Valley Fight Song - Band-O-Rama 2/21/2013

            Growing up at both East Buchanan and North Linn, I never got into school songs or pep rallies. I used to be the smartass kid sitting up in the bleachers making fun of the people getting all worked up over something so silly as a school song. Well, maybe it’s age, maybe something else, but I feel different about it now. I’ve never felt so strongly about a school. I never attended Valley, but many in my family did. I know many people who have gone to Valley and it’s a wonderful school. I was very happy thinking that my children would graduate from Valley. I really was content.

            My heart has been hurting ever since I heard that we would be losing our high school. I know what’s coming next. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist. Even if I quit writing to this blog, I’m going to keep these posts up just to prove that I’m not a fruitcake when I say that we’re going to lose our school. Someday you'll be able to look at what I write here and see that I wasn't just crying wolf.  

            Already they are changing the name, colors, mascot, fight song, etc. etc. They tell us that we need to think of the two schools as one. This is the last hurrah. Valley has been given a death sentence and upon the completion of the last day of school this spring, Valley will be forever dead. I still think we should fight to bring our school back, but people seem too afraid to speak up and say anything. The people who had this all planned - had it planned well. Hitler would have been proud. It was the perfect blitzkrieg.

            Tonight Valley held its Band-O-Rama. KinDee took video, albeit a bit shaky, of the Valley band kids playing the Valley fight song. I put it here because it too will die at the end of the year.

            The day will come when many of you will miss hearing this song on a Friday night sitting in the cool fall country air between Clermont and Elgin. Is there really a more beautiful place to hold a football game? In its place will be some new, soon to be decided fight song cheering on some TigerHawks, but that old Valley CEW fight song will go the way of the “Rebel Yell”. Soon, it will be forgotten.

 

 

Fight for a victory, Tigers

Fight for the Blue and Scarlet!

Fight, fight, for Valley High

All glory to her name! Rah! Rah! Rah!

Fight, Tigers, Fight for victory

Win, Tigers, win for Valley

Fight, fight for Valley High

Let's fight and win this game!

 

Go! Tigers! Go!

Fight! Tigers! Fight!

Kick 'em high

Block 'em low

Go! Tigers! Go!

 

                                                                                                      -Eric

February 18th Board Meeting and thoughts about it.

               It’s been a few days now, but the board met on February 18^th. There was a lot going on in that meeting, but KinDee said that the peanut gallery only had about 5 to 10 people in it again. Is it any wonder they feel like they can do whatever they want? Such apathy! As was expected, they denied allowing Central or Starmont’s buses into the district. They provided a list of children who were open enrolling out. I noticed about 10 kids open enrolling out to North Fayette. Some of them were elementary kids. I wonder how they are going to handle that? Will they allow those children to ride the bus? Is it okay to allow kids to ride the bus to attend elementary in North Fayette, but not the other schools? When those elementary kids leave for North Fayette, they’re taking money away from Valley just the same as those of us going to Starmont, Postville, or Central. I would sure like an answer on that.

               The name of the school will be North Fayette Valley. They couldn’t wait to start using the new name. If this really was just about using Whole Grade Sharing for a couple of years to get us over a budget crisis, then they wouldn’t change the name, would they? Tim Orr had a good idea on the phone, but KinDee didn’t hear him bring it up at the meeting. Tim suggested to me that Valley ought to keep its name, colors, and mascot and North could do the same. But, this isn’t just about getting us over a budget crisis, is it? It’s about eventual consolidation. Whole Grade Sharing is meant to get people used to the idea of sharing and its purpose is to ease the process of consolidation. We’re back at the boiling the frog scenario. This is why they are so hell bent for leather about getting this new name out there and using it. This is why they keep telling us that we need to think like we’re one school. They’re like a bunch of snake charmers. They’re trying to mesmerize us and get us to fall asleep so we don’t complain while we watch our school dissolve.

               They tried to push through North Fayette colors. That’s one area that some of the board members balked at. Funny how our board members are more worried about school colors than they are about keeping our school. What the hell does it matter at this point? We gave ourselves away to North Fayette. We’re the bride, they’re the groom. We better get used to our new position. They’re bigger than us. They’re higher in the food chain. We gleefully capitulated to them. How can we complain at this point? What the hell did our board expect? We're getting what we asked for whether those board members know it or not.

               I know they decided to have a meeting on the 19^th with the North board members. I haven’t heard what they decided on. Again, does it really matter? It’s not going to be Valley red and blue, is it?

