SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — During a meeting on Monday night the Florence school district decided to dissolve the co-op with the Henry school. The Florence superintendent said discussions on the co-op were being held in the last few school board meetings.
The Florence School Board held a meeting on Monday where in a vote of 3-2 it was ultimately decided to dissolve the co-op between the Florence and Henry school districts.
Superintendent of the Florence School District, Mitchell Reed said he’s been in the school district for 7 years and dissolving the co-op has been brought up three or four different times.
“With our growing enrollment in our school district the school board has found that would be something that’s worthwhile looking into,” Reed said. “We’ve had a few special board meetings to discuss some of the things and a vote was taken last night and the Florence-Henry co-op dissolved.”
The transition will start at the end of next year’s school year with the rest of fall, winter and spring sports being played as Florence-Henry. The school districts will separate next year, with then all the practices and games taking place in their respective towns. Reed said they are still currently working through some logistics.
Reed said several different factors led to the decision.
“We are competing at Class A currently, some of the patrons of our district feel that Class B suits our size of school more, some transportation issues and needs, as well as no longer having to go to and from Henry,” said Reed.
The decision to dissolve the co-op comes after a report where students from the Henry school were found to be bullying/hazing by, Florence students had nothing to do with the hazing. Reed said he doesn’t think it’s the main reason the board decided to dissolve the co-op, but it was definitely a factor.
“I don’t know about the decision, but it’s what brought up the conversation again,” Reed said. “There has been some talk about morals and ethics on the board side of things that was discussed throughout the fall here in our special meetings and our monthly meetings too. As a superintendent to say whether that directly impacted the vote, I can’t say.”
According to the minutes of a special meeting on Monday, September 23, Reed said, “Due to the media, is the state of the co-op more important? Is Florence growing fast enough to not worry about the security of the programs that come with a co-op but rather its image?” He said that the Florence School is sympathetic to the Henry School, but the situation has impacted our school and students.
In a story from KELOLAND News, there were at least three seventh-grade boys who came forward, saying they’d been beaten by older teammates repeatedly on their way to football practice.
In a release, Henry’s superintendent says the district investigated the bullying and hazing reports and found multiple students violated district policy and appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.
