Boards discussed joint classes, extracurricular activities

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Several dozen people filled the Battle Lake media center last Monday night as a standing room only crowd gathered to watch a joint work session between the Henning and Battle Lake School Boards.

The work session was the first joint work session, in what could become additional meetings, concerning potential sharing and partnership opportunities between the two school districts. The meeting came at the request of the Battle Lake School District, who inquired about sharing and pairing for everything from classroom offerings and teachers to extracurricular activities like sports and the fine arts.

Much of the discussion last Monday night surrounded the remaining Battle Lake Battler and Henning Hornet athletic programs like girls and boys basketball, as well as volleyball. However, discussions included potentially sharing teachers to offer additional electives that each school did or did not offer.

Battle Lake Principal Ryan Severson said he has spoken with Henning Principal Thomas Williams about several areas the two school districts could collaborate academically, like the foreign language department and even senior high math. He said Battle Lake offers Chinese as a foreign language, but does not offer Spanish. 

“We have heard people want Spanish offered and that is something Henning has,” he said. 

Williams said another area of partnership could be in the science and math departments as Henning does not offer college level chemistry or physics, which is offered by Battle Lake. He said both school districts offer college level math, but one school district could offer that program to free up a teacher for another class at either Henning or Battle Lake. There was also brief talk about sharing opportunities in shop and ag classes as well. 

Even though the principals have discussed potential sharing opportunities, Henning School Board member Matt Reinbold asked both principals whether they have asked teachers if they would be interested in teaching students in another school district prior to the meeting. Both principals said nothing has previously been discussed with staff members. 

The school boards also discussed potentially joining speech programs and also extracurricular activities like the one act play and the musicals. 

Henning School Board member Andy Eckhoff said if the two school districts were to coop for the musical there could be a fall musical offered in Battle Lake in the fall and a spring musical offered in Henning with students from both school districts participating in each musical. 

However, much of the discussion surrounding the musical would be the need for students to travel to each school district for practice each time since only so much of the work for musicals can be done remotely. 

A majority of the discussion last Monday night centered about extracurricular activities, and in a large way, athletics that included boys and girls basketball, as well as volleyball. 

Henning School Board Chair Rod Thalmann said the number of participants in girls basketball are down in both school districts, at least in the short term, but that the elementary and junior high numbers look strong moving forward. 

“I do know the numbers are down for the next couple of years, but I know both schools look pretty good after that from sixth grade on down,” he said.

According to an information sheet compiled by Battle Lake Activities Director Dave Marso, participation numbers for each of the Henning and Battle Lake independent activities are lower at the high school level, but remain strong at the junior high and elementary levels. The numbers include:

Henning- volleyball 12th- 9, 11th- 2, 10th- 9, 9th- 9, 8th- 10, 7th- 5, 6th- 7, 5th- 8, 4th- 5, 3rd- 4; girls basketball 12th- 2, 11th- 3, 10th- 5, 9th- 3, 8th- 10, 7th- 2, 6th- 10, 5th- 10, 4th- 7, 3rd- 6; boys basketball- 12th- 5, 11th 6, 10th- 2, 9th- 11, 8th- 7, 7th- 5, 6th- 12, 5th- 6, 4th- 9, 3rd- 13

Battle Lake- volleyball- 12- 6, 11th- 7, 10th- 5, 9th- 8, 7th- 10, 6th- 7, 5th- 7, 4th- 8, 3rd- 7; girls basketball- 12th- 4, 11th- 2, 10th- 0, 9th- 3, 8th- 4, 7th- 8, 6th- 7, 5th- 9, 4th- 8, 3rd- 7; boys basketball- 12th- 1, 11th- 5, 10th- 2, 9th- 5, 8th- 3, 7th- 5, 6th- 8, 5th- 9, 4th- 13, 3rd- 8

If the two schools were to combine in girls and boys basketball, as well as volleyball, the total number of participants in grades for volleyball will hover around 14-17 per grade with the exception of just nine at the junior level, while girls basketball will have between 5-6 girls in the high school level, but will have anywhere from 10-19 kids per grade from eighth grade on down.

Boys basketball would have as few as four athletes in 10th grade, but will typically have 10 participants or above at every grade level through junior high. In elementary basketball, many of the grades have in excess of 15-22 participants. 

Battle Lake Activities Director Dave Marso encouraged the school boards to not necessarily look at the number of kids, but the opportunity that a bigger pool of students to field a team would present to each athletic program. He said a bigger pool of students could lead to more success for the student-athletes, even if that means less people may go out for a sport due to additional travel for practice and less opportunities to play in a game.

“Sometimes I think we get really focused on the number of kids. We have enough numbers this year. Next year is going to be a trickier that next year and I get that is the logical way to go, but when we look at our football program. Have we had people where kids didn’t play football because it is a paired sport, probably. But to see the consistency in our football program over the years it kind of speaks to the fact that when you pool more kids together you are looking at a lot less of those ups and downs in terms of participation,” he said.

While much of the attention was put on football, Henning and Battle Lake are paired for cross country, track, baseball, softball, wrestling and golf. 

