Citizens voice concerns over proposed co-op sports timeline

By Valorie Brecht The Loyal School Board is continuing the athletics co-op conversation after being asked to consider co-oping with Greenwood for middle school track and make some changes in how the JV baseball co-op is handled. However, in the midst of that conversation was the recurring refrain from parents of the need for more communication and transparency from the school board, and the opportunity for parents and coaches to weigh in on decisions affecting their children.

The Loyal School Board faced a packed house last Wednesday, as about 33 members of the public attended the regular school board meeting, filling the chairs in the relatively small district conference room. The video recording of the meeting had also racked up 254 views on YouTube as of Monday.

The interest in the meeting was in part because of two agenda items: “Approve: JV baseball co-op with Greenwood” and “Discussion and possible action on MS (middle school) co-ops with Greenwood.” The board agreed to remove the second item from the agenda at the start of the meeting and decided to put it on the agenda for a special board meeting April 3 at 7 p.m. For more on the JV baseball co-op, see page 13.

Tentative co-op timeline Citizens also showed up to the meeting due to concerns over a document a citizen had located on the school website that was later removed, titled “MOU with Greenwood,” which listed a timeline for co-oping athletics, including middle school (MS) track and JV baseball in the 2023-24 school year; MS volleyball, MS boys basketball, MS girls basketball, boys baseball and boys/ girls track and field in the 2024-25 school year; and high school volleyball and boys and girls basketball in 2025-26.

The document also gave a timeline for athletic director responsibilities, with all MS sports being managed by Greenwood next year, and by the 2025-26 school year having “one AD (athletic director) for all sports” and a “full co-op Greenwood/Loyal.”

Please see Co-op, page 8 Co-op,

from p. 1

The members of the public felt the school district was not being as open as it ought to be regarding planning for future co-ops, because the Loyal School Board had made the decision on Jan. 24 to wait to co-op any additional sports with Greenwood and revisit the issue in a year. Therefore, members of the public were upset that the school administration was seemingly moving ahead with planning co-ops without the input of the school board.

Loyal District Administrator Chris Lindner addressed the document at the start of the meeting.

“There was a document that was shared yesterday, accidentally, that was for the board. That is a plan, an MOU, a first draft we are working on, a working document. The board hasn’t seen it yet. And what we were working on is, we were going to work on that and show them tonight. So nothing of that has been approved or anything like that. It was the first draft of a working document that we were going to work with so we had at least a startup plan for athletic co-ops,” he said.

“Mr. Lindner, can you just reiterate that no one from the school board asked you to start that document? And that it wasn’t on our — we didn’t ask you to make that,” clarified board member Derek Weyer.

“Correct, correct,” said Chris Lindner. “So (Greenwood Administrator) Mr. (Joe) Green and I worked on, getting something so we had a plan moving forward so we could at least look at what we’re looking at in the future.”

The Greenwood School Board had a meeting that same night, and Greenwood District Administrator Joe Green also addressed the document, as community members had questioned him about it.

“What we’re doing is trying to put together a framework,” he said. “This isn’t the end-all-be-all, but we wanted to figure out a timeline as to how things could come together for us. We are trying to figure out how this relationship will work and the details around it.”

One of the details Green mentioned was how busing would be handled for athletic and other extra-curricular activities. In speaking with Greenwood Bus Service, he said they have been trying to figure out a billing system that would be fair to all parties. To make it fair, he said the plan would be to have one district pay for all of the busing for athletics and extra-curricular activities during the year. Then, at the end of the year, the district that paid for all the busing expenses would take the total bill and charge the other district 50% of those costs.

Public comment The tentative athletics co-op timeline prompted a few school staff members to speak during public comment.

Girls basketball coach Mike Rueth started out, first thanking the board for the opportunity to speak and then continuing his comments.

“I just want to straighten something out. I continue to hear from our communities that the delay of the co-op is Mike Rueth’s fault. I want to be crystal clear. You threw this at Coach (Brandon) DeSmet and I in the middle of our seasons at a very public meeting. I’m not against sports co-ops with Greenwood. Let’s figure out the best timing for our athletes. Coach DeSmet and I have never even been asked that in this process.

