Clarion, C-L service sharing plan gains momentum

The idea of the districts sharing services is nothing new. C-L School Board President Nathaniel Parker made a presentation before the Clarion Area board in July about exploring a service sharing idea.

The districts are also working toward a co-op agreement for the district’s marching bands. The districts also share occasional transportation services when it makes sense to do so.

Henry believes the foundation formed between the districts is something they can build on.

“Obviously, being neighboring districts the community as a whole does things together on the ballfields and the Little League fields, and as Nathaniel said (at the Clarion Area meeting) we need to build on that and do more things together,” Henry said.

Having the districts’ superintendents and board members meet informally, Henry believes, would help in getting the process off on the right foot.

One idea he had was to possibly have the districts line up their schedules so they could share transportation services for Clarion County Career Center students.

“(Clarion Area) doesn’t have a vocational/agricultural program. We have industrial arts. There are students who don’t want to go to the Career Center and there are students who don’t maybe want to go to college. So as a community, how do we help those students out?”

C-L board member Bryan Huwar said it makes sense for the districts to share more services.

“Why would we not explore (sharing services)?” he asked. “With population contraction and inflation and with as many things as (the districts) do together from the community standpoint already, I can’t see a reason why we wouldn’t look into it.”

C-L board member Dave Eggleton believes hidden opportunities might come to the surface with more sharing.

“We never dreamed of having a vo/ag program like we have now,” he said. “I think the administrations need to get together and come back with recommendations.”

The C-L vo/ag program is currently working on expanding into a student-run manufacturing center in the coming years.

Parker agreed that getting the administrations to meet would make the best sense for now, since those administrators could determine what would be best for the districts on the day-by-day scale.