Making the move

LAUREL — Laurel-Concord- Coleridge School will belong to a new activity and athletic conference starting in 2025.

The school board met last week and approved dropping its affiliation with the Lewis & Clark Conference and joining a new eight-school conference which may include Elkhorn Valley, Hartington- Newcastle, Lutheran High Northeast, Neligh-Oakdale, Plainview, Summerland and West Holt.

After months of discussion, all of the affected schools are set to vote at their regular meetings this month. Once member schools formally approve the formation of the new conference, more formal discussions will take place including naming it, said Superintendent Jeremy Christiansen.

Dissatisfaction with the very large Lewis & Clark conference has been growing in recent years including an increasing concern about a trend in school-size disparity within the conference that impacts student opportunities, Christiansen said.

The size disparity leads to a decrease in opportunities for students playing in reserve and JV contests as schools LCC matches with in the conference oftentimes don’t have enough players for these lower-level games.

Other issues include logistics and scheduling issues.

Christiansen said the school would be open to maintaining some of the existing matches and rivalries with other regional schools – as long as it maintains opportunities for students.

During the board meeting, Christiansen also discussed progress on school facility construction.

The school’s Industrial Tech class spent time getting set up in the new wing and classroom last week with large equipment put in place.

Students have been involved with assembling tables, benches and stools in the new space, Christiansen said.

“It was great to see on Friday I had stopped in there, with them being on the construction site, they all have hard hats and their vests and safety glasses and those types of things,” he said. “They were in small groups and were really quite engaged with getting things organized and setup. They were taking pride already in their space.”

He anticipates the Family and Consumer Sciences moving into their new space within the next week with two handicapped-accessible sinks still needed.

Work is also continuing on the west half of the new elementary space and finishing the roof over the library while fixing a re-occuring historical leak.

At its meeting last week, the board also reorganized and elected to keep its leadership the same.

Carol Erwin will continue to serve as board president, Jay Hall as vice-president and Dustin Thompson as secretary. The board’s committee assignments also stayed the same.

The board’s next meeting is set for 12:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 12, at the middle school building in Coleridge.