Burt County School District Consolidation Discussion

BURT COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT CONSOLIDATION DISCUSSION

By Fred Hansen, Superintendent LDNE

The Lyons-Decatur Northeast school board met in regular session on Monday, October 14, 2013.  The committee of Trevor Preston, Tracy Davis, Jim Vlach, and Lisa Christiansen presented to the rest of the board the information they received when they met on September 18, 2013 with board committees from Oakland-Craig and Tekamah-Herman discussing the possibility of a merger of all Burt County school districts.

The consolidation idea currently includes building a new 7-12 grade facility somewhere close to Hwy 32 between Oakland and Tekamah.  The idea also includes keeping an elementary facility in Lyons, Oakland, Tekamah, and closing the elementary at Herman.  The new district would be one of the largest Class C1 or smallest Class B schools in Nebraska with our current enrollment.

The School Board would like to hear from the patrons and parents of the district and will hold a special meeting on Monday, November 4, 2013 at 7:00 P.M. in the school gym, set for the purpose providing information to the public regarding a possible merger with Tekamah-Herman and Oakland-Craig, and allow for questions/answers and opinions to be heard on this idea.

After the committee provided their report I presented financial, enrollment, staffing, and curriculum projections of a merged district.  Here are a few highlights of that information using data from this 2013-14 school year.

Staffing the newly merged district could mean a reduction in staff from 129 to 112 staff members.  Recall that a new 7-12 grade facility would place all secondary staff together which would allow for reduction in force of about 12 secondary staff members which could save the new district approximately $900,000.00 annually.  The plan would also include a reduction in force of about 2.5 elementary staff members that could save the new district approximately $187,000.00 or a total savings of $1,087,000.00 annually.

Reduction in force in administration could also see a savings of $450,000 per year.  Other savings could include:  maintenance/operations of the Herman elementary facility – $90,000; Board of Education cost savings – $93,000; for a total possible savings of approximately $1,720,000.00 annually.  If this savings were to be spent on a bond issue it could raise approximately $35,000,000.00 over a 20 year period to build the 7-12 grade facility proposed in the merger.

The Department of Education has proven that Class B/C1 sized districts provide for the most cost efficient schools in Nebraska.  This size school usually has a student to teacher ratio of about 20 to 1.  Our 2011-12 Annual Report Card shows a 13 to 1 student to teacher ratio that limits our financial efficiency.

The projected enrollment of the new district would be 1176 students in grades K-12 if we were merged for the 2013-14 school year.  This enrollment is projected to drop to 997 in the 2020-2021 school year.  Other similar sized schools in Nebraska would be Seward (1380 students), Nebraska City (1333 students), and Platteview (1025 students).

The newly merged district could offer many more classes than we currently offer at LDNE.  We currently dropped our Industrial Technology program offering due to loss of a teacher and very small numbers of students in these classes.  We currently do not offer a Family Consumer Science program but this could be offered at the new district.   More classes could be offered in all other areas and the high school schedule and could allow for students to choose the classes they want instead of being forced to choose what is available each period.

The State Department of Education requires school districts to provide transportation for students to get to school or pay parents to deliver students to school or to a pickup point.  Tekamah-Herman and Oakland-Craig currently provide transportation and LDNE pays parents to deliver to a pickup point.  The newly merged district could provide transportation to all families in the new district.

The merged district would have a total valuation of $1,454,862,108.00.  This means 1 penny on the levy would raise $145,000.00.  The current valuation at LDNE is $377, 214, 597.00.  This means 1 penny on the levy would raise $37,000.00.   The projected financial picture could have a general fund levy as low as 68 cents.  Currently, LDNE has a general fund levy of 99 cents.  A bond levy of about 12 cents would raise the funds to pay for a $35,000,000 dollar facility.  This could translate into a net reduction in our general fund levy of about 20 cents (a 20% reduction).