               Yes, we have some challenges ahead of us. There were a lot of people angry over this. Where have they been lately? We won’t get our school back by staying silent. If nobody is at those board meetings, they’ll keep on doing whatever they want to without worry.

               KinDee saw the packet that the board members get. In it, Cathy Molumby lays out the agenda for the night. In it, she makes her recommendations, for or against, and lays out her arguments. You can tell by the tone of what she writes whether or not she thinks something is a good thing or not. KinDee watched the board do everything Cathy recommended, without a second thought. The only dissent came from Tim Orr. We’re in deep trouble if we don’t change things.

               It’s only going to get worse. Cathy may be on her way out, but her contemporary is on his way in. It’s not official, but they’re pushing very hard for North Fayette’s superintendent, Duane Willhite, to become ours. The board wants to share him. Why would we think that another school district's superintendent would have our best interest at heart when it's in the best interest of that school to consolidate with us? If a superintendent has such pull, it would be in our best interest to hire one who is independent of this entire situation. Think of using a lawyer. Would you want to share the same lawyer with someone you are trying to hammer out an agreement with? You want one who will represent you and your best interests. We need the same here. Duane Willhite pushed for WGS and he knows it will lead to consolidation. Hiring him to represent us is like putting the fox in the henhouse.

               I still think this whole plan was hatched out by Duane and Cathy over a year ago. I cannot prove it, but the process had to start somewhere. Somebody had to come up with the initial idea to pursue this. Nobody seems to want to take credit for it though. I guess we're all supposed to believe that it just came out of thin air. Everything is just too “convenient” in how it all played out. To tell you the truth, if North Fayette hadn’t lost their junior high building next to the courthouse, I don’t think we’d be in this mess. North needed us far more than they are letting on. They needed our building. The students are a plus, and the best part is this – once consolidation comes – their tax base becomes one of the largest in this part of the state. Think of all the land they will be able to tax! This new district will be huge! It’ll be bigger than New Hampton’s! Yes, this whole thing is very insidious.

               No, Duane Willhite certainly is not in the best interest of Valley. His best interest will be for North Fayette and seeing this eventual consolidation through. North Fayette will benefit nearly 100% by the eventual consolidation. The buildings will be in West Union. The jobs will be in West Union. Everything will eventually be in West Union. All we’ll be left with is a crumbling school between Clermont and Elgin, and a whole lot of debt and regret. But by then, it’ll be too late. They'll have gotten everything that they wanted, and we'll have exactly what our apathy deserves - nothing.

 

                                                                                                                                            -Eric

Busing Agreement

            I have spoken to the superintendents from both Central and Starmont many times. I have been mainly focusing on Wadena here when I speak to them. I know of about 6 kids currently open enrolled to Central from here in town. I do not believe those kids will be coming back to Valley. They were open enrolled out long before this Whole Grade Sharing fiasco came down the pike. I don’t know of any children from town here who are open enrolled at Starmont. I know there has been some interest from other families, but how serious they are is something I don’t know at this point.

            Both schools are going to ask our school board for permission to send their buses into our district. Any such agreement by law has to be a reciprocal agreement, meaning we can send our buses into their districts as well. I spoke to my cousin Tim Durnan who lives in the Postville district and sends his kids to Valley about this, and he said that he had to get permission from Postville to allow the Valley bus to come to his home out near Gunder to pick his kids up. I assume this means there is an agreement in place already with the Postville district. I'm not 100% sure though, but based upon the information that Allan Nelson gave me, there must be.

          Allan Nelson, the superintendent from Central told me that he looked into the rules on this and he said that these agreements cannot limit how far buses can go into a district or who they can or cannot pick up. These arrangements are done mainly on a “good faith” agreement. First, it has to be in the “receiving” district's interest to pick the kids up. I highly doubt Starmont would send a bus to the northern edge of Valley’s district to pick up 3 kids. Starmont is only looking at any kids from the Wadena area currently and they said that they really don’t have any plans to go any further north than that. And for the record, Starmont is a much better fit for us than West Union. It’s almost a better fit than our current school in Elgin. It’s about the same distance to both the Elgin and Starmont campus from Wadena. There are less stop signs going to Starmont and you can get there about 5 minutes faster than you can to the Elgin campus. West Union is much further for us. While it may only be about 9 miles for those from Clermont and Elgin, it’s about 16 from the middle of town here to the school building on the northeast edge of West Union. We also have to weave through a few of West Union's streets to get there from here.

