Rising City Schools looking east and west
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - 5:51 pm
Shelby, David City districts asked to make merger proposalsBy Larry Peirce
Banner-Press Editor
In June, it appeared the Rising City Public Schools board had considered preliminary options for a merger with Shelby and David City school districts, and David City was the clear favorite.
Now it appears the RCPS board is having second thoughts about Shelby's potential.
At its Oct. 19 meeting, the board voted to have its merger committee meet with the Shelby Public Schools board and have the boards of David City and Shelby provide proposals for a merger. The proposals are to be reviewed by the RCPS merger committee followed by a review by the full school board, according to the school board minutes.
On Tuesday, DCPS Superintendent Jerry Phillips said that the David City committee has not met with their Rising City counterparts for some time, after initial meetings were held in August.
DCPS has invited the RCPS board to visit the schools in David City, but no visit has been scheduled. Phillips said he was told the RCPS board was planning to meet with Shelby.
The DCPS board is prepared to put together a proposal, he said.
"If asked to do so, we will develop a proposal based on providing sound educational opportunities for students and maintaining a responsible budget," Phillips said. "David City is interested in a partnership with the Rising City district. A merger with David City would be a viable option for them and a merged district would provide a strong educational system for the long term."
On Tuesday, Shelby Superintendent Larry Stick said he had talked to Derr about the merger options some time ago, but the Shelby School Board had not. Two Shelby board members visited Rising City on Oct. 19. Stick said Rising City and Shelby have much in common and could make a good district.
"We hate to see the opportunity slip buy us without being able to put something together with Rising City," Stick said.
Shelby has grown in the past year with influx of students from Duncan, where the school closed.
The school and the village of Shelby got together to build a new library at the school, and the old library was converted to classrooms.
At the Oct. 19 RCPS meeting, the board stalled on setting a Jan. 1 deadline for proposals to be received from Shelby and David City. Back in August, the RCPS board had approved staying open through the 2010-11 school year, Superintendent Michael Derr said on Tuesday. The board first considered taking proposals and deciding on them by Jan. 1.
But on Oct. 19, "That deadline was seen as too short a time period to make the decision. The same motion without the deadline was approved," Derr said.
The Rising City board has received a number of comments at its meetings in recent months from patrons who want the board to consider Shelby.
Those comments followed Derr's June visit to David City.
At that June meeting, Derr said: "The board of Rising City wants to put forth all their efforts toward making some kind of agreement, negotiations, plans, to work out something with David City over the next couple of years, to form one district."
DCPS formed a committee to meet with a group from Rising City's board to begin merger talks.
Derr said the RCPS board has not received a formal proposal.
"Neither Shelby's nor David City's boards have provided a proposal, there just has been information gathered by (RCPS) administration," Derr said.
For most of the last 10 years, Rising City has attempted to keep its numbers of students up by recruiting new students into the district, many from Columbus. At the same time, some students' families have opted out of the district to Shelby and to David City.
Derr said in June the RCPS board could see how the future was stacking up.
He said in June that many factors pointed toward coming to David City, and that the RCPS board hopes to keep a school building open in Rising City.
"If there is any way to do that as we push forward for a merger, we would really like to do that," Derr said.