While the football team has had quite a bit of success over the years, including a trip to the state semi-finals just two years ago, other programs have not seen quite the level of continued success, despite being paired with Underwood as well. 

Since 2016, the OTC baseball team has gone 89-100, softball has gone 40-137, wrestling has gone 70-110 and football has gone 73-27.

Meanwhile, over the past 10 years the Henning volleyball has gone 183-91-1, girls basketball has gone 169-97 and boys basketball has gone 228-52.

Battle Lake volleyball has gone 88-130, girls basketball has gone 75-169 and boys basketball has goe 124-126.

Battle Lake School board member Sean Belmont and several Battle Lake School Board members asked why the two school districts shouldn’t just combine for every sport, if needed, as opposed to just girls basketball. 

Reinbold said other school districts who have combined for sports have been forced to have tryouts for programs like basketball due to the high volume number of kids who want to continue to participate in the sport. He said having tryouts can hurt the opportunities being offered to junior high and high school students in both school districts since many of the student-athletes will no longer participate in a sport if they will no longer be able to have the opportunity to play.

By combining, Reinbold said both school districts could be taking away the opportunities for students to participate in sports even before they know whether they want to participate in the activity or not, which could in the long run, hurt both the students and the programs as a whole. 

Henning boys basketball coach and activities director Randy Misegades said Henning’s volleyball program remains strong in numbers and the boys program already has three full teams at the senior high level with a large number of students coming through the youth program. This season the girls basketball team only fielded a varsity team, but could have enough kids next year to field two three full teams at the senior high level again. Both Henning and Battle Lake have hired new girls basketball coaches who are in their first season leading the two different programs. 

When asked by Battle Lake School Board member Bennet Stich if coaching has an impact on the amount of kids who go out for a sport, Misegades said girls basketball is a tough one to dissect as participation numbers in that sport have gone down nationwide. However, he said that coaching and the culture developed by a coach can have an impact on the amount of kids in a program. 

Both Henning and Battle Lake have hired new girls basketball coaches who are in their first season leading the two different programs.

Misegades also said there are a number of families who open enroll into the Henning School District for athletics, because of the culture and opportunities being presented by playing for the school district and having the opportunity to simply walk down the hallway for practice, instead of having to travel 20 miles away each day. 

“The reality is we have had a lot of families who are in Henning because of athletics and they will admit that,” he said.  

Misegades said one of the biggest factors with potentially combining all athletics into Otter Tail Central comes down to travel. He said there are very few students from Henning who participate in athletics in the spring and no Henning students are currently in cross country as practice is in Battle Lake every day. He said Battle Lake students and staff members do not need to travel to practice for things like football since all of the practices are held at the Battle Lake School.

Another factor to consider when potentially pairing athletics is the limitations when it comes to practice. If there were a shuttle that leaves the school hosting practice at 5:30 p.m., per-say, the students from the other school district would not be able to be part of team shooting that takes place quite frequently at Henning School after the regularly scheduled practice is done. 

“I guarantee we have boys shooting in the gym and they will be shooting until 6 o’clock. I think that is a difference maker for us and that is a big deal. They will shoot for 30-45 minutes every night, it’s just what they do and that goes away if you are tied to a shuttle,” said Misegades. 

Misegades went on to say that Battle Lake has not had a varsity baseball player since 2022, which was around the same time many of the practices and all of the home games were moved to Henning. 

Marso said he was unaware there was an issue with the current coop arrangements and having a vast majority of practices for OTC sports in Battle Lake, but each agreement could be revisited so Henning could have the opportunity to host more practices for football if needed. 

“The only other thing I would speak to if there are concerns in our community about a current paired program I think people need to speak up and we need to hear them because I’ve been hearing about concerns about football and the travel and how everything is in Battle Lake for football. I haven’t heard in 20 some years that I’ve been doing the job, I haven’t heard anything about that,” he said. “Then I hear comments (that) there are people from Henning that are really frustrated that everything is coming this way, well how come I don’t hear about it? Then again, it’s not that I’m asking for people to speak up and cause trouble or anything, but if there are real concerns and there are underlying problems with our current programs then as administrators and a board we need to know about that so that we can deal with it. Can we take and have some varsity football practices in Henning, sure we can. That is not a problem to do it. But I was always operating under the assumption that the facilities and equipment and some of that stuff was here (Battle Lake) and there was a better opportunity and that’s kind of where the coaches, I’m sure would lean towards, that we want to have a place where we can practice better and you guys have more stuff we can use, but if that’s a sticking point we need to know about that.”

Throughout the discussion Belmont said many of the items being discussed “feel solvable” if the two school boards and districts work together to find a common solution. 

Thalmann said there is a lot of pride in both communities and some of that pride into the long history of both communities will definitely play a factor into any decision made or not made about future sharing and pairing opportunities.

Battle Lake School Board member Sheila Newark agreed and said it was important not to rush any kind of a decision and make sure any future decisions make sense for both school districts. 

Both school boards were complimentary about the opportunity to have the discussion and chance to look into what each school district could offer and will begin discussions with each school district to see what makes sense moving forward.