Need for transparency, communication common refrains in Greenwood, Loyal public comment

By Valorie Brecht In the most highly-attended local board meeting this writer has ever seen, community members from Greenwood and Loyal came out to make their voices heard at the joint meeting of both communities’ school boards last Wednesday at Greenwood.

The hot-button topic on the agenda for the meeting was voting on the two school districts co-oping all athletics starting with the 2024-25 school year (with the exception of volleyball, which would co-op in 2025). More than 91 parents, students, coaches and concerned community members filled the cafetorium, with 13 people opting to speak during public comment, including three students.

The general tenor of the comments was a desire for greater communication from the school districts and opportunities for community members to give feedback, and that the school districts should not rush the process of combining for sports but fully think it through.

Loyal student-athlete Parker Smith said the current Loyal numbers for boys basketball (24 in high school), volleyball (25) and baseball (23) did not warrant the schools combining and if the schools were to combine for boys basketball, for example, kids would end up missing opportunities because they may have to do tryouts and less talented kids would see little to no playing time. He was also concerned about finding enough C-teams to play, because a lot of area schools don’t have C-teams.

Parent Rod “Bucky” Deegan also spoke. He has kids in the Loyal school system, and a spouse and other family members who went to school in Greenwood. He suggested waiting to see how the football co-op goes in the fall before jumping into more co-ops. He said the school districts should at least wait until after they get the community survey results and have time to review them before

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making a decision.

“Let the community discuss and debate it (the athletics co-op proposal) with each other and district leaders, et cetera. Maybe have a town hall with open discussion,” he said.

He also said that Greenwood ought to livestream its school board meetings.

Nikki Rueth, Loyal parent, said the two biggest things the Loyal community had asked for repeatedly were “transparency and communication.”

“I haven’t heard about a community parent meeting being held in Loyal in regards to co-oping for sports. Why not? There was one held before a softball decision was made,” said Rueth.

Loyal parent Brian Duell echoed previous comments and said the schools needed to take the time to think through the details.

“Before anything is decided for future co-op programs, there needs to be a detailed plan in place,” he said. “There should be a transparent, written plan.”

He also brought up some issues he saw with current co-ops that he felt needed to be resolved before trying new co-ops. He said the school decided last year to co-op the summer rec. program, and it did not turn out well.

“After the decision was made, the school passed all the responsibility to the coaches and parents to figure out the the details – we were told numerous times that summer rec. is not a part of the school,” said Duell.

He said the coaches and parents had to plan everything including practice location, transportation, bathrooms, umpires and field prep. He also said they didn’t have a voice in the mascot, colors or the league they got to play in, despite the Loyal school being separate from summer recreation.

“I believe that in order for either school to be successful long term, consolidation is required. These co-ops appear to be a test for consolidation. If the parents view these coops as a failure, the consolidation process will certainly be a struggle,” said Duell.

Loyal parent Crystal Rueth also spoke. “Please remember that we as community members vote you in because we have confidence in you and your decision-making abilities… Remember that we voted for you, whether you agree with us or maybe even have a different opinion,” she said.

She said she appreciated that the school boards had included public comment on the meeting agenda, because at a past joint school board meeting it was not, and some board members had voted against it being put on the agenda.

Mary Denk, Greenwood community member, said the schools did not choose the most-voted-for response when picking a joint mascot, and it was only afterward when she submitted an open records request that she found out the actual results of the mascot survey.

“Should we ask them (the administration) to conduct a survey on consolidation when we couldn’t trust them for the mascot?” she said.

Greenwood three-sport athlete Tatym Travis was next to the microphone. She said she was in support of a girls basketball co-op because Greenwood can’t support a varsity program on its own; however, she didn’t think a co-op was necessarily needed for the other sports.

Kim Bremmer also spoke. She has a daughter who graduated from Loyal and a son in school. She also served on the Loyal School Board and still regularly attends board meetings.

“The last three meetings, it’s the same things we’ve been asking for — better stakeholder input and communication,” she said. “I don’t think anyone is opposed to co-ops, but we need attention to the details. We want open, transparent communication, because right now we don’t know what the plan is. The softball co-op is one that worked well, but the reason it worked is we had a parent, student and coaches meeting beforehand where we all sat down and talked about how it could work.

“It always seems that decisions continue to be made without appropriate input. If I had a quarter for every time I’ve heard a parent say, ‘I’m not going to go to a meeting,’ ‘I’m not going to go up to the school’ or ‘I’m not bothering with an email because they’ — as in you — don’t give the people the impression you’re listening. Is this our goal or should it be?”

Loyal parent and city clerk Shannon Toufar also chimed in. She said she couldn’t figure out what the rush was to make this decision and asked why the schools couldn’t wait until after the football co-op to see how it went. She also wanted to know what extra costs would be associated with the co-op, whether in regards to busing, extra coaches or uniforms. She also said the mascot should not be a major concern, because there were bigger priorities than that and the schools could just go with “Loyal-Greenwood” and didn’t necessarily have to have a mascot.

Loyal alumna and resident Jordyn Cuddie spoke. “After talking with others, it seems this is being rushed through. Our first obligation as taxpayers is to the kids in our district. My question, is how is this going to benefit Loyal athletes? I cannot think of a single way it would benefit Loyal athletes,” she said.

Greenwood parent Nick Stieglitz voiced support for co-oping athletics, as he said it would create opportunities for kids. He said Loyal and Greenwood had “a good thing going” and he thought the schools should continue to build on that. He said he would hate to see Greenwood turn to other schools like Owen-Withee to co-op because Loyal refused to work with Greenwood. He also said there would never be a perfect time to co-op.

“There’s always going to be a time when Greenwood says or Loyal says, ‘Well, we have enough athletes here, or we have a large class coming up, so we don’t need the other one,’” he said. “But, when is a good time? We just need to get it done with and granted, you need a plan. You don’t need to rush into anything and do it wrong so everybody’s mad. But at some point it needs to be done.”

Community members, parents, coaches and student-athletes gather in the Greenwood cafetorium during a joint board meeting last week. More than 90 people attended.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTO