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A district divided

Ronan school board to face tough classification decision Monday

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RONAN — The Ronan school board will face a tough decision Monday as they must decide if the school will remain in Class A for the next two years or petition to make the move to Class B.

Ronan will have to make the decision of whether or not to make the move down in classification after a steady drop in student enrollment over the past four years has left the high school with just under 320 students, well under the Class B maximum of 339.

The proposed move has sparked much debate in the school and the community as both sides have made their arguments for staying in A or going to B well known. The debate has led to the school holding a pair of open meetings to allow the public to get information on the proposed move and give them a chance to voice their opinions.

Several people made their opinions known at Thursday’s meeting in the Ronan auditorium. Residents, school officials and coaches listened to a presentation on the subject before getting the opportunity to take the microphone and make their feelings known.

Both sides of the argument were well-represented as Superintendant of Lake County Schools Gale Decker presented his argument as to why he believes it would be in the school’s best interest to make the move. 

“In my opinion, this decision is driven in large part by enrollment,” Decker said. “To me, it wouldn’t make any sense to move to Class B for two years and then make the move back to Class A.”

Decker went on to show how the enrollment numbers backed his idea that Ronan would be making the move to Class B for a minimum of five to six years.

According to the projected enrollment numbers provided by Decker, Ronan would not have the student population to support a move back to Class A until at least 2016. 

“I think we really need to look and see what is coming up through the school system before we can really project where the high school is going to be in a few years,” he said. “In my mind, this will be a five or six year move at the minimum, as opposed to just a two-year or a four-year move.”

Matt Jore followed with his argument as to why the school should vote to remain in the ranks of Class A.

“To me this is not about class,” Jore stated. “I also don’t think it is just about numbers. To me, it is not a class issue, it a coach and mentor issue. It is a parent issue. The vast majority of these kids coming up don’t want to say that we couldn’t cut it at the Class A level.”

According to Jore, the students at Ronan High School have what it takes to win at the Class A level, he says they just need the right kind of support.

“My advice to the coaches and to the superintendant is to give the kids a shot, but, by God, you better be in that classroom and on the streets reaching out to these kids. They are looking for leadership,” he said. “It’s not about Class A or Class B, it’s about courage and character and parents and community and coaches being mentors and tutors. That’s what it is about to me.”

Ronan Middle School football coach Matt Olsen responded to Jore by pointing out that heart and character are not always the keys to victory on the playing field.

“Coaching this season taught me more about this subject than any chart or set of numbers,” Olsen said. “This year, we could put our entire seventh and eighth-grade football teams, four coaches and a driver on one bus with a few seats left open. When schools come to play us, they take two buses down here. There’s a little intimidation factor right there before the game even starts.”

“I can’t get onto or yell at a kid when he gives me all he had,” Olsen continued. “We are just outnumbered. That’s all it is. It isn’t a question of manhood or of desire and heart. It’s purely a question of numbers. I don’t think it is a concession to move to Class B. I think the numbers support it. Based on those numbers, let’s give our kids a fair fight.”

According to Mick Cheff, a drop to Class B would be sending to wrong message to the athletes on Ronan.

“I’m ashamed to think that most of the coaches voted to go to Class B. If I were an athlete at Ronan High School, I would be thinking that the coaches don’t believe in me. They don’t think we can do it.”

Ronan head football coach Jim Benn followed by explaining that he has never told his kids that he doesn’t believe in them and would never tell them that they can not compete.

“The issue here is what the best thing for the kids is,” Benn said. “My question has been whether or not we are competitive. If you look back over the past few years, we haven’t been. Across the board, we have not been able to compete. People ask if that is all about the coaches, but we sure have churned through a lot of coaches in different programs.”

“Another question is what do we want for our kids,” he continued. “Is third place good enough, or do we want to win? If we level the playing field, I think our kids will win more often. I just ask for people to look and see where we are across the board and do what is best for all of the kids involved.”

Chief basketball coach Steve Woll pointed out that the decision is not just about athletics.

“My son goes to school here and I want him to have a good education. I don’t care if you go to Class A or Class B, the teachers are not going to change. When a student graduates from here, on their transcript it is not going to say Class A education or Class B education,” Woll said. 

Ronan speech and drama coach Melissa Knabe pointed out that the move to Class B would be detrimental to her program.

“This issue for us is at the state competition,” she said. “There are currently five schools in our division and we compete with them for six spots in each competition for a trip to state. In Class B/C – Classes B and C are combined in speech and drama – we would compete against 21 schools for eight spots in each event for state. For us, getting our kids on the podium at state would become an issue if we move down.”

The meeting concluded with the voice of those most affected by the proposed change, the students. Student Body President Riley Dennis and Chris Clary explained that while the students may have shown in a recent poll that they were in favor of staying in Class A, many of them do not fully understand the issues involved.

“I’ve been asking around with the students and we are all unsure about the move,” he said. “We are not exactly sure what all is going on. Everyone is confused about how all of this works and why we are thinking about moving down.”

“If we go down and we do win, then we will get a boost of spirit or whatever you want to call it,” he continued. “Then, in a few years, when we would go back to Class A we would have that. Then we would have the heart and courage to win. We would know what it takes to win.”

The decision to move ultimately rests with the members of the Ronan school board. They will consider the move at its next scheduled meeting on Monday, Nov. 8.

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