Divisions in CMB partnership brought to forefront at joint meeting

BAXTER — The future of the 28-year CMB sports sharing agreement was put into doubt Wednesday night, as school boards for the Collins-Maxwell and Baxter Community School Districts met in a joint meeting and failed to reach a consensus on a common future.

School board members from both districts outlined very different visions for the next phase of a CMB partnership. Baxter continued its push for whole-grade sharing with Collins-Maxwell to boost academic offerings while keeping the school district small, which as seen as an attribute to many Baxter parents and teachers.

But Collins-Maxwell outlined a plan to create a regional school district, consisting of not only the CMB schools but also reaching out to other area districts in hopes of creating a larger 3A school system.

The school boards brought in a representative from the Iowa School Board Association to facilitate the meeting. During the nearly 3.5-hour community discussion both boards began the night continuing their talks on the feasibility of whole-grade sharing which exposed a weaknesses in their current partnership.

Baxter Board president Jon Northrup said despite four years of whole-grade sharing discussion, he didn’t see a current plan in the works. Baxter board member Debbie Meyer was frank in her feelings Wednesday toward the current state of the CMB partnership. By the end of the meeting, Meyer and many other community members in the audience were tears as she described what she saw coming in the weeks ahead.

“I think our partnership is broken,” she said. “Although severing ties with a long-term partner is sad, I feel like continuing this partnership is difficult. We don’t share the same vision, we don’t have the same values, our leadership saddles their own line. And I know it’s hard for the students right now, but I think long-term it’s what’s best for the students. A very wise former board member once said, ‘as long as you keep in mind what’s best for the students, you’ll make the right decision.’”

Baxter board member Colette Kunkel echoed Meyer’s statements and expressed her frustration with treading water on the whole-grade sharing issue for several years. She said Baxter doesn’t share the vision of its CMB partners.

“I do feel like our partnership is broken, that it’s dysfunctional in the way that you don’t respect us enough or you didn’t value us enough,” she said. “Now that you’re in the position you’re in, that’s why we wanted to whole-grade share and everything we went over because we tried to stay ahead of this.”

Collins-Maxwell has experienced its own set of problems in the last six months, dealing with the resignation for former superintendent Jason Ellingson for undisclosed reason and sweeping budget cuts due to declining enrollment. The Tri-County Times reported it could mean a 10.65 percent reduction in salary spending and a 3.25 percent decrease in teaching staff.

Baxter and Collins-Maxwell have been in talks to begin whole-grade sharing for nearly four years, but negotiations have never moved past initial conversation. In April, the two districts reached an agreement to share a transportation and athletic director which will bring $34,000 in additional funds from the state. Whole-grade sharing would bring more financial incentives for both districts, and allow Baxter and Collins-Maxwell to offer more than 30 new academic courses.

But this would also require shifting of school facilities. There has been contention over which town, Maxwell or Baxter, would keep the high school building. During the negotiations, Baxter school board members have been frustrated with the Collins-Maxwell district for taking with other area schools about operational sharing.

On May 9, Collins-Maxwell Interim Superintendent Tom Lane was scheduled to visit Ballard Community Schools to discuss operational sharing for the superintendent, business manager and curriculum director positions, which would provide more state money. This was after Baxter offered to discuss sharing Baxter superintendent Todd Martin.

In defense of the big-tent school idea, Lane said Wednesday Collins-Maxwell could not continue to pay for these leadership staff positions alone. However, Lane fears that whole-grade or operational sharing with just Baxter is just a short-term solution and would cause an additional 20 percent of students to leave the Collins-Maxwell district.

“Baxter and Collins-Maxwell have a long history in athletics, and we need to continue to build on that. I think we’ve proven to be great partners and we can continue to be great partners, but I’d like to see these two districts lead a different route,” Lane said. “I’d like to see us reach out to a couple of our partnering smaller school districts and try to build something that’s totally sustainable, not something that will exist for a short of time and declining enrollment and state supplemental aid will cause us to be looking at other options far too soon.”

Teachers, parents and two students addressed the board after the contentious conversation Wednesday. McCade Gowdy is a Baxter freshman who runs cross country, is a CMB soccer player and was a basketball manager in middle school. He stood at the mic telling both boards that the students don’t see Collins, Maxwell or Baxter when they are on the sports field.

“You’ve been saying it’s all about the kids ... the kids from Collins-Maxwell and Baxter, we get along,” he said. “We work well together. We don’t label each other based on our schools. We don’t fight because we’re from different schools and I think if we work together well on the sports field, I don’t see why we wouldn’t work together well academically.”

Although the boards left Wednesday night without an official decision regarding the CMB sports partnership, walking away might be harder than just leaving the table. Both school districts late last year approved continuing the sharing agreement for an additional two years.

In an interview following Wednesday night’s meeting, Martin would not say if the partnership agreement could be broken, but he did allude to the difficulties it would put on, not only on the CMB school districts, but other Heart of Iowa Conference teams.

“Whatever happens we have conference mates, we have obligations in terms of athletic schedules. We certainly want to take that into consideration,” Martin said. “I think we owe it to our neighbors and we owe it to our conference mates, what ever happens.”

The Baxter school board is scheduled to meet May 23 for its regular meeting and will have the CMB partnership on the agenda. Collins-Maxwell will meet on Monday.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com