— Daily Freeman-Journal file photo If the vote Tuesday is approved by a simple majority of both Webster City and Northeast Hamilton School districts, the two schools will form a new district beginning in the 2019-2020 school year. NEH Elementary School, pictured below, will become the Learning Center at Northeast Hamilton for students in pre-k through sixth grade.

Voters in the Webster City and Northeast Hamilton School Districts on Tuesday will decide if the two school systems will reorganize into one district.

If the measure is approved on Tuesday, the two districts would form a new school district in 2019-2020 school year.

The two districts have had a partnership for the past several years, according to Mike Sherwood, who serves as superintendent of both districts. Facing declining enrollment, NEH partnered with Webster City and took the first step with partial day sharing for students in grades 7 through 12. The last NEH senior class graduated in 2015 and middle school and high school students began whole grade sharing the following school year.

“A little over a year ago, the Northeast Hamilton board instructed me to look into reorganization and to bring back information,” he said. To start the process, Sherwood said he filed an application – joint employment whole grade sharing – which was approved.

As both districts were able to meet the criteria for the application, additional funding was generated for both districts as an incentive to continue the reorganization process.

“The process just evolved overtime and the reorganization just made sense,” he said.

NEH’s unspent balance projections continues to decline, he said.

“They made all of the adjustments that they could make,” he said. “There’s really no other adjustments they could have made. As that unspent authority goes down, when it hits a certain level, you’re in violation of the law.”

Last spring, Larry Sigel of the Iowa School Finance and Information Services gave a presentation to the NEH district and its patrons that that pointed out some sobering facts. He told them that the district would be operating in the red in just three years unless the district acted soon. Three options were presented to the district patrons – reorganize, dissolve the district or run the school into the ground. In that event, Sigel said the state would likely step in and take over the school.

“The board really wanted to look at their options while they still had control over their future, while they still had some control,” Sherwood said.

Sherwood said the vote Tuesday, if approved by the simple majority in both districts, would create a whole new district.

“It’s not Webster City absorbing Northeast Hamilton. It will actually be a brand-new district,” he said. The new district name will be the Webster City Community School District. The two districts’ boards will continue to operate and run the current districts until the 2019-2020 school year begins. If the vote is successful Tuesday, a new board would be seated within 45 days, and would make all the decisions for the new district. That board would be comprised of four Webster City board members and one from NEH. The balance of the new board is based on population, Sherwood said.

The Webster City learning centers will remain the same, pre-k and first grade at Pleasant View Elementary, second through fourth grade at Sunset Heights Elementary, and the middle school, high school and Hamilton High Alternative School. The school in Blairsburg will become the Learning Center at Northeast Hamilton for students in pre-k through sixth grade. The staff at NEH will remain the same, Sherwood said, adding that the teaching and support staff at the NEH center will all fall under the Webster City master contract, Sherwood said.

“Students should see very little change,” Sherwood said. However, Webster City families who wished to have their children attend the learning center in Blairsburg or NEH families who wanted to have students attend learning centers in Webster City could do so by simply requesting that learning center. There would be no need for open enrollment requests, Sherwood said.

Several public meetings have been held to allow patrons of both districts to ask questions about the proposed new district.

“People who have attended have been very engaged and asked many great questions,” he said.

If the measure doesn’t pass on Tuesday, the two districts would have to start over by getting approval from the Area Education Association to reorganize and the vote would then probably take place in December. Sherwood said if the second vote doesn’t pass, the districts can begin again, but the original financial incentives might not be available.

“There’s a fair amount of financial incentives with this vote. There’s property tax reductions for both Webster City and Northeast Hamilton taxpayers,” he said.

For NEH, it’s a $1 reduction off the uniform levy in year one, $.50 in year two and $.25 in year three. For Webster City, it’s a property tax reduction of total dollar amount.

“Northeast Hamilton has approximately $200 million in assessed valuation,” he said. “If they have a $1 reduction, that’s a $200,000 reduction in property tax. Webster City would get $200,000 off their property taxes.”

Sherwood said he thought that total would equate to about $.45 per thousand for Webster City.

The other incentives are based on student count. If the vote is successful, approximately $900,000 would come to the new district for three years.

“Just on the financial side, with the joint employment and the three years in the newly formed district, it’s about $3.5 million of additional revenue in incentives,” he said. “Those no guarantee those incentives would be there down the road.”

Sherwood said he believed the new school district would offer families in both Webster City and the NEH area many opportunities.

“This will give parents new options, and there will be many positives for all involved,” he said.

Also, on the ballot on Tuesday, is a revenue purpose statement. Sherwood said both districts currently have the statement in place and is nothing new. The statement would apply to the newly formed district, if approved.

The polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. NEH voters will cast their ballots at the Blairsburg City Hall and in Webster City, district patrons can vote at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Early voting is available at the Hamilton County Courthouse.