Heard from an Exeter alum on Friday they are consolidating starting in the fall of 2025. High school in Friend, elementary in Exeter.
Anyone else in the area hear this?
Anyone else in the area hear this?
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Is Exeter-Milligan consolidating with Friend July of 2025?
- Thread starter northeastNebraska
- Start date
Don’t have any info on this specific case but have to think we might see quite a bit of this in the next 10 years with some of the legislative things getting thrown around, the teacher shortage which will get worse, and just dwindling enrollments in general in rural schools.
I’m very pro consolidation, especially this day and age. It’s not 1984 or 1994 anymore and people have to accept that. The teacher shortage doesn’t help at all. A lot of schools if they came together would have solid enrollment numbers.
Exeter-Milligan, Friend Public Schools set for consolidation in 2025
A pair of southeast Nebraska schools are set to become one in 2025.
southeast.newschannelnebraska.com
Exeter-Milligan, Friend Public Schools set for consolidation in 2025
EXETER, NE - A pair of southeast Nebraska schools are set to become one in 2025.
Exeter-Milligan and Friend Public Schools will consolidate for all activities and academics. Paul Sheffield currently serves as the Superintendent at Exeter-Milligan and says the consolidation will expand learning by having more teachers.
"We look at being able to expand, for example, music and fine arts," Sheffield said. "We'll have one teacher to teach vocal and one to teach instrumental instead of one person doing everything."
Currently, less than nine miles separates the two schools. Derek Anderson is Superintendent at Friend, but will become the soon-to-be, Bobcats, full Superintendent.
He explains relationships were built between the two schools before even co-oping.
"Even before co-op, when we weren't playing together, we were still cheering for each other and supporting each other," Anderson said. "Students really didn't bat an eye -- they knew there were things they'd lose out on, we would move up in terms of athletics, but there wasn't much from them in many concerns."
After a year full of sports co-op, Sheffield says the time was right for consolidation, but the issue of low enrollment was also a factor.
"Over 22 years at Exeter-Milligan and Friend we've lost 320 students, so that's part of the conversation," Sheffield said. "The other side of it is, the kids, when they go to an activity you don't know which one is an Exeter-Milligan kid or which ones a Friend kid. I don't want to call it the perfect storm, but it seemed to work out that the opportunities we could provide together were better than what we could when separate."
And Anderson echoes the message of importance in a full sports Co-Op to the transition.
“You can definitely tell at the end of every season kids were more comfortable with each other on the court, the field,” Anderson said. “That’s just going to make things so much easier with the transition to academics as well.”
