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| FIRST ON WGIL: Abingdon, Avon, & Bushnell-Prairie City School Boards Approve Feasibility Study |
POSTED 9:00am 8/13/09 The Abingdon School Board is agreeing to continue talks about the possibility of reorganization with two neighboring school districts.
The board Wednesday night heard from Avon District 176 board members Diane Thompson and April Tatum, who presented information about the purpose of a feasibility study involving Abingdon, Avon and Bushnell-Prairie City. Feasibility studies include the collection of curriculum, finance, enrollment, facilities and other data from participating districts - and a recommendation on reorganization.
Avon Superintendent Dan Oakley last October invited the Bushnell-Prairie City, Abingdon, Monmouth-Roseville and Spoon River Valley districts to participate in reorganization talks. Monmouth-Roseville and Spoon River Valley have since dropped out.
Tatum says declining enrollment in her district is a serious problem.
"Our current enrollment at (Avon) high school, we're dipping awfully close to 60, and that's just unbelievable to us because when I got on the board we had 100, and I've been there 10 years and we're at 60. I don't even know how to respond to that except it's sad. That's the truth of it."
Both Tatum and Thompson say the three communities share many of the same goals and values, and they have more similarities than differences. Tatum says some of the goals officials want to achieve through a possible reorganization include expanding the high school curriculum and extra curricular activities, maintaining rural education and retaining the elementary schools in each district.
The Abingdon School Board voted 6-0 to move forward with the feasibility study, which has also been approved by the two other districts' school boards. Officials plan to get started on it next month and they expect to have results in early January. |
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| 08 12 09 by Newsroom |
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