came up as various parents and community members took a stand to share their opinions during public participation.
 
Concerns expressed focused on student safety as they travel between Clearwater and Orchard. During site location negotiations, the Orchard board suggested a practice rotation schedule between the communities, which has been met with resistance from many parents. In fact, a petition has been circulating in objection to the possibility.  

Amy Chipps of Clearwater, who has children at both sites, said, "As a parent I am saying no more." Chips said neither community will have the perfect solution and asked for academics to be put ahead of athletics and site location.  

"I do not and will not give Clearwater-Orchard School permission to bus my children to practice. By busing the high school athletes to orchard, and junior high athletes to Clearwater, you are wasting the kids time and taxpayers money. Someone is grasping the straws trying to make a few people happy while making many more upset, "she said. "It’s been said that the two communities need to get along but who came up with the idea that we’re not getting along. The whole mess is ruining friendships and putting a big wedge between the two communities. No solution will ever make both communities happy, but we shouldn’t be worrying about the happiness of our community members and parents."
 
Jay Snider of Clearwater reminded the board of accidents and near accidents that have occurred recently between Clearwater and Orchard.

“We have short term memory, but there have been some wrecks, some very close wrecks, that people have already forgotten about," he said. 
 
Becky Moser of Orchard emphasized that road safety is a true concern by asking, “What about Orchard kids’ safety?”
 
Conversations about practice rotation are expected to continue in the coming months. 
 
Also on the agenda for the night was the vacant positions for a boys basketball coach, part time Orchard-Clearwater bus driver and part-time para-educator for Clearwater. Despite advertising on various sites and broadening the search to include Norfolk and O’Neill, Clearwater Principal Mike Sanne informed that the board, only inquiries - but no applications - have been received.
 
Sanne said that they will expand the search even further, giving certain people permission to post the opening on Facebook and seeking further advertising through local media. 
 
Meanwhile, the board moved to approve Bev Munter to fill the para-educator position for the Orchard location. 
 
The conversation about staffing needs included the recent opportunity to rehire Tammy Cheatum as a part-time counselor/tech professional to the Orchard-Clearwater staff, increasing the number of counselors between both schools from 1.0 to 1.3 or 1.5.

Cheatum resigned as guidance counselor earlier in the year when seeking election to the Public Service Commission. However, she did not win in her bid to unseat incumbent Rod Johnson. 

Orchard Principal Cathy Cooper spoke in favor of rehiring Cheatum. 
 
“Basically, our guidance counselor load is probably larger now than it ever has been,” Cooper said. “We have more student needs. Things that are really pressing at the high school would be scheduling, senior scholarships and those kinds of things. And also just individual student needs. There are other needs at the middle school such as travel times and different days.”
 
Superintendent Dale Martin observed that students’ needs are growing and therefore Clearwater-Orchard should increase the number of guidance counselors.

“As far as I can recall since Clearwater-Orchard have been together, or even before that, between the two schools we have had more than one 1.0 guidance counselor. So last year was really the only year that we’ve had 1.0 guidance counselor. It’s a struggle a little bit to meet all the needs out there. I think what we’re seeing is a lot more student needs in a lot of different areas,” he said.
 
Cooper reminded the board that they haven’t had an influx of people applying for the advertised positions, and that this is a unique opportunity. 
 
Clearwater President Amy Thiele disagreed and reminded the board that for the past four years enrollment has been declining and expressed her concern at adding a staff member. 
 
After a split vote from the board - 3-0 from Orchard (Nathan Schwager was absent) and 2-2 from Clearwater (Amy Thiele and Tom Thiele against) the decision about the part-time guidance counselor/tech professional position will be taken to the Unified Board for further discussion.