            Central on the other hand already enjoys the benefit of about 6 children from our town. The Orr kids who live near our western border. Tim told me that his kids are set to go to Central next year. Central is a better fit for his family. I don’t think Central is going to come too far into our district either. They’re mainly interested in the kids from Wadena who are already open enrolled in their district, and those few families who feel Central would be a better fit for them.

            If this Whole Grade Sharing is going to be the cat’s rear end as the proponents say, then why not open up the borders? Shouldn’t families from outside our district see the shining city on the hill that West Union will become when we WGS? Shouldn’t they be flocking to get their kids into our mega school with all of its tremendous opportunities that we’ve been told about? Why keep our borders closed? It’s because they know it’s not the great beacon of light that they’ve promised. Anything so good wouldn’t need all the spit and polish that they’ve been putting on this deal. A lot of people want out, and rightfully so. They’re not going to attract new families to this new district. Who wants to send their kids all the way to West Union to be a part of a school that large? Open up the borders to the buses and let’s find out. You’ll be able to send yours into their districts too. Put your money where your mouth is.

            The Valley board is set to make a decision on this matter soon. I believe it will be on the agenda February 18^th, 2013. I’m willing to bet it’ll be another 4-1 vote. It won’t stop me from open enrolling my children out. It’ll only steel my resolve to see this board voted out in the next two elections. My kids will only return if & when Valley has it's high school back.

                                                                                                                                       Eric
 

                                                                                                            

We’re not alone.

          As I said in my letters directly to the board members, and in the ones I put in the Echo – we are not alone in facing budget shortfalls! However, I spoke to the superintendents of both Central and Starmont and both of them said that while Whole Grade Sharing is an option for them, their boards have decided against it at this point and instead decided to pursue other options. On the KCTN website, we find the following news about how Central plans to handle the situation. Compare it to our approach of shutting our high school down and condemning our school to closure.

                                                                                                            -Eric

 Central Board

By: KCTN News

 Feb 6th, 2013 

The Central School Board Tuesday considered options to balance the school district budget by June 30, 2015. Board members elected to go to single section classrooms in grades 4-7 for the 2013-2014 school year and to start multi-age classrooms for K-5 in the 2014-2015 school year.

Implementing those measures will reduce one middle school and two elementary positions, saving approximately $200,000. There are 471 students currently enrolled at the school.


---

Sumner and Fredericksburg officially Merge

       Looking at KCRG tonight, they’re showing the vote for the merger as 728 for and 25 against. This is exactly what Whole Grade Sharing is supposed to lead to. This is Whole Grade Sharing at work. Whole Grade Sharing will lead to consolidation.

Read the story in the Waterloo Courier Here


---

Stuff in the Echo

            I got the Echo this evening. I was quite disappointed to see that nobody else has written anything in support of saving our school. With so many telling me that they enjoyed the letters that I put in the paper, I was hoping that others would take the opportunity to add their voice as well. I can’t afford to pay the price to the Echo every time a letter needs put in the paper. I see Molumby and Willhite both had lengthy letters, well over 350 words. Any bets on whether they were charged or not? And for the record, what’s with all the “quotes” that these two use? They cannot write a single article without having quotes from someone in it. Eileen Schlawin’s piece several weeks ago had a quote from Henry Ford. I could care less about the quotes of others. I want to know what these guys have to say about us losing our school!

            What’s their answer about the eventual closure of our building in Elgin in ten years or less? I’ve brought it up twice in the paper. Has anyone else noticed their silence on the issue? What about their answers to local control being lost? Not a peep. What about the eventual merger in the future? Again, barely a word. They just say there are no immediate plans. Their silence on these issues speaks volumes. I’m not just crying wolf here. This is what is coming down the road. If we don’t stop it now, it’ll be too late later. I am of the belief that we have just three years to save this school. If we cannot change the board in three years, our goose will be cooked. If nobody takes the effort to stop these guys, then how can you complain about losing your school?

            They like to talk about the future, but their vision is lacking some very important details. Their future involves a school sitting between Elgin and Clermont in the weeds. Their future involves 1250 students being shipped to West Union for school. Their future involves a property tax base that will stretch from Chickasaw County to Clayton County, from Highway 93 north to about Postville. 49% of my property tax bill is for the school. Our voice will be diminished as we’ll have less say about how our money is spent. In their future, all of our tax money will go to West Union. They’ll be the ones to boast about the new schools, and have all the jobs and benefits that come with it. We’ll just be “tax base” for them.

