School Merging

Trevor Preston, President Lyons-Decatur School Board P.O. Box 282
Lyons, NE 68038

Dear President Preston,

I write on behalf of the Center for Rural Affairs regarding the proposed merger of the Lyons-Decatur School District.

First, I want to thank and applaud our Board, our administrators, teachers, staff and students. Your countless hours and level of dedication to our school and community places us in the enviable position of operating a financial stable district that scores at the top of educational achievement.

We are concerned that the proposed county-wide merger will have a negative effect on the Lyons- Decatur community. At the same time, we have a number of questions about the promised cost savings and the effect on the quality of education offered.

When considering where to build a new office 10 years ago, the Board of Directors and staff of the Center considered several communities in the area. After weighing many options, the Board chose Lyons. While the organization weighed a number of factors, the strong K-12 school close to home offered by Lyons-Decatur Northeast was an important factor in making our decision.

As you know, the Center for Rural Affairs is no stranger to the challenges facing small towns in Nebraska and across the nation. One thing we have learned through our work in many small communities is the power that local leaders have to shape the future of a community. Today we find ourselves together confronting just such a matter.

While we understand and appreciate the desire to fully explore the option of a county-wide merger, we urge the board to step back and carefully examine a range of options. Our concerns at this time break down into three general areas.

Educational Quality

We understand the Board is interested in maintaining high educational achievement and offering a diverse set of courses, as well as engaging students in extracurricular activities.

However, our review of the research shows that smaller schools outperform larger ones in educational achievement. Of 22 major studies examining academic achievement, none found that larger schools are superior to small schools in educational outcomes.

Furthermore, a review of 23 studies found that extracurricular participation rates in small schools is higher. Despite more diverse extracurricular offerings at larger schools, the overall percent of the student body who participates in these activities falls as school size increases.

Finally, and perhaps most noteworthy, in a 1999 report, Small Schools, Big Results, the Center for Rural Affairs examined high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates for high schools in Nebraska. Our research found that schools with high school enrollment less than 70 students have graduation rates of 98% and college attendance rates of 69%. High schools with enrollments between 300 and 600 students (the category the proposed county-wide high school would fall into) see a lower graduation rate of 90% and college attendance rate of 60%.

Under a merged district, we could expect fewer of our students from Lyons-Decatur to graduate and fewer yet to attend college, experiencing a nearly 10-point decline in both categories.

Local Control & Effect on Community

Residents of the Lyons-Decatur district must ask what the long-term prospect of our elementary school is in a county-wide district. At a recent public meeting in Oakland, the Oakland-Craig Board openly discussed how their recent investment in a new elementary facility would ensure the long-term prospect of maintaining an elementary in Oakland.

Where will that leave the Lyons facility five or ten years from now? Under the proposed plan, our elementary facility would immediately become the smallest of the three, with a new facility right down the road. Furthermore, we would place control of it in a new board where Lyons would have a minority stake.

We understand that a merger petition could put some assurances in place regarding the existing Lyons- Decatur facility, but ultimately, we would place the future of our elementary school in the hands of a Board and a public body heavily weighted away from our district.

Furthermore, the proposed location of a new facility on Highway 32 between Oakland and Tekamah is a particularly poor deal for the Lyons-Decatur district. Every trip to the new school would give Lyons residents a chance to buy gas, groceries or hardware outside of our town. Lyons residents would travel 15 miles. Decatur residents would travel 20 miles by back roads, or further by highway and passing through one or two other towns to reach the school.

Research backs up the concern. One study found that losing just a high school led to an 8% decline in retail sales and a 6% decline in local labor. Communities with schools also maintain higher property values and experience less population decline.

Ten years ago, the Center for Rural Affairs invested nearly $500,000 in a new facility in Lyons, compelled in part by the quality of life and strong local school system offered by the community. Those remain important factors to the Center as we recruit a staff from across the nation to come work in our Lyons office.

Lack of Clarity Surrounding Projected Cost Savings

The Board has suggested that a merged district would operate at a lower per student cost, allowing for lower property taxes. While we do not believe that a driving goal of Board should be to lower the investment our community makes in education, we also believe that the assumptions used for facility

cost, needed bond levy, and number of positions to be eliminated have not been thoroughly examined or scrutinized yet.

Again, decades of research shows that promised cost savings frequently do not materialize when districts merge. We are concerned that we could easily find ourselves in a situation where we have closed the high school in three districts and not saved any money in the process.

In Closing

There is no question that our school faces long-term challenges. Sharing teachers, sports and extracurricular activities with a neighboring district should be explored. Interlocal agreements, unification and two-way mergers that allow communities to use existing facilities and maintain a strong school presence in as many towns as possible should all be examined and considered with as much seriousness as the current proposal.

But right now our school is financially stable and providing a great education. There is no urgency for Lyons-Decatur, and we should be careful to not be compelled forward into a poor option by another district’s urgency.

Let’s step back. Rather than rushing to a vote on merger planning, we urge the Board to carefully examine more options. The goal should be to provide a quality education, and do right by our community. It is a dual goal, and we can achieve both.

Our school is something to be proud of. Let’s be careful not to trade it away hastily. Sincerely,

Brian Depew,