Both the Greene County and Paton-Churdan School Boards have decided to terminate their existing sharing agreement ahead of the 2019-2020 school year.

The decision by both boards was made following a joint meeting on October 3rd. Greene County made an initial proposal in August to alter the current sharing agreement to eventually share all sports programs, as well as whole grade share with the high school students by the 2020-2021 school year. At the October 3rd meeting, a prepared letter was read by the Paton-Churdan School Board expressing their thoughts that they felt the “relationship works well as it currently functions…though we are willing to pay our fair share of expenses for the things we share.”

The letter also showed that a smaller school district provided another option for kids in Greene County, and that the P-C stakeholders were not in favor of whole grade sharing, “In fact 27% of our population open enrolls into our district. Our concern would be that many of these families, that come from outside of both of our districts, would choose another alternative if whole grade sharing were the only option.” It was also noted that P-C paid close to $160,000 to the Greene County School District last year in their sharing agreement.

Greene County Superintendent Tim Christensen says December 10th was the agreed upon date to potentially have a new proposal for both boards to consider.

“We want to get something done as soon as possible. So December 10th would be actually the Paton-Churdan School Board meeting. The Greene County School Board meeting would be the 19th of December. Again (we) want to get something put in place as soon as possible.”

The sub-committees for both boards are anticipated to meet on Monday, October 22nd to start the discussion process.