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Oldham-Ramona board fields dissolution proposal
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By ELISA SAND, Staff Reporter
| 12/10/2009 |
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A joint meeting on Monday between the Rutland and Oldham-Ramona school districts to discuss future options for their athletic co-op went a little further. A discussion ensued on a proposal to dissolve the boundaries of one district and attach to the other.
The proposal, made by the Rutland School Board, outlines an option for the Oldham-Ramona School District to dissolve its boundaries and attach to the Rutland district. According to the superintendents, a K-6 attendance center would be maintained in Ramona for an undetermined period of time and grades 7-12 would be integrated into the Rutland facility.
The proposal gives no option for Oldham-Ramona board members to have immediate voting privileges on the school board that would oversee the new, combined district and asks for a consolidation of assets.
Rutland Superintendent Carl Fahrenwald said this is the second time the proposal has come up, and it has surfaced again because Oldham-Ramona enrollment levels are creeping toward the minimum threshold of 100 students (currently there are 107).
"The idea at this point was informally looked at," Fahrenwald said, indicating that after discussion took place among Rutland board members, he got the impression that the idea was not something that was politically feasible.
Oldham-Ramona Superintendent John Bjorkman said the proposal wasn't something he expected to discuss at Monday's meeting.
"I'm disappointed that they made the offer to us," he said. "They proposed to us to take what we have and leave us with nothing."
One option brought forward by O-R board members was the construction of a new school along SD-81. Bjorkman said that wasn't something the Rutland board wanted to consider.
While Bjorkman admits that he had some enrollment concerns this year when the school started with 104 students. Next year's projections put enrollment around 115.
"We have no intention of closing," Bjorkman said. "We weren't looking for that."
Projected enrollment numbers indicate steady, if not higher, enrollment in the future, he said.
"We will only get bigger," he said. "We maintain we offer a good, strong education for the kids."
Fahrenwald said the idea behind the proposal was to continue moving Rutland forward.
"We want to continue our stability," he said.
A few years ago, Fahrenwald said, Rutland's enrollment was also dipping toward that 100 student mark, but the district has worked hard to reverse that trend and open enrollments into the district have helped numbers go up.
"If not for that (open enrollments), we'd be closed right now," Fahrenwald said.
Out of a total of 121 students, Rutland currently has 36 open-enrolled students coming from seven school districts.
The proposal would cause some efficiencies, Fahrenwald said, and having the K-6 attendance center in Ramona would allow for class enrollment caps -- set at 15 students in grades K-6 and 20 in grades 7-12 -- to be maintained.
Both Fahrenwald and Bjorkman agree it's unlikely the proposal will move ahead, although Oldham-Ramona board members were asked to consider the issue at next Monday's regularly scheduled meeting.
Regardless, the superintendents say they will continue to move forward with the athletic co-op that has been in place since the fall of 2004.
"The programs have been good for the kids and largely successful," Fahrenwald said. "If nothing else, we agree to continue those."
"We still intend to work with them (Rutland)," Bjorkman said. "We have a good, strong co-op."
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