A majority of seven K-8 feeder districts and their associated union high school in western Waukesha County have agreed to undergo an analysis of costs associated with potentially consolidating at least some of those districts.
The kindergarten through eighth-grade districts feed into Arrowhead Union High School.
Representatives from Arrowhead and the seven K-8 districts who met Aug. 21 also agreed to form a small working group of business managers and superintendents to decide what information to examine.
The seven K-8 districts are Hartland-Lakeside, Lake Country, Swallow, Stone Bank, Merton, Richmond and North Lake.
With the exception of North Lake, all seven feeder districts and Arrowhead were represented at the meeting by either school board members, superintendents or both.
Each of the seven feeder districts are independent districts that have their own governing school boards and superintendents. Students completing eighth grade at those districts go on to high school at Arrowhead.
Arrowhead is one of 10 union high school districts in Wisconsin. The others are Big Foot, Central/Westosha, Hartford, Lake Geneva-Genoa City, Lakeland, Nicolet, Union Grove, Waterford and Wilmot.
The Aug. 21 meeting was a follow-up to a May meeting of the boards. At that meeting, board members expressed tentative interest in exploring consolidation further.
Consolidations merge two or more school districts, whether those districts are K-12, union high schools or K-8. Any Wisconsin district can do so, except for Milwaukee Public Schools.
Also on Aug. 21, representatives heard about Arrowhead’s proposed cell phone policy, explored setting up a future meeting with state elected officials, including Reps. Cindi Duchow, Barbara Dittrich and Jim Piwowarczyk, and discussed the possibility of a shared contract for communication services.
“I think the legislators do need to see all the great stuff that’s going on within the district. They need to understand the size and importance of our districts, but they also need to understand that we have needs and we need their representation,” Arrowhead School Board President Kim Schubert told a reporter after the meeting.
The boards did not set a date for when to continue consolidation discussions.
Pursuing a financial analysis on consolidation
Not all board representatives were sold on the benefits of a potential consolidation.
Stone Bank School Board President Jason Hornby said consolidation would not provide a financial benefit to Stone Bank.
“We remain open to exploring shared service(s) and collaborative opportunities with other schools that support our students. That said, I think we’re interested in being part of the conversation,” Hornby said.
Lake Country School Board President Peter Maurer said his board was in a “holding pattern” on being part of the consolidation financial analysis. He cited the challenges the district has had in dealing with two failed operational referendums the last two years.
“I think if we start going in too many directions, it’s going to really upset even more parents who are very concerned with where our future is going to bring. In theory, we don’t have a problem with it, but for us to expend some money towards it at this point in time is not in the cards for us right now,” Maurer said.
Cell phone policy
Schubert and fellow Arrowhead School Board member Amy Hemmer shared information about a proposal their board is considering that would prohibit cell phones from being used during the school day.
“Hopefully the feeder schools would buy into it if we decide to do it, and we’d all be on the same (page),” Hemmer said.
Swallow School Board member Daniel Fuhrman praised Arrowhead for wanting to collaborate with its feeder districts on cell phones and said that same collaboration could apply to multiple topics.
“There’s about 25 issues like this issue where, if we could find a methodology to communicate and collaborate and align, it would massively benefit the kids, and it would massively benefit our staffs and our teachers,” Fuhrman said.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
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