McLeod West School District met with three of its neighbors last week to talk about consolidation.

According to Superintendent Tony Boyer, two board members and the superintendent for each district met Thursday night (Nov. 13). The districts included Glencoe-Silver Lake, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop and Buffalo Lake-Hector.

“We also invited Hutchinson,” Boyer said, “but they chose not to attend.”

Boyer said all three of the other districts are interested in consolidating with McLeod West. McLeod West had earlier hoped to consolidate with only two other districts, but is now considering partnering with all three.

Boyer said he’s seeking answers from the Minnesota Department of Education and Attorney General’s office on the legality of consolidating with three other districts. The superintendents will talk again face-to-face this week.

“The four superintendents are going to sit down and we’re going to review the possibilities and how this might work,” Boyer said.

McLeod West must present the state with its consolidation plan by Jan. 31, 2009, or it will be dissolved. Any consolidation plan will require approval by voters in each of the participating districts, but that election does not have to occur before Jan. 31.

If a consolidation plan is OK’d by the Department of Education, Boyer said it could come before voters late in the winter of 2009 or early that spring.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com [2])