Loyal, Greenwood boards contemplate agreement between school districts

By Valorie Brecht The Loyal and Greenwood school districts have shared more and more resources over the past year, including sending students to the other school — Greenwood students to Loyal for College English and Loyal students to Greenwood for an Auto CAD class; sharing a band teacher; combining for marching band and one-act play; and hosting joint staff professional development days, among other endeavors. The school districts have moved toward a mutual understanding of agreeing to help each other when there is a need, regardless of if it inconveniences one school district or the other. With that understanding, some school board members have floated the idea of whether there should be some sort of formal, written agreement, signed by representatives of both school districts, indicating the districts’ commitment to working together.

“The idea was having some sort of guidelines for how we operate and do things,” said Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green at the last joint meeting of the Greenwood and Loyal school boards Dec. 13.

Green said he had access to the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (G-E-T) School District cooperative agreement and could use that as a model or starting point, if the boards would like.

Loyal School Board member Derek Weyer suggested the district administrators from both schools could work together over the next month to come up with a draft agreement and bring it to the next joint board meeting.

“We’ve been putting a lot of stuff together, as far as class-wise, athletics and academics,” said Greenwood School Board member Dean Lindner. “I think we should have something that says we’re committed to each other for four years, for example. That way we’re saying we already agree to co-op with each other and we don’t have to have an agenda item or if we miss a meeting, we’re still covered. So once a year, we could re-approve the agreement for another four years and that way we have all the co-ops ready for the coming year… For example, in 2023 we would say we’re committing to each other until 2027, and then in 2024 we’re committing to each other until 2028, so we’re never getting close to the end time.”

“I will say that the Trempealeau one is very extensive and detailed,” said Loyal School District Administrator Chris Lindner.

“I think it’s important to have because the boards are going to change, but we don’t want the programming to change. We will be spending a lot of money to collaborate and we don’t want it to go to waste. I think it’s just a smart thing to do,” added Loyal School Board president Dennis Roehl.

Loyal Principal Doug Dieckman was not opposed to such an agreement, but questioned whether it was absolutely necessary, as the school districts already plan to send out a survey in the near future asking the community’s thoughts on consolidating the two school districts.

“If the results of the survey say ‘consolidate,’ is it worth it? Because if we consolidate we will have to come up with join policies and regulations anyway, because it will be one school board. I just know with that document, there’s a lot of legal review that goes into that, which also costs money,” he said.

Green responded by saying that he thought the G-E-T document was somewhat different than what the Greenwood and Loyal boards were after, because it was more about giving voting power to the joint body of Galesville, Ettrick and Trempealeau representatives.

“I think we should still have something, even if it’s a simplified contract, because then even if the study shows the communities don’t support consolidation, we still have that agreement in place that we’re going to keep working together,” said Greenwood board member Jamie Gardner.

Weyer yielded the floor to Loyal community member Brian Duell.

“I see you guys already moved in the direction of kind of combining sports in 2025. Do you think just starting with that and getting some sort of MOU, policy and procedure for that decision you already made would help? Because I think if you guys can get better buy-in on the sports coop, that’s going to lead to better buy-in on consolidation, because if the sports co-ops continue to go the way they’re going, it’s going to be a ‘no’ vote for consolidation.

“I would recommend you guys get your first step under control and smooth, and use that as a marketing tool for consolidation, because I think right now, honestly some of the sports headaches is going to tank your consolidation efforts. Parents are looking at, if you can’t consolidate and get the sports thing to go smooth, how are you going to get the school districts to go smooth?” he said.

The school boards agreed that it would be helpful to have a written agreement between the school districts, even if not overly complicated. The boards asked the district administrators for both school districts to come up with a draft agreement for the next joint board meeting and the boards could look at it to see what they wanted to change or add to it.

The next joint board meeting will be Jan. 10 in the Greenwood High School cafetorium at 7 p.m. It is open to the public.