(Emmetsburg)– Emmetsburg and Ruthven-Ayrshire are among school districts in the area looking into the possibility of sharing arrangements.
Emmetsburg Superintendent John Joynt says the two school boards held a joint meeting recently to look into the options, including a half-day arrangement, which he says seems to have the most interest for now, atleast…(click here for comment.) “Right now we’re discussing where they would send their high school students to Emmetsburg High School for the morning classes. The exciting part of that is that we send the majority of juniors and seniors to Iowa Lakes first thing in the morning and they can send their kids to Iowa Lakes and come here to pick up some classes and then go back to Ruthven for some of their core classes in the afternoon. It’s kind of exciting to talk about, think about.”
Joynt says efficiency is what’s driving the discussion…(click here for comment.) “If everybody came back as planned they would have 71 kids to send over, and we’re building schedules on that. Part of the plan is we showed them our schedule this year and then all the room we have. You know we aren’t terribly efficient here at the high school. We have some very small classes. That’s the trouble all schools have, is that you have to often teach all these courses, and then if you don’t have kids in them it doesn’t make it very efficient. So we want to make sure we get them filled up and make sure we’re running the school efficiently.”
Meanwhile, Joynt says the talks continue, with one factor in particular that still needs to be decided before anything can be finalized…(click here for comment.) “What’s it going to cost Ruthven, what are we going to charge them and what do they want to pay? That’s kind of what we’re negotiating right now.”
Joynt says the discussion have not included athletics, adding Ruthven-Ayrshire is currently in an agreement with Graettinger-Terril when it comes to that.
