Thompson Feasilbility Study Summary
Dear River Bend Families and Staff,
At the meeting last night the Feasibility team provided a summary of their findings. The summary PowerPoint can be found at the following link: Feasibility Study PowerPoint. The full 200 plus page study can be found at the following link: Feasibility Study.
At the meeting last night the Feasibility Team recommended that Thomson’s detachment from West Carroll and annexation to River Bend not be approved. The study findings are only a recommendation to the two districts and the Regional Board of Trustees.
For a detachment and annexation to even be considered, a poverty level impact of 3% or less must be maintained. At the meeting the reported poverty impact was 3.6%. However, the poverty level reported may not have been calculated accurately because addresses from York Township might have been wrongly counted. A recount is taking place to determine accuracy of the reported figures.
Next Steps:
- Determine an accurate poverty impact level. This will be determined by the West Carroll administration.
- The Regional Office of Education (ROE) 8 needs to validate a formal petition that was completed by a group of Thomson citizens. The ROE is in the process of completing their review of the petition. Once the study is determined to be valid, a hearing officiated by ROE 8 will be scheduled.
- Once the hearing date is set information about the date and time will be provided.
- Using the feasibility study and other local data River Bend will determine if annexing Thomson would be advantageous to the students, families and citizens of River Bend over the next eight weeks.
- River Bend will host a town hall meeting to share information and seek input from the students, staff, families and citizens in River Bend. A date for the town hall meeting has yet to be determined.
- River Bend would present its opinion to the Regional Board of Trustees at a hearing conducted by ROE 8.
- Citizens would have an opportunity to present information at the hearing as well.
- The Regional Board of Trustees will provide a final response to the petition at some point after the ROE 8 hearing.
River Bend will continue to share information as it becomes available,
Darryl Hogue