Underwood board talks numbers, all-in co-op
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
Is it time to go “all-in” with the Cougars co-op?
That’s a question the Underwood School Board members were discussing Thursday night at their regular monthly meeting.
Enrollment numbers have dropped in the Central McLean area. But how low does enrollment need to go for the three schools involved in the Cougars co-op to go all-in with the sports?
And really, do enrollment numbers – that indicate there are plenty of kids to field the different levels of athletic teams in some of the schools involved – really matter when the participation numbers are low and the schools are finding themselves bringing up eighth-graders for C and B teams?
Those are a couple of the questions the Underwood School Board members started mulling over after President Mike Heger reported on the recent co-op meeting with representatives of the Turtle Lake-Mercer and McClusky schools.
According to school board member Jim LeRoy, Underwood is already at the numbers a previous board years ago had stipulated would be the all-in number, which is a school having fewer than 10 students grades 9-12 participating.
