Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada School Celebrates 10 Years (cont)

m Cross represented the former Rosston District.

Henley asked the steering committee to do four things: 1) contact the State Department of Education to see what it would take to meet the standards: 2) meet with an architect to find our how much it would take to construct a school; 3) find out the best way to begin annexation; and 4) get the property of all five districts appraised.

Bill Shirron, former superintendent of the Prescott District, was at the meeting in April. He said the Prescott District had been made the monster in the pre-annexation talks. He reported that he had invited the school districts from throughout the county to come to Prescott the preceding year to discuss the standards. From that he said that many had indicated that Prescott was trying to get the smaller districts to consolidate with them. He reported this was not true; that Prescott did not want the problems that were coming with the annexation; and that if all the districts were consolidated, a new high school would have to be built in the southern part of the county.

Rosston Seeks Release

Shirron told those present that the Prescott patrons living in the former Rosston District were seeking a release from Prescott so their children could be a part of the new district when it was formed. He stated several conditions that had to be met, which were passed by the Prescott board of Education, before the district would be released.

After the appointment of the committee, plans were made to begin rotating the meeting places from school to school. The steering committee was to report back to each member's respective district.

Committee Meets

The steering committee met on May 1, 1985, with Sen. Henley and Rick Saunders of the State Department of Education. The meeting was held at Cale.

The release of Rosston was discussed extensively, with Cross telling the other five that they should try to work with the Prescott district in the release. A meeting with Prescott was to be held, if possible.

Cross also reported that a petition was being promoted within the Prescott School District for the release of Rosston. Several hundred signatures on the petition had already been obtained, he reported.

Shirron told the Picayune that the Prescott District did not want to force any student to attend Prescott. If the patrons desired their children to attend the new school district, that was alright with him.

Cross reported the next week that over 1,400 patrons had signed the petition. He said enough had signed the petition that a majority of the patrons would be represented on it.

County District Suggested

Rick Saunders met again with the committee on May 7, when it met at Oak Grove. He went over costs of building facilities large enough for kindergarten through grade 12, and then for grades 7-12. First estimates were between two million and three million dollars additional funds, aside from the estimated $900,000 incentive money the new district would be getting.

Rowe suggested at that meeting of once more meeting with Prescott to see the cost of a county-wide school district. Cross and Benton also said they had thought about it. Georgia Haynie, who was then superintendent of Cale, said he had suggested it the year before, but was accused of being a traitor. Another attempt to set up a meeting with Prescott fell by the wayside.

By this time boards of two of the old school districts had agreed to consolidate, and another board had agreed to do the same if a millage was passed to build a new school.

Considering one of the sites then occupied with a building, it was suggested that possibly they could be put to use. Much argument went into the discussion, until finally, it was obvious that none of the boards wanted the high school to be at one of the old sites. A neutral site would have to be obtained.

It was also obvious by this time that Rosston would not be included in the pre- annexation agreement, because it was still a part of the Prescott District. It was determined, however, that all five boards would begin working on the agreement on May 28.

Resolutions Passed For Consolidation

The boards of all five districts met concurrently at Laneburg on May 28. The meeting was held in the cafeteria and patrons filled it to capacity, along with most board members. The steering committee met next to the kitchen at the head table and began making history. The details were hashed and rehashed by the committee, Saunders and attorney Paul Blume of Little Rock, who helped work out the legal aspects of the resolutions and the pre-annexation plans.

At 9:25 that night the five boards, with a quorum from each board, met separately at different tables to go over what the committee had proposed. Four of the boards finally passed resolution to change its name at a later date. This was to keep animosity from the other districts down.

Bodcaw, with all five of its board members present, voted 3-2 to the agreement. The two nay votes wanted to wait to see what the pre-annexation agreement said.

Cale, with all five of its board members present, vote 5-0 to accept the agreement.

Oak Grove, Willisville and Laneburg each had three of its five members present. Oak Grove and Willisville voted 3-0 for the agreement; Laneburg voted 3-0 to change its name when the annexation actually took place.

These things were all done under the direction of Saunders and Plume.

County Board Approves Consolidation Agreement

Meeting in special session June 6, the Nevada County Board of Education vote unanimously to permit the annexation of the four schools with Laneburg. At the same time Laneburg petitioned the County Board to also permit a name change for the school district when the four annexed with them. This was also approved, with the annexation and name change to take place July 1, 1995. This took care of the outline by the State Department of Education so the new district could get incentive money for the annexation.

Members of the county Board of Education present were Bill Nichols of Bluff City, Paul Bailey Jr. of Willisville, Bobby Caudle of Bodcaw, and D.W. Barlow of Prescott, who was the member at large. Absent was Jim McKenzie of Prescott, who was out of town, but who left a letter stating that he was for the annexation of the districts.

Only the five districts were involved. Rosston was still a part of the Prescott District.

Students would continue to go to each respective school, even though there would be only one school district.

Annexation Agreement Outlined

The annexation agreement stated that the new board would consist of five members one each from the five former districts, with staggered terms from one year to five years beginning in March of 1986; the board would loca