The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—At last week’s school board meeting the Dayton School District Board of Directors approved a plan to form a committee that will work with a Waitsburg School District committee to achieve a full combine for sports and activities for the 2018-19 school year.

Waitsburg School District Superintendent Jon Mishra and Waitsburg School District Chairman of the Board of Directors Ross Hamann were at Wednesday’s board meeting to ask the DSD Board of Directors to move forward on developing a committee. They also presented school officials with a 15-point list of issues that will need to be worked out as dialogue begins between the two committees.

Hamann said the districts have been in talks since meetings were held in May to survey students and the communities about the DW combines, and since WIAA District 9 put its stamp of approval on a full combine for 2018-19.

Superintendent Mishra told the directors, “We’re really excited about this. What’s been nice about this is having that conversation back in the spring, and then follow up, to talk about what this combine will look like at full implementation in the 18-19 school year.”

“One thing I took away from that meeting was the kids are the game,” Mishra said.

“This is for our kids. They did a wonderful job talking about what their needs are, and what their desires are, and what they want out of this,” he added.

Included on the 15-point list of issues, presented by Mishra are; transportation, revenue, expenditures, and cost sharing and equity, to name a few.

Mishra asked the DSD officials for input into the list. Dayton District Superintendent Doug Johnson suggested developing a plan for keeping or adding programs be added to the list.

DSD High School Principal Paul Shaber said he liked having activities next to athletics because there are other things that can be done to bring the student bodies together.

“That will make a big difference in the long run,” he said.

He also asked the question, “Can we decide on a way to make these decisions?”

“I don’t want to spend five months talking about whether we say Dayton first or Waitsburg first,” Shaber said.

Shaber also said identifying and hiring coaches should be done just as soon as each sport is finished this year to get as much lead time as possible.

Hamman said bringing the two districts and two communities together will take some extra effort and will require community support.

DSD Board Chairman Dan Butler said, “With anything worthwhile, there’s never a straight line, so we don’t have a straight line, but we have a chance to put this together in a more methodical way.”

Butler said the key is good communication.

“You can’t over-communicate,” he said.

Each of the committees will have one board member from each district, one unbiased community member from each district and one administrator from each district. There will be a student committee made up of six to eight students, with a representative, who will provide feedback to the committees from the students.

The committees will be overseen by the two school boards.

At the end of last week’s meeting the DSD Board of Directors approved a plan to identify their committee members in time for the next Waitsburg school board meeting, on Sept.13. The WSD will identify their committee members in time for the next DSD board meeting, on Sept. 20.

It was agreed that the committees will meet during the fourth week in September, and begin meeting regularly, thereafter.