            Do you know why they don’t want Valley to dissolve? If Valley dissolved, the boundaries would be redrawn and different parts of Valley would go to different districts. Wadena very well may go to Starmont or Central. Areas north of Clermont, and maybe even the town itself might just get sent to Postville. Under this WGS plan, the next step is consolidation. In consolidation, North Fayette gets to inherit the entire prize that Valley is. They get every single ounce of tax base and folks, I’m telling you, that’s exactly what the plan is. It’s doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it. This plan is very insidious. However, if nobody is willing to stand up and fight for this school, then I guess we deserve to lose it. I know it sounds harsh, but that’s the truth.

            KinDee went to the school board meeting last night. She said that there were maybe 5 people in the peanut gallery at most. 5 people! No wonder these guys think they can do whatever they want.

            For those not from the area, there were only two letters in the open forum in this week’s Echo. One is the letter from Duane Willhite which I have already linked to in the WGS articles section of this blog. I bet he didn’t have to pay to run his letter. The other is from Cathy Molumby and is below. I doubt the Echo charged her either. Again, I’d like to know what the hell the deal is with all these quotes that they use………do they really think it makes them sound smart?????

 

Click here for Molumby’s letter.

Board Meeting Tonight 02/04/2013

          When I spoke to Tim Orr the other day, he said that there was a board meeting at the school tonight. I believe it’s at 7 o’clock. For sure they will be dealing with that new wrestling room and storm shelter. They will also be dealing with reciprocity agreements for allowing busses to cross school boundaries at some point, but he wasn’t sure if that was going to be tonight or at the next regular meeting. I’ll go into that reciprocity agreement more later.
          Tim told me that he was all for this new storm shelter and wrestling room, only if we would have kept our school. However, with this WGS agreement, the odds are that our school building will close in the next ten years as WGS leads to consolidation. He says, “Why spend the money and put us in debt when we’ll be closing the school anyhow?” I’m paraphrasing for him, but I agree with his message. If we’re going to close the school anyhow, why spend money on upgrades?
          I’ll use the example of our school in Wadena again. Look at it. The old part of the building is in rough shape, but it has a nice kitchen area and the gymnasium was in pretty good shape when they closed the school. There it sits rotting. Why spend our tax dollars just so that we can build something that will sit and rot in ten years?

Open Enrollment Ends March 1st!

          Open enrollment ends March 1^st. I’m not going to go into all the reasons why you should open enroll your children out of Valley if you’re able to right now, but if you’re on the fence about it, I highly recommend that you fill out the forms and submit them before the March 1^st deadline. This allows you the option of having your children go elsewhere if you want at a later time. Since so few details have been worked out between North Fayette and Valley at this point, there may be something that you don’t like happen after March 1^st, and if you haven’t submitted an open enrollment application, it’ll be too late to switch. You’ll be stuck at Valley for at least a year. On the other hand, if North and Valley hammer out an agreement that you like, you can always choose to keep your kids at Valley. Just because you file the open enrollment papers doesn’t mean that you HAVE to open enroll them elsewhere. It just opens the door for you and gives you the option should you feel the need arise. I personally think it sends a strong message to the school board and administrators and puts them on notice that they better do what’s in the best interest of your child or else you’re leaving, and taking your tax dollars as well.

            For those who are low income, there is transportation assistance available. Check the appropriate box and send in proof of your income. Generally, if you receive free or reduced lunch, you should qualify for this assistance. Make sure to fill the forms out completely. Make sure you fill out a form for EACH child. You must file the forms with both schools, the one you’re leaving (sending district) and the one you are considering sending your child to (receiving district). You may also choose more than one receiving district and choose which school you want to send your child to later. Currently, my wife and I are considering Central and Starmont for our children. Both are really good schools. Starmont has about 650 students and is about the same distance away as Valley is from us. Central has about 450 students and is about a mile further away than West Union from us. Valley currently has about 440 students and North is in the 800 student range. Our middle and high school kids will be in class sizes approximately the size of those found in the Oelwein School district, which currently has about 1280 students. This is one of the reasons that I’m not in favor of this WGS and eventual consolidation plan.

