April 17, 2016: The present Collins-Maxwell Elementary in Collins was built in the 1990s.
Although Collins-Maxwell and Baxter have shared sports for nearly three decades now, they have never done any integration beyond that. Now, attempts at talking about whole-grade sharing have broken down, and news coverage indicates animosities have cropped up that could tear Collins-Maxwell apart.
Last month, CM, whose enrollment has dropped 10 percent in the last decade, was told it needed to cut 10 percent out of salaries in next school year’s budget.
On May 11, according to the Tri-County Times, the boards appeared to be talking past each other. Baxter is on board with sharing (and would likely get the high school), but CM’s interim superintendent “reached out to nearby school districts to look at operational sharing.” He even proposed a regional high school, an idea that stands a snowball’s chance at the State Fair. CM is hedged in on the west and south by the fast-growing Ballard, North Polk, and Bondurant-Farrar districts, and on the north by the much larger Nevada district, which makes the difficulties CM is facing more stark.
And then things got testy. From a follow-up TCT article:
Blaming a vocal group in Maxwell for ego-centrism, Comegys said a group of community members in Collins now believes it’s time to make decisions that are best for its community. “I think Maxwell has made a bed for us, and we just can’t lie in it anymore.” Comegys added that there is a group of people in Collins with the resources, interest and desire to explore every legal option they have to if necessary to make the split from the school district.
Whoa.
There is indeed a legal option, a method that Gladbrook recently initiated for the first time in state history: Gather signatures from 20 percent of registered voters in the school district to force a dissolution process (that voters can still prevent from going through). If Collins wants to blow it all up, talk to people in Gladbrook.
The Baxter board meets tonight.
(h/t Austin Draude)