To deal with declining student enrollment, Elgin-New Leipzig and Roosevelt (in Carson) school districts will enter into a cooperative next fall.

School board members from each district will vote on the proposal at their meetings this month. Roosevelt Superintendent Ruth Ann Larshus said both boards are expected to pass the measure.

Under the co-op, Carson and Elgin will have an elementary school for kindergarten through fourth grade. Students in fifth through eighth grade will go to a middle school in Carson, and high school students will go to school in Elgin. If the agreement is passed, a middle school in New Leipzig would be closed.

"It's a huge deal," said Martin Schock, Elgin-New Leipzig superintendent. "The community (New Leipzig) isn't happy with the situation and rightly so. But at the same time, they realize that the students just aren't there anymore. Our main concern is giving our kids the best education we can. If that means having to do what we're doing then so be it."

Both districts have seen a continuous decline in enrollment and expect it to continue. Larshus and Schock said that if the districts didn't co-op they eventually would have to cut back curriculum and programs.

"We wanted to be proactive and look into the future," Larshus said.

Elgin and New Leipzig school districts merged in 1998 to combat declining enrollment. When they merged, the new district had 284 students. This year the district dropped to 244.

Carson has seen a similar drop in students. Over the last four years, the district lost 25 students, bringing its enrollment to 115. Larshus said class sizes in Carson average nine students. Under the co-op, the average will be 24 students, she said.

"They will be able to work with kids who are at the same level they are," she said. "It will just give kids more opportunities because we will be able to offer more classes and enriched curriculum."

Larshus said that by co-oping, the schools will be able to offer upper-level science classes and speech, which they weren't able to do before.

The two districts will retain their own boards, which will make decisions for the schools in their district. If an issue comes up that affects both districts, both boards will meet.

"It's not just a little town anymore," said Kent Roehl, Elgin-New Leipzig board member. "You are looking at a whole county that has to work together. We are all a community."

Although administrators talked informally about the co-op for the last several years, the Elgin-New Leipzig district officially approached Carson this fall. The two districts then worked on a plan separately that seemed like it would work, Roehl said.

But less than a month ago, Carson pulled the offer off the table because of a lack of communication, Larshus said.

"After that, both boards met together and talked," Larshus said. "Up until that time they had never done that. I think everyone was able to see how it was going to affect the school systems and it was a good chance to communicate as a whole."

Larshus and Schock said it's too soon to tell what kind of savings the co-op will bring the districts.

If the co-op goes well the first two years, the districts will look at consolidating into one district, but it's too far out to say whether that will happen, Schock said.

"Any time two school districts get together there needs to be a courtship period," Schock said. "You need to work together in a co-op situation and get a feel for each other because there are differences in communities and those differences need to be worked out in a co-op situation prior to a total reorganization."

Under the agreement, sports teams in the two districts also will be co-oped. Elgin will host all varsity sporting events, except for the first year, when Carson will host one varsity basketball game for both girls and boys teams.

(Reach reporter Sheena Dooley at 250-8225 or sheenadooley@ndonline.com.)