RCPS Board members offer their thoughts on merger
Monday, March 1, 2010 - 1:17 pm
The Banner Press asked members of the Rising City School Board to answer a question about their Feb. 15 votes regarding the proposed merger options of the school with either David City or Shelby.
A straw poll was put in motion after the meeting, at which the board was unable to break its impasse on the merger decision. As of Monday, school district patrons who are registered voters should have received their straw poll ballots. The ballots must be postmarked by March 9 to be counted in the tablulations. The results will be presented at the board's March 15 meeting, Superintendent Michael Derr said.
Derr said that any registered voter residing in the RCPS district who did not receive a ballot should contact the school.
On Feb. 15, Board members Gary Novak, Dan Potter and Lee Fozzard voted in favor of a David City merger; Karla Wingard, Tom McCracken and Larry Hinze voted in favor or a Shelby merger.
The newspaper asked the board members to provide their thoughts about how they voted.
Board member Larry Hinze declined to make a comment.
Here's what board members had to say, in their words:
Dan Potter:
When we started down this consolidation process, we as a board were told that other districts would promise our board many things in order to get the districts property taxes.
In order to make the best business decision possible we had administration gather factual data from both Shelby and David City districts.
We had the best information possible. A year ago the board overwhelmingly supported David City.
The areas of strength were: Financial Stability, Lower Levy Rates, and substantially stronger class offerings. We pursued this direction. In April of 2009 the board started receiving pressure to entertain a proposal with the Shelby board.
Even though we had collected data and proposals from both school districts through administration, the public did not seem to accept this and we retraced our footsteps in the process.
Since then it has become a very emotional issue and the original data has taken a back seat. The data has not changed. I based my support for David City on those original facts as well as a strong proposal.
I believe both districts do an excellent job of educating area students and I respect the administration, staff and boards from both districts. I will do my best with whichever district the public chooses to work with.
My goal is what is best, long term, for the Rising City area community. If you are interested in a thorough explanation of my opinions and actions I have prepared a summary letter you are welcome to by requesting it. I have distributed it to patrons that have expressed interest in my opinion for why I voted for David City.
Lee Fozzard:
The reason I choose merging with David City is because of more educational opportunities and more extracurricular activities. The school is more stable with a bigger student body and a bigger tax base.
When you merge two districts and still end up with a Class D school, as it would be with Shelby, in my opinion it will still not be large enough to last.
I feel in the future, if we went with Shelby, we would be looking to consolidate with yet another district just to stay alive. After studying all the information on the two districts, I feel merging with David City would insure our future for many years.
Tom McCracken:
I believe the Shelby and David City School Districts are each very sincere with their merger proposals and would work to maintain a school in the Rising City Community. The Shelby and David City Boards are very dedicated to their respective schools and the education of children. Each school has excellent programs, maintains their facilities very well, and has goals for future planning.
I want to share some of the struggles I've encountered, while trying to come to a decision on which district to merge Rising City Public Schools.
David City has many course offerings and activities, large student population but small compared to some schools, a historic low tax levy, receives a small amount of state aid, and in the long term a very financially stable school district. A proposed vocational magnet school in Rising City would expand the course offerings and could be a very long-term solution for the use of the facilities in Rising City.
Shelby has good course offerings and activities, a smaller student population, a higher tax levy but very reasonable, receives a large amount of state aid compared to David City, and is stable financially. The proposed middle school in Rising City could also be a long-term solution for the use of Rising City facilities. The middle school concept is well known and would require less planning to implement.
In my opinion, the best merger proposal may be the one that people actually support the most!
Would District Patrons from David City or Shelby support transporting children to Rising City for education purposes? I hope the answer would be yes! Would Rising City District Patrons support the education that takes place at the Rising City School, plus the transporting of students to Shelby or David City? I would hope this answer would be yes!
I assumed the Rising City Board of Education might have a split vote for the Shelby and David City proposals. If so, a straw poll vote would be needed to gather district patron input and decide this important issue. I believe the majority of Rising City Patrons may prefer the Shelby Merger Proposal, but as a Board Member I need to know for certain with no doubts! Thus, my vote for the Shelby Merger Option!
The Rising City Patrons need to use their best judgment in regard to this decision. Please educate yourself on the facts before you cast your vote. My greatest hope is that hard feelings may be avoided, and support is generated for the outcome of the final decision!
Gary Novak:
The economic forecast coming out of Lincoln is grim. The possibility of a billion dollar budget shortfall leads me to believe that state aid to public schools will be significantly reduced.
Shelby receives $488,000 in state aid which is 19.5% of their budget.
David City receives $87,000 ( 1.3% of their budget)
If these monies are cut I am concerned about Shelby's ability to fund a middle school in Rising City.
Also, I am of the opinion that a middle school concept with "any" school district is short term at best, perhaps 3 to 6 years.
David City proposes something different. It could be magnet or alternative or a combination of both. That remains to be worked out.
I believe to keep our school open long term we must fill a need that none of our neighboring schools fills. For me that need is the education of students who will not be attending a typical four year college.
Harsh economic times and the breakdown of the American family have swelled the ranks of these children and unfortunately it appears that these numbers will continue to grow.
Our faculty estimates that eighty percent of our current high school students fall into this category.
We are already teaching these students in Rising City. The need is there and it will grow.
The problem is that our curriculum is geared towards college preparation. We would serve them better if we met with the businesses in Columbus and asked them what they want a job applicant to know besides the "Three R's".
If we were to teach toward the need our graduates would be more employable and more successful in life.
This is only one scenario with a less traditional school. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination or narrow mindedness.
(See chart for other reasons cited by Novak)
I have been advised that if a district needs to consolidate, be sure to make it large enough the first time because a second consolidation is harder on everyone than the first. I do not see this as a problem with David City.
An empty school building with broken windows is a huge liability to a small town that cannot afford to knock it down and bury it. I will continue to work to keep ours open.
Karla Wingard:
I have been asked to provide a response to the 'simple question' of 'Why did I prefer to merge RCPS with Shelby.' I find the reference to this question as 'simple' to be rather interesting. For myself, it has been one of the most difficult decisions to make because this decision impacts students, parents, staff and a community.
The David City and Shelby School Districts are both very good school districts and would fit the needs our school district is looking for. The idea of a magnet school with David City is very intriguing and could very well flourish with a lot of hard work. A middle school with Shelby is something that is much easier for us all to see work as we all understand the concept and see it as something that would easily work with little effort.
My final decision was made by looking at what I felt would be best for the community. I feel the community will better embrace a middle school concept versus a magnet school.
No matter what the final decision of the straw poll comes out to be, I hope the community stands behind the decision and supports it.
Editor's note: The two proposals presented by David City and Shelby school officials can be found on-line at www.thebanner-press.com, under the "Local News" section.
Graphic caption: RCPS Board Member Gary Novak offered this information as part of his presentation to the newspaper:
