By Sheila Crowley
Fulda Free Press staff writer
The Fulda School Board met in special session last Thursday evening to decide on the proposed pairing and sharing sports with Heron Lake-Okabena. The meeting had been postponed from Monday due to the weather.
The Heron Lake-Okabena school board met in session the week prior and had already approved pairing spring sports, football and girls basketball with Fulda.
Several community members were on hand to hear the discussion. A couple of them spoke during the open forum part of the meeting.
Denise Reith spoke first in regards to cost: The amount of money it will cost the district to bus the kids to and from practice and games along with purchasing new uniforms. She continued on by saying, “Do you realize you will lose kids out of the district? I, for one, will take my kids out of this district and move them to Worthington. Both my husband and I work there.” She also asked about open enrollment for the sports that are low in numbers. “Is that a possibility?” Also, “What is the big hurry to pair with HLO?”
Candace Ommen spoke next and remarked she wasn’t sure if the meeting was about who the board was considering pairing with. She was concerned with where the practices and games will be held. Her other concern was the time the athletes would return home if they had to leave town for practice.
Phillip Kramer along with Kayla Clarke and Don Tiesler made up the committee who’s purpose was to seek options for the sports programs at Fulda. They met with Murray County Central to discuss if there was any interest from them on pairing in any other sports. Kramer and Clarke’s recommendation was to pair spring sports and girls basketball with Heron Lake-Okabena. “I’d like to wait on football and see what shakes out with MCC,” commented Kramer. If the two schools joined, the combined enrollment does bump the football program up a class. According to Kramer, he has a good vibe that MCC would be on board with doing this.
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