Villisca, Stanton meet to discuss merger

VILLISCA — The Villisca School Board determined a new timeline and additional plans in anticipation for Whole Grade Sharing.

Last Tuesday, the Villisca School Board held a special joint board meeting with the Stanton School Board at the Villisca High School Gymnasium.

The following night, Villisca's Board held a joint board meeting with Corning's School Board in Corning's High School lunch room.

Both meetings focused on preliminary plans, as well as steering committees. At the Corning meeting, it was suggested for the curriculum directors from both districts meet, as well as fifth and sixth grade teachers.

For Villisca, they are planning to send a survey to its citizens within the next couple of weeks.  The Steering Committee for Villisca will be utilizing the Extension Office's resources to help with putting together the survey.

Villisca's steering committee met Thursday, discussing the leadership and direction of the steering committee, as well as what they were looking for from the survey and the distribution, collection, tallying and presentation of the survey.

They also discussed the timeline for doing whole grade sharing.
Villisca established their steering committee Sept. 15. The committee, according to Stone features a cross section of the community, according to Stone.

Greg Graham, Donna Robinson and Nick Gray represent the local businesses. Shona Means, Brenda DeVore and T.J. Quick are representing the school district. Kristen Fast, Michelle Dixon and Shannon Figgins represent parents in the district. Finally, Mark Focht, Chad Jacobs and Jim Robinson are community representatives. The committee will also have three high school students

“We want randomness with this, we want a good cross section of what we have to offer,” Stone said.

Stone said the committee will meet as needed.

Stantons survey was done 9-10 months ago, Stanton Superintendent Judd Ashley said at the meeting.

Stantons steering committee is made up of Brett Hultman, Tom Weis, Denise Taylor, John Hanson, Shawna Olson, Bryan Hopf, Mike Burke and Katie Hart. Resources working with Stanton's committee are Sheila Mainquist, the guidance counselor, Don Hicks, the activities director, Dennis McClain the principal, Rick Boyer, a high school teacher and Susan Peterson, a elementary teacher.

The Villisca School Board also confirmed they will approve two separate letters of intent for whole grade sharing with the Corning and Stanton School Districts at the next regular board meeting, which takes place in October. By law, Villisca needs to do this 90 days prior to signing a whole grade sharing agreement.

Another agenda item from last weeks joint meetings was the legal timeline and when Villisca might make a decision. The Villisca District has until before Feb. 1 to sign an agreement. They also need to have a public meeting where the public can offer input at least 30 days before the Board can officially vote.

Villisca Superintendent William Stone said at last Tuesday's meeting that the public hearing would take place some time in December.
Holding an open house was another agenda item from last weeks meetings. Scheduling is difficult for the three districts on account of conflicting schedules. However, there was a discussion about holding the open house on a Saturday morning. Oct. 15 could be a possible date for Villisca and Stanton to have an open house.

The likely scenario would be for Villisca to have separate open houses on different Saturdays.

“The Villisca Board thought it would be a mess trying to do guided tours and answer questions from two different districts,” Stone said.

Future joint board meetings are expected, but not likely until after the open house tours.

Villisca will hold a public forum on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the high school gym, allowing community members to ask questions or voice their opinion.