“All I’ve ever wanted and communicated with you is that I want open communication and a parent and student meeting. That’s it. Yet here we are after a secret document is posted with no open, honest communication with the people this affects and no parent and student meeting. I’m still waiting. Our coaches and sports families deserve better.”

Mike Rueth was asked if he wanted to be contacted to discuss the issue further. He said he felt he had been clear, but just wished he had been approached for input.

“Coach DeSmet and I have not been asked our opinions on it. There’s an age level we feel will work for a co-op, but it’s not next year and it’s not the year after that. But no one’s ever come up and asked us that. I feel like that it’s a really simple question and we feel kind of disrespected on that. I just feel that there’s a time for it — for boys and girls basketball — and right now is just not the time… And it’s not what’s best for our kids, and that’s what we’re all here for.”

Angie Kollmansberger, physical education and health teacher and assistant varsity girls basketball coach, also spoke. She said that although she has roles in the school system, she was speaking as a parent and taxpayer. She wanted the board to pause and think carefully before making a “permanent decision” on middle school sports co-ops, especially because about 80 of the 109 middle school students participate in sports, so a large number would be affected. She said that since middle school sports are not WIAA affiliated, the school district did not have concern to itself with meeting a deadline to sign a co-op agreement. She said the school board had voted with the community to wait and see how the football co-op worked before jumping into more co-ops, so she was disappointed to see the tentative sports timeline on the school website.

“I’ve been in contact with the Greenwood youth rec.; their numbers are similar to ours and they clearly feel there is no need to rush something that is not necessary at the time.”

The schools are already co-oped for middle school football, cross country, softball and baseball, and are now considering middle school track.

“Talking about middle school track, it was kind of a messy, last-week put together, as our middle school coach was put on the spot asking to take some kids. Why that happened and why our head coach was not involved was beyond my understanding,” she said.

Referencing girls basketball, she said, “You all have the numbers from our presentation a couple of months ago. We both have enough numbers for a team next year. Have you asked what the right time for a co-op is?”

She said the coaches were concerned with building sports programs, not just high school or middle school, but K-12. She said that basketball was a year-round program, not just a few months of the year, so co-ops needed to be planned out well in advance.

“How are we increasing opportunities for our middle school? This looks like we’re taking opportunities away,” she said.

She said middle school basketball games were more about skill development than a win-loss record. There are four, six-minute quarters for 24 minutes in a game.

“We currently have 12 seventh-grade girls. That gives each girl maybe two minutes a quarter. When you have 10 games, that’s not a lot of time,” said Kollmansberger. “So please explain to us all why we would want to create unnecessary chaos

Please see Co-op, page 9 Co-op,

from p. 8

with scheduling, gym space, bussing and finding enough games to fulfill each group and the extra financing that comes with the timeline. Again, no contact with coaches and/or parents.

“And lastly, there are a lot of unhappy people in our community outside of who is here tonight, so my question is, what are you doing to show taxpayers that you are worthy of their support? What can we do to get them to vote ‘yes’ for the next referendum and not a ‘no’? Stop throwing in the white flag.”

Middle school teacher Mark Rueth also made a comment, saying he and his wife — who is also a teacher — watched the last Loyal-Greenwood joint school board meeting and he felt the comments of one school board member were disrespectful to teachers and he would like the school board member to apologize.

Middle school track co-op There are currently about 23 kids out for middle school track in Loyal, and about eight in Greenwood that would like to participate.

At the Greenwood meeting, Green said he had talked to Loyal administration and coaches about a potential middle school track co-op.

“The Loyal coaches and administration are willing to entertain a co-op,” said Green. “Greenwood would be going to Loyal for those practices.”

The Greenwood board voted to approve a middle school track co-op with Loyal starting this season and planned to wait for Loyal’s decision.

Returning to the Loyal meeting, people had a chance to weigh in on the co-op during an additional public comment period at the end of the meeting.