            Below you will find a link to the open enrollment form that you’ll need to fill out and submit for each of your students. Remember, March 1^st is the deadline. After that, you cannot open enroll out for the next school year. I highly recommend that if you have any doubt – fill out the forms and leave yourself some options. A lot of details have yet to be worked out over this new arrangement. You might not like some of the details and you might just have to live with it if you don’t take this opportunity now.

Click Here for the Open Enrollment Form (You need Adobe Acrobat to open this file)

(If the above file is buggy, try opening it in Firefox. The file is the same one that is found on the Iowa Department of Education website, and has been buggy for me in IE, but works fine in Firefox)

Whole Grade Sharing Leads to Consolidation

            As I scour the internet, I’ll link to articles that prove my point that Whole Grade Sharing leads to consolidation. You’ll have to click on the links to see the full articles. It’ll take me some time to build this post up and create all the links. Check back on this post from time to time as I add more. Let me know if you find a dead link. Thanks.

                                                                                                                         Eric  

EHK-Exira Boards receive update on Whole Grade Sharing & reorganization

            The Elk Horn-Kimballton and Exira Boards of Education held a joint meeting Monday evening, in Elk Horn. Superintendent Dean Schnoes told KJAN News the schools are on the right path towards consolidation, a path that began last year, when the districts entered into a Whole Grade Sharing agreement,…..(read full article here from KJAN.com)

Information presented on Fredericksburg, Sumner school merger

…..The superintendent said historically schools make the move to consolidation from whole-grade sharing in three or four years…….(read full article here from nhtrib.com)

 

Small-town Iowa schools struggle to survive amid shrinking enrollment 

Woodbury Central Superintendent Doug Glackin had this to say in a Sioux City Journal article last summer;

“Whole grade sharing is the first step, you kind of test the waters first,” Glackin said. “But eventually that leads to consolidation. You have one school board, one administrative staff, one set of teachers and one school identity.” (read full article here at siouxcityjournal.com)

February 2013 letter from North Fayette Sup’t Duane Willhite

            Notice in the following passage from his letter how he mentions that there are no immediate plans for a merger, but I guarantee you, he knows it’s in the cards.

             “To be perfectly honest we have not merged districts nor are there immediate plans to do so.” (read his letter here)

 

Algona, Titonka voters OK Consolidation

Whole Grade Sharing success story!

''The reality is, it's kind of bittersweet,'' said Marty Fonley, who is the superintendent of both districts. ''It's hard when a community loses its school. However, the positive is this shows the success of the (Whole Grade) sharing that's been going on for years.'' (Read full article here at messengernews.net)

'Grade sharing' may be worth investigating

Iowa first began its grade sharing concept in 1980 between two high schools in north central Iowa. At that time, according to Clarion-Goldfield Community School District officials, students at Goldfield Community School in grades 9-12 attended Clarion High School during the morning and returned to Goldfield for a class and extracurricular activities. By 1993, the Clarion and Goldfield districts merged. Today, Clarion-Goldfield is currently in another grade sharing agreement, this time with the Dows Community School. Together the schools serve nearly 1,000 students. (read full article here at aberdeennews.com)

Recommendation to Tri-Board: Whole-grade sharing

Armstrong-Ringsted, North Kossuth and Sentral school districts finally learned the professional recommendation: Share.

Jerry McCall of Educational Consulting Services of Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday laid out his advice on how the districts can remain viable for the next decade. In a three-phase program stretching out to 2030, McCall recommended having a whole-grade sharing plan in place by February 2012.

As for consolidation, McCall mentioned the three districts can look at that in Phase II, or when the student population drops below 700. But some internal changes could already begin. McCall said that even with whole-grade sharing, all three districts could fall under one superintendent.

"Could we start consolidating services before we actually consolidate?" asked Armstrong-Ringsted board member Jim Boyer. "We're still operating three separate budgets."

McCall said that is a possibility, but he prefers to deal with the general ideas, and leave the business details to the districts. (Read full article here at the esthervilledailynews.com)

 

Are the proponents of WGS really going to try and continue to tell us that this isn't going to lead to a consolidation? It's about time they become very honest with us and quit being coy about the issue. We have every right to have the truth about their future intentions.
                                                                                                                                                    -Eric
                                                                                                                            

Some Recent Articles

I wrote a couple of letters to the editor these past few weeks. I clipped and scanned some of the articles that I refer to in my latest letter. To view them, click the link at the end of the post here. You'll see the photo of the North Fayette Board enraptured when they received word that we gave ourselves to them on a silver platter.

 

Click Here

 

                                                                                                                        Eric