The merger of the Kadoka and Midland school districts is one of three reorganizations that took place in South Dakota this year.

The Platte-Geddes and Irene-Wakonda school districts were also created this year, according to Darla Mayer, director of the office of finance and management for the Department of Education.

Mayer expects to see more consolidations in the future because of a clause the 2007 Legislature included in the education funding bill. That clause requires school districts with fewer than 100 students that are not considered sparse to consolidate.

In July, the Department of Education notified nine school districts that they will have to submit a reorganization plan by the end of June 2009. Those districts are Carthage, Conde, Greater Hoyt, Greater Scott, Harrold, Northwest, Pollock, Polo and Wood.

The school districts can decide how they will reorganize. "We don't pick their partner school district," Mayer said.

Over the past 20 years, 28 school districts have disappeared as school boards decided to either reorganize or dissolve and attach their land to another school district.

The state is rewarding school districts that consolidate. They receive a consolidation incentive for three years that equals $300 per student. The incentive is paid on the basis of the fall enrollment in each district prior to consolidation.

Mayer estimates that the Kadoka Area School District will receive an additional $108,000 each year for the next three years.

Before deciding on consolidation, the Midland School Board toured schools at Kadoka, Philip and Murdo and met with the school boards.

After Midland opted to merge with Kadoka, a committee of representatives from Kadoka and Midland spearheaded the transition. They wrote a reorganization plan that was submitted for state approval.

Because the districts voluntarily consolidated, the transition has gone smoothly, according to Mary Austad, superintendent of schools for the Kadoka Area School District. Austad was superintendent of the Kadoka School District before the merger.

"I can't imagine having a forced consolidation," she said.

Eileen Stolley, business manger for the Kadoka Area School District and the former Kadoka School District, agrees that because they felt in control, people from both districts "gave 110 percent" to the consolidation effort.

"Nobody was saying 'you have to do it our way'," Stolley said. People were willing to listen and talk their way through the consolidation plan, she said.

"If it was a forced reorganization, or if there was animosity between the districts, it would be very difficult," Stolley said.

Committee members focused on their common goal of doing "what was best for kids" and worked well together, Austad said.

The closest thing to a controversy came when committee members rallied to oppose a light-hearted suggestion by Kadoka School Board president Joe Stoddard to name the new school district MILK. With satellite schools located at Midland, Interior and Longvalley and the K-12 school at Kadoka, Stoddard proposed calling the district's mascot the Moos, Austad said.

"It was just that kind of fun stuff," Austad said. "There were no power struggles or anything like that."

Voters in each district approved the union last October. The newly elected seven-member school board started work preparing for the merger in March of this year.

Consolidation creates an entirely new school district. The new district needed a name. All employees had to be hired. Employee contracts had to be negotiated. And, the district needed its own policy manual.

The Kadoka Area School Board also decided to switch Midland students back to a five-day school week. The Midland district operated on a four-day school week for its final two years.

Austad said returning to a five-day school week simplified things for the new school board, which was negotiating teachers' contracts. It also made it easier to schedule support staff visits to the district's three satellite schools.

A survey of school district patrons revealed that most people felt all district schools should operate on the same schedule, Austad said.

The new school board agreed that the school mascot would remain the Kougars. The district's athletic teams are now called the Kadoka Area Kougars, rather than Kadoka Kougars.

If the mascot ever changes, it's going to be because the kids want a change, not because of the consolidation, Austad said.

With only about seven students from the former Midland High School attending Kadoka High School, the Kougars mascot is most likely secure.

Writing the reorganization plan that preceded the election was the easy part of the merger, Austad said.

The real work took place in the business office where business manager Stolley dealt with scores of changes required as the new school district began to take shape.

School district employees must vote in December on whether they want to participate in Social Security, Stolley said.

Stolley is still managing three sets of books for each district. Those books will stay open until next January when Stolley sends employees their W-2 forms.