Will Other Schools Join Unified District?

The future of the three-school Nebraska Unified District remains murky with questions of whether schools want to stay in the district or new schools may join. 

​The majority of the Unified Board Meeting on Monday night in Verdigre centered around the discussion of the possibility of Neligh-Oakdale and Ewing joining the Unified District and their desire to build a new cornfield school. 

Terra Williby, board member from Orchard, attended the meeting with the Neligh-Oakdale committee, along with Peggy Liska of Verdigre and Marty Kerkman of Clearwater. Williby and Liska both said that from what they took away from the meeting, neither Neligh-Oakdale nor Ewing were interested in joining the Unified District. 

They said Neligh-Oakdale and Ewing board members who attended the meeting were in favor of building a cornfield school. They said Neligh-Oakdale board members were unsure if the community supported a cornfield school, but they personally wanted to move the school out of Neligh. They discussed moving the school no further north than the Royal Road.

Kerkman said Neligh-Oakdale and Ewing board members asked about the positives and the negatives in being a part of the Unified district.

“They asked what the pros and cons in unification was, and we really didn’t have a good answer other than that you got to keep your school in your community. It’s not probably what it was 17 years ago, and maybe that’s something we need to talk about. What are the pro’s and what are the con’s of unification now and down the road?” he said. 

There was also confusion over how Neligh-Oakdale felt about the Unified District. When asked if Neligh-Oakdale had any questions or requests from the current Unified members, Liska said they had none. However, she referenced Neligh-Oakdale’s board meeting in which members said they knew little about the Unified District.

Liska said she attended the committee meeting more as a spectator and wasn’t prepared to be put into the participator’s role. 

“We do share resources back and forth, we share teachers, we do readily share about the DL (distance learning), getting dual credit classes taught for each other. Like, you may have a specific student that needs a certain class at a certain time that doesn’t fit into their schedule, and I think we do work back and forth to have that,” she said.

Liska agreed with Kerkman on their response to the question by Neligh-Oakdale.

“I agree with Marty, we didn’t have a good answer that night. I didn’t expect to have that question, and I guess I expected more to be an observer than I did a participant.”

The topic of efficiency with the Unified system was an underlying theme throughout the discussion. Dale Martin, superintendent of the Unified district, commented on the cost effectiveness of having separate schools.

“If you look at cost savings, if we are reeling things down, it is going to cost more to keep three attendance centers open and staff them and do everything you need to do. It is going to cost more money than if you have one building between Clearwater, Orchard and whoever else and then have Verdigre separate up here by themselves.”

Liska brought up the comparison of parent involvement and education when looking at individual schools or combined schools.

“I think we need to look at what are the outward consequences to communities losing their schools....The school acts as the hub of the entire community. When you move the school to a cornfield school, one of the things (studies) I looked at said that you lose the parental involvement when you do that. You don’t have parents involved when you do post prom, you don’t have the parents involved with the activities. That’s one of the things you lose...And we need to look at it in different ways. Are we the most cost saving and efficient school? No, but do I believe that we give a valuable education to students? I have had four kids go through Verdigre and go to college, and I believe my children were prepared for college,” she said.

The members discussed the cost of building a new school and the challenge of involving kids in a bigger school. Multiple points were brought up, including the fact that with the number of kids enrolled in a bigger school, activities like sports and one-act transition to trying out for the team as opposed to the opportunity for all kids to be a part of them. 

“It depends what your goal is. I don’t believe that anybody lives in rural Nebraska because we’re all getting rich, because it’s not happening. I live in rural Nebraska for a lifestyle. I wanted to bring my kids up in a place that I knew that I could let them go outside and play without being right there with them all the time. It depends on what your goal is. Not everyone’s goal is efficiency and the lowest tax. I’m not saying that that is not a good goal, but that is not everyone’s goal.”

Marty Konopasek voiced his opinion about having smaller student to teacher ratios.

“I still think that with smaller schools, even if you have 20 kids to a classroom, you are still going to have a better education. The teacher knows the kids name, and when you get into the bigger classes, they are just a number,” he said.

The next step in the school consolidation talks for Orchard is to decide if they want to be part of the cornfield school idea, although board members said they not have seen figures or plans and no meetings have taken place in the communities. Martin reminded the board that administrators also have not been part of any talks. 

​The board agreed to step back for a while and see what the next board meeting brings. The next meeting will take place on Monday, June 12, at 7 p.m.