Baxter ‘drawing line in sand’ for Collins-Maxwell

BAXTER — In a special meeting scheduled to discuss CMB business, the Baxter school board drew the line in the sand for Collins-Maxwell requiring a decision regarding whole grade sharing by mid-July.

At Monday’s meeting, superintendent Todd Martin revisited five pledges with board members. The pledges are articles he and Collins-Maxwell Superintendent Tom Lane compiled during a sit-down meeting a couple weeks ago.

“We both sat down and discussed what it would take for us to move forward. We started listing off things we would have to do to move forward and that was the foundation for these pledges,” Martin said. “Tom and I both walked away from the table committed to communicating with our board saying ‘if we can do these things are we agreeable to move forward?’”

In order for whole grade sharing, both district’s school boards must come to an agreement on the pledges by their July regular board meetings. Collins-Maxwell’s is July 18 and Baxter’s is a week later on July 25.

A condition read by Martin said if both districts are not committed to the pledges by July’s regular board meetings then Baxter will begin exploring other sharing options.

“In other words we’re drawing a line in the sand by saying the decision has to be made,” Martin said. “Our public needs it, our kids need it, our staff need it and we need it in order to be able to build within our system.”

The first pledge drafted by Martin and Lane is to begin whole grade sharing no later than the fall semester of the 2018-19 school year. The Baxter school board showed interest in moving the timeline up one year if it’s possible for Collins-Maxwell.

The second pledge says the site of the high school will be in Baxter, Collins-Maxwell will host the middle school, and each school district will maintain an elementary building.

The third pledge is in regard to operational sharing and requires each school to consult with its partner for any opportunities for sharing before reaching out to other districts. Within that pledge it’s mentioned that a shared curriculum director, business manager, transportation director and director of operational maintenance is to be considered for the 2017-18 school year.

Martin noted that in order for whole grade sharing to begin in 2018-19, the implementation of a shared curriculum director is needed by 2017-18.

Pledge four requires the review of all roles within the schools to consider possible opportunities for the sharing of staff members and programs. Martin said this kind of sharing could take place very soon if both school boards jump aboard the same route toward whole grade sharing.

The final pledge was a compromise from Baxter, and that is to revisit the regional school concept Collins-Maxwell has shown vast interest in, but only at a later date if the CMB partnership strengthens.

The Baxter school board approved the language of these pledges 5-0 during Monday night’s special meeting.

Martin said he has not heard from Lane about any school board conversation on the Collins-Maxwell side about the five pledges, but said the Baxter board is willing to work with them.

“Just because we are throwing the pledges out doesn’t mean we are set in concrete. We want to be clear that Collins-Maxwell, once they digest this, has the opportunity to work with us over the next month to adjust the language,” Martin said. “At the end of July we want there to be no question to what they are committing to.”

Baxter and Collins-Maxwell have been sharing athletics for 28 years. But due to a lack of trust between the two school boards and differences in opinions on which direction each board wants to go in regards to whole grade sharing, the sports sharing agreement has been put risk the past few months.

The Baxter school board has discussed ending the sports sharing agreement following the 2016-17 school year if Collins-Maxwell doesn’t agree on a common future and commit to whole grade sharing.

Action on continuation or discontinuation of the sports sharing agreement after the 2016-17 school year did not take place Monday.

Contact Alex Olp at aolp@newtondailynews