School: Colby, Abby, Spencer Merger (Proposal - 1972)

Contact: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

----Source: The Tribune - Phonograph (Abbotsford, WI) 10/07/2015

Published in the Colby Phonograph, Thursday, October 15, 1972

Colby, Abby, Spencer districts may merge.

Abbotsford, Colby and Spencer may merge into one school district.

This is one of many recommendations in a recently completed study of tentative long-range plans for improving education in Cooperative Education Service Agency (CESA) No. 6 headquartered in Chippewa Falls.

Under this plan, 23 of the 25 present school districts would be merged into 10 more adequate and effective administrative units. Two districts, Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire, would not be changed under this plan.

The number of districts in CESA 6 would be reduced by over 50 percent to 12.

Estimated total staff members in the district would total 98.7 in K-8 and 61.4 in grades 9-12.

The report states this plan is not inflexible or unchangeable, but rather is a suggested, tentative plan. It is not a “state plan” nor is there such a thing except what a composite picture of the 19 separate CESA plans might portray.

This plan does not represent the only possible way this area can b e developed but represents the thinking of the committee. The long-range plan is not a plan that can be implemented without approval of the electors of the district. While changes in school organization can be suggested and recommended, final decisions concerning such changes can and will be made only by the electors of those districts, according to law, he report states.