The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By David Grimes -Quill correspondent
COLCHESTER - Despite the defeat Tuesday of a consolidation proposal involving four west-central Illinois school districts, two districts where the measure passed want to continue pursuing a merger.
A committee of 10 members from LaHarpe, Roseville, Colchester and Northwest school districts met Thursday night at Sciota to assess fallout from the defeated measure and determine what steps need to be taken next.
Voters at Roseville and LaHarpe voted 2-to-1 against the consolidation, while voters in the Northwest and Colchester districts voted for the merger by about 2-to-1.
Curiously, the follow-up building bond question passed.
The consolidation question needed to pass by 50 percent plus one vote in each district, whereas the bond issue needed only a cumulative 50 percent plus one from all four districts.
State law now requires that the committee of 10 provides an amended petition for a consolidation question involving Colchester and Northwest. Because the original measure passed in those districts, voters may be asked as soon as April.
If each school board decides to pursue the two-school agreement, their respective board secretaries have 30 days to submit the petition to the state superintendent of schools, who then has 30 days to render a decision.
Colchester Supt. Jerry Meyer said Friday he did not know what his school board would decide to do. Concerning the defeat of the four-district ballot question, Meyer speculated voters in the LaHarpe district didn't want to be part of an agreement that included Roseville. "And there may have been some who felt the same about Colchester," he added.
Some LaHarpe residents attending the Thursday meeting at Sciota wondered if there isn't some way they could now be included on the April ballot. But Meyer doesn't see it happening. "According to the way the law is written, only those districts where the majority voted in favor of the original proposal can be included in an amended petition," he said.
Another major challenge of the revised agreement will be how to unravel the meticulously created seven equally populous voting districts the Committee of 10 drew up. The strategy was designed to maintain fairness when electing members to the new district's school board. "What we're involved with now has never been done before because of that," Meyer said. "It complicates the amendment."
Public meetings in the Northwest and Colchester districts will be scheduled soon. Meyer did not know what plans LaHarpe was making, but said Roseville might look at coupling with Warren County school districts.
He said the rigors of seeking legal opinions and gathering information for a follow-up consolidation plan is time-consuming and stressful.
But as for dealing with Tuesday's defeat?
"I've already stepped over Tuesday," Meyer said.