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SHENANDOAH, Iowa — The Shenandoah school board this week grappled with the question of which districts it should partner with to field sports teams.
The board voted to end the sharing of sports teams with the Farragut school district.
For years, Shenandoah has shared boys tennis, golf and wrestling with Farragut, but earlier this year, Farragut agreed to begin sharing other sports with Hamburg.
The Shenandoah school board voted 4-0 to end its agreements with Farragut. Board member Tim Johnson abstained from voting.
The Farragut board did not inform the Shenandoah district of its plans to consolidate a number of sports with Hamburg. In addition, the Farragut enrollment bumps Shenandoah into a higher sports class in the sports where the two districts share teams.
“It seems like they are given the opportunity to pick and choose what they want,” Shenandoah board member Dwight Mayer said of Farragut. “I wish we would have had the opporunity to at least talk (about other sports.)”
Mayer and Johnson were part of a committee from Shenandoah that met with board members and athletic directors from Essex and Farragut last month to discuss the future of athletic sharing among the three schools.
Following the meeting, Johnson said he thinks Farragut's future is with Hamburg.
“They made it clear they would go west,” Johnson said, referring to Hamburg.
Farragut and Hamburg have agreed to share boys and girls track, baseball, softball, football, volleyball and boys and girls basketball.
The Shenandoah board members said the school was never approached about sharing any of those sports with Farragut.
The board voted to continue sharing boys cross-country with Essex.
Another possible athletic sharing between two other Corner Conference schools also left Shenandoah on the outside looking in.
South Page Superintendent Gregg Cruickshank sent a letter to the Shenandoah school board requesting that it waive the contiguous district rule so South Page can pursue sharing softball and baseball with Essex this summer.
Board President Brian Maxine said he was disappointed when he learned South Page was actually requesting a waiver, not a sharing option.
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