Loyal, Greenwood boards receive clarification on consolidation timeline, CESA facilities services

As the Greenwood and Loyal school districts plan to officially consolidate in just under three years, they are trying to hone in on a timeline and what planning pieces they want done when.

The school boards met jointly last Wednesday in Loyal to discuss a preliminary resolution to consider consolidation, hear a presentation from CESA 10 on their facility study services, discuss aligning student fees, and hear from the public.

First, the superintendents from both districts clarified what the timeline for consolidation would look like. Bob Butler of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) has been assisting the superintendents with understanding the legalities of school consolidation. They had not been on the same page with Butler regarding timeline, but now they are.

“We had a meeting with Bob Butler Monday, and then it clicked. Most schools follow a 12-month timeline [from when the districts pass a resolution ordering consolidation to when they actually consolidate], but we want to follow the 18-month timeline to allow us more time,” said Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green. “Once you pass a resolution to consider consolidation, the very next December you have to pass a resolution to consolidate.”

In order to arrive at the 2028-29 school year being the first year as a unified district, the districts are looking at the following timeline:

• Jan. 1, 2026, or anytime after that — both boards pass a resolution to consider consolidation.

•December 2026 — both boards pass a resolution ordering consolidation.

•Approximately 18 months pass.

•July 1, 2028 — consolidation effective date, begin operating as a unified school district.

“If the boards wanted to take it back to the communities, that is something that would be able to work in there,” said Loyal District Administrator Chris Lindner.

The boards received a preliminary resolution to consider consolidation at the meeting, which they will have plenty of time to look over and wordsmith before they approve it sometime in the new year.

“It doesn’t have to happen in January either. It could be approved in January, February — it doesn’t really matter. It’s just then in December the resolution to consolidate has to be adopted,” said Green. “Statutorily it’s written as the ‘first December after’ adopting the resolution to consider.”

“I think January is kind of late,” said Kirk Haslow of the Loyal School Board.

“Well, it’s a formality that should not prevent us from planning now,” Green replied. “I also recommend that any decisions about consolidation be made at one of joint meetings [versus the individual Loyal and Greenwood school board meetings].”

Facilities study The boards also heard a presentation from Luke Schultz, director of facilities management at CESA (Cooperative Educational Service Agency) 10; and Lindsey Schreiner, facilities advisor for CESA 10, on what facilities study services CESA could offer. There are 12 CESAs in the state and CESA 10 happens to be the only one that has a facilities management division. They work with more than 200 schools across the state to assess their facilities and come up with a plan to improve them, whether it’s for referendum planning, to address environmental health concerns, to improve school safety and security, or to more effectively use the space (such as in Wausau where four elementary schools were closed to save money).

Please see Consolidation, page 8 “We are aware that Loyal had a facilities audit not too long ago [prior to the fall 2022 capital improvements referendum that failed]. But we want to make sure that covered everything that needed to be covered,” said Schreiner.

Schultz and Schreiner gave a timeline of how CESA could be involved in the consolidation process, from the facilities side, which is as follows:

•Fall 2025: Review financials and complete an updated financial analysis based on the state budget.

•December 2026: Both districts pass a resolution ordering consolidation.

•Spring 2027: CESA completes a comprehensive facility audit, including space analysis, a detailed list of facility improvement measures (FIMs) with cost estimates, prioritization of FIMs, and a 10-year strategic plan.

•May 2027: CESA presents the facility audit findings to the joint board and next steps.

•Summer 2027: CESA collaborates with the school boards and develops a facility advisory committee; consolidation options are established; districts consider distributing a community survey asking what facility needs should be prioritized.

•Spring 2028: An operational referendum is held during the spring election. Final preparations are made for consolidation on July 1, 2028.

Schreiner and Schultz both highly recommended developing a facilities advisory committee with a mixture of school board members, staff members, and community members. They said they had seen that committee in other school districts with as few as 10 people up to 30, but the important thing was getting a full picture of what the community wanted.

“We are huge on community involvement — the community should be involved in all decisions that need to be made,” said Schreiner.

“We both have buildings and grounds committees. My recommendation would be to pull both schools’ committees together as soon as possible to analyze things,” said Loyal School Board member Tom Odeen.

The districts might indeed do that, although for the actual facilities advisory committee, Schultz and Schreiner recommended the full boards of both districts be on it.

The CESA representatives also said they could adapt their timeline to how fast or slow the districts wanted to go. Typically with referendum planning, they start working on facilities planning 12 months before the vote, but that can be adjusted.

“The next steps for us at CESA would be getting a proposal to you,” said Schultz. “We will move at the pace that you both want us to move at. We have to all be on the same page.”

The CESA representatives did not give a cost estimate for their services, but said it would depend on if the districts wanted to do a separate facilities audit or a project development agreement, which is more cost effective. They said they could bring a request for proposal to the next meeting.

They also provided an opportunity for anyone listening to ask questions. Dennis Roehl, former Loyal School Board member, chimed in.

“So when you’re done with the facilities study, are you going to suggest where the schools are and what to do? Are you going to have, ‘This is the recommendation’ or two options? Or, how does that work? And what if one side or the other doesn’t like it? Then what? That’s where we fell down 20 years ago,” said Roehl.

“That’s a very good question. And you gotta get a little bit further down the road before you can tell what those options are going to be. I can tell you one, the facilities audit, that’s going to tell you what the maintenance needs are. It’s also going to tell you two, what buildings are structured better for holding elementary versus middle school or high school kids. And so as you look at that audit, you’ll have what you need to do to update the buildings, what buildings are better suited, and that’s where decisions are going to be made,” said Schultz.

“CESA 10’s not going to come and say, ‘This needs to be Loyal-Greenwood High School’ and ‘This is going to be the spot,’ and tell you that’s what you need to do. That needs to come to a conclusion with all the school board and the facility advisory committee. Our job is to lay the ducks out on the table. Here’s what the costs are. Here’s what your options are.”

He said if the districts did a community survey on facilities, that information could also be used to inform the facilities advisory committee, along with the options presented.

“We’re going to be providing mainly facts… We’re not going to come in and say, ‘We think you should do this.’ I can, but I don’t think anyone in Loyal cares what I think you should do. We’re going to give you the dollar amounts and what you’re going to have to do,” said Schreiner.

Green put a cap on the conversation by reflecting on the overall priorities the districts need to keep in mind.

“The reason we’re looking at consolidation is to save money and provide the best education possible. Those are the top two priorities I’ve heard over and over again from people. And depending on who you ask, the order of those might be flipped. But, we have to take the information we have along with those priorities and use that to make decisions,” he said.

Board member Crystal Rueth had one additional comment. She brought up that the boards had talked about going back to the public in a binding referendum vote on whether they wanted the districts to consolidate (the referendum passed in April was only advisory). Based on the timeline CESA 10 provided, voters would have to answer the question without knowing where the high school would be.

“In spring 2027 is when you [CESA] are giving the results of the facilities study. At that point, the resolution to consolidate is done. Either way, if we’re going to the public for a referendum or not, it’s going to be before we get this information,” said Rueth.

“And the timeline is completely flexible; we can change,” replied Schreiner.

The next Loyal-Greenwood joint board meeting will be Aug. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Greenwood. The plan is for the meeting to be livestreamed. At the next meeting, the boards plan to discuss livestreaming future meetings, the consolidation timeline, the facilities study request for proposal, ad hoc committees, and the co-op sports timeline. They also will look at establishing a consistent joint board meeting date moving forward.