Parent Sue Roehl said she was in favor of the co-op, but was concerned it would be a lot of kids for one coach, Rebekah Smith, to monitor. However, Matt Kubista (one of the track coaches) explained that the plan was whenever there was a middle school track meet, he would go along, so there would be at least two coaches present, him and Smith.

Another parent said they wanted clarification on why the middle school track co-op needed to happen now, after Loyal had already voted to wait on co-oping any additional sports until after the football season, at least. One other parent said she thought it was great to bring additional kids over, but said to do it two weeks before the season begins was not the right move. She also questioned whether two coaches was enough to give the kids the individual attention they needed, especially with not having an indoor facility to practice. She recommended getting another coach or having someone from Greenwood come over.

Loyal head coach Jim Genteman suggested instead of having a combined Loyal-Greenwood middle school team, to have two separate teams but still allow the Greenwood middle school students come to Loyal so they would have a coach.

“There’s still the question of having Greenwood kids come over. There’s still going to be kids sitting without an event, whether they’re Loyal or whether they’re Greenwood. It’s been proposed by Coach Smith to have them as Greenwood Middle School (and) Loyal Middle School, but they could come over. There is no WIAA rule against having them train together, get picked up and travel together and compete at the same exact meet as separate teams and now everybody gets to compete. So I don’t know why that’s not being considered,” he said.

He added that the WIAA did not allow students from different teams to train together for high school, but for middle school it was OK.

“That right there, along with Coach (Randy) Montalvo tonight, is what we need to hear. And maybe I didn’t word my motion right six weeks ago, but that’s what I want to see, is the coaches coming to us and saying, ‘Have you looked at this solution or this idea?’ That makes all the sense in the world… I don’t know either one of those sports and I don’t like making those decisions. I don’t like telling a coach that he needs to do what he knows isn’t going to work. So tonight was a great example and if you guys come to the meeting Wednesday and pitch that, I have zero problem making a motion to support that decision,” said Weyer Future steps The board already passed a motion at its Jan. 24 meeting to wait a year to co-op any additional sports with Greenwood, so the board would need to rescind that motion before making any further motions on sports co-ops. The specific motion, made by Harlan Hinklemann at the January meeting, was to “talk to Greenwood, tell them what our thoughts are and we’ll address it (the issue of sports co-ops) in another year.”

That motion would need to be rescinded before an alternate motion could be made. Weyer asked Chris Lindner for clarification on how that would work.

“So what we need to do, according to WASB (Wisconsin Association of School Boards), we need to put it on the agenda, post the agenda and then anyone…” said Chris Lindner.

“Does there need to be a motion from somebody on the board to rescind?” interjected Weyer.

“Yes, and it doesn’t have to be the person that made the motion,” said Chris Lindner.

Weyer also asked if a board member could just rescind part of the motion to allow middle school sports co-ops or if they had to rescind the whole motion. Chris Lindner said they would have to rescind the whole motion. But then the board could make a new motion.

“But it doesn’t mean we as a board need to discuss all sports?” said Weyer.

“Correct,” said Chris Lindner. Some community members wondered if that’s what the meeting would turn into, though — a re-hashing of the entire co-op discussion.

“Just a question with rescinding the vote that was made a couple months ago — what’s the chance that’s going to put everything else back on the plate? I mean, do any of you see that that’s going to happen? It’s not just gonna, we’re gonna be right back where we were a few months ago. I’m just curious — is it going to open up the high school? Is it going to open up the middle school? I don’t think there’s a lot of trust going on right now. That’s maybe what people are wondering,” said Viki Pieper.

The board plans to meet April 3 at 7 p.m. for its special meeting. Agenda items include “Discussion and action on motion for time period of athletic co-ops with Greenwood,” “Discuss and possible action: Evaluation of future athletic co-ops” and “Discuss and possible action: MS track co-op with Greenwood.”

That meeting will be open to the public and will be hosted either in the district conference room or high school gym.

Because Greenwood is awaiting Loyal’s decision on the co-op, Green said the status of middle school track is in limbo, and no practices have been scheduled yet for those athletes.

Reporter Cheyenne Thomas contributed to this article.