O-M leaders continue mulling future options

While the knowledge that their school district’s days are numbered weights heavy, Orient-Macksburg school leaders are both excited and hopeful for a good 2024-25 school year, which begins Aug. 23. School also begins that day at Nodaway Valley.

According to Principal Dan Grandfield, if every student would have stayed from last year and not transferred out to another district, O-M’s middle and high school grades would have contained 51 students. Right now, they know of 53 students who are registered in those grades. There are 31 students in the elementary grades.

“We lost a few but we gained some back, so that’s sweet,” Grandfield said. “I’ve got my entire 7-12 staff taken care of. They’re back in one way, shape or form. I have to fill a few in with waivers [for P.E. credit or things like that].”

Grandfield praised custodial staff Doug Thatcher and Paula Halterman for their work in getting the facility ready for the school year.

Volleyball practice has begun already and a back to school night is scheduled for 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21. A free will donation supper will be provided by the Bulldog Boosters and a volleyball scrimmage will happen with a water, Gatorade or a snack donation for admission.

A playground project that lasted much of last school year is complete so that students will be able to enjoy that this year.

“There are lots of question marks going into this year, but we have a really good staff, a really good PTO and a really good booster club,” Grandfield said. “Everybody’s ready to go and we’re going to make it the best year it can be.”

Next steps

The school board, during a regular meeting Monday, Aug. 12, looked at possible next steps after a dissolution process that was in progress saw proposed maps rejected by neighboring districts Winterset and Creston, at a meeting July 29.

According to Superintendent Jeff Kruse, the district’s next available election date is in March 2025. Currently it has been communicated that a succesful vote to dissolve in March would not allow for the dissolution to become effective until June 30, 2026. This would require an additional year of school for the district, but that would likely mean whole grade sharing either grades 7-12 or PK-12.

The district is projected to go negative in its unspent authorized budget sometime soon, and that is a key financial figure for whether or not a school can operate. Kruse had multiple emails out to experts to get a better handle on the needed timeline for a dissolution.

Kruse said a good question to ask is whether or not O-M can whole grade share with another district even if their unspent authorized budget goes negative.

“My opinion is this: your commission has spent a lot of time on the dissolution process already and they’ve done a lot of the work already. They are in place, but if the board wants to take on reorganization, that falls on the board’s back, not the commission’s,” Kruse said. He also added that in a reorganization, property owners on the fringes of the district may have a choice of which district they want their property be included in.

Board President Jana Scott asked what chance there is that O-M could continue as is for two years. Kruse said that if the district finishes in a positive financial standing in the fiscal year recently completed, that chance increases, however that depends on a lot of things. Open enrollment and staffing levels will also have to be factored into to decisions.

Board member Bo Geidel said it would be best to keep options of dissolution and reorganization both on the table moving forward and not necessarily assume that everyone wants a dissolution.

Board member Casey Osborne said she felt the dissolution commission worked hard on the proposed maps and that the board should consider continuing to pursue dissolution, and board member Andrew Zelleweger agreed. Board member Alex Maeder was absent.

Scott added in that she feels there are people who feel strongly both ways for reorganization or dissolution and that it’s a “no win” situation either way.

Multiple board members said they trusted the work the dissolution commission put in to make the proposed map, that it is a hard job, and the map should be considered, no matter how the district moves forward. They can be tweaked if needed, as well.

“We certainly have time to reflect, I agree with that part,” Kruse said. “If there’s a blessing to this, whichever avenue we end up going, it is that this gives us more time to figure out what to do with this building and it gives us more time to figure out what to do with memorabilia. That’s a positive thing.”

Last school year before Kruse was hired, the O-M and Nodaway Valley boards each took action to declare their intentions to explore whole grade sharing. While that didn’t mean they would, it kept that option on the table.

“At a minimum, we need to put some type of whole grade sharing in place by this coming February, whether it’s 7-12 and we will keep an elementary or it’s K-12 and we’ll whole grade share K-12,” Kruse said. “By September we should be able to say where we ended up this [fiscal] year. That’s about a month away.”

Kruse said he will reach out and have additional conversations with neighboring superintendents. No action was taken by the board this meeting.

“Even with dissolution, December will come up quick,” Kruse said, referring to deadlines in the process.