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Officials: Schools Need to Cooperate State Leaders Call Districts Distracted Mediation Suggested

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Two state education officials said Tuesday that metro-area school districts are being distracted from important work by their impasse over the Omaha Public Schools' "one city, one school district" proposal.

Nebraska Education Commissioner Doug Christensen and John Bonaiuto, executive director of the Nebraska Association of School Boards, said the local districts need to sit down together to work on other matters.

Christensen said those other matters include early-childhood education, school financing and essential education, the state's effort to make sure all students are given the same educational opportunities.

He suggested mediation for the battling school districts and offered his services.

"If I could provide that (mediation), I'd be more than happy to do that, at their invitation," Christensen said. A mediator could "lock people in a room -- maybe we could come out with something."

He said he was skeptical about the offer's reception. "Given where it is at this point, I don't think there is any way for them to sit down."

Christensen said, however, that mediation is "worth a try in a state where we're supposed to know each other and care about each other and care about all the kids."

Bonaiuto, who represents the interests of the state's school boards to the Legislature, said the debate resembles the emotion triggered by school financing.

"People tend to become very polarized," he said. "I'm hoping we can convince our boards . . . to get together in the same room and work on other issues -- even if they don't do it in the metro area."

The fight quickly has spread metrowide on three fronts:

One involves the OPS plan, announced in early June, to take over 21 Millard schools, four Ralston schools and land in Elkhorn, if not most of its schools later on. OPS also is working with Bellevue on the possible transfer of five Omaha schools to Bellevue because those buildings are within the Bellevue city limits.

Bellevue also is looking to take over parts of the PapillionLa Vista school district that spill over into the Bellevue community. Papillion-La Vista is fighting that maneuver.

Other school districts want their Educational Service Units to join the fray.

School boards for Douglas County West, Gretna and Bennington, along with Elkhorn and Ralston, on Monday unanimously supported a resolution allowing ESU No. 3 to oppose OPS's move either through litigation or lobbying.

The ESU says it would lose 21 percent of its property-tax base if OPS is successful. That, the ESU says, would mean reduced tax revenues and a hit to its services, which include joint staff training and traveling programs for schools, such as a portable planetarium.

John Hansen, president of the Bellevue school board, predicted that the issue was headed for the Legislature.

"I think it's just the beginning of an evolution of what's going to happen," Hansen said.

The Papillion-La Vista school district already is actively fighting Bellevue's plan.

Annette Eyman, spokeswoman for the Papillion-La Vista Public Schools, said the district, along with such schools as Millard, Ralston and Elkhorn, wants to maintain a choice for parents in picking the schools they want their children to attend.

"If all this happens, what we've done is taken away parent choice," she said.

Source: Omaha World - Herald

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