After 19 months of discussion, the Weyerhaeuser and Chetek school districts cleared the final hurdle to merging Tuesday when residents overwhelmingly approved a consolidation referendum.

The consolidation plan, which calls for closing the Weyerhaeuser K-12 school building, passed 863-341 in the Chetek district and 536-92 in the Weyerhaeuser district, officials reported Tuesday evening.

The referendum needed to receive a majority of the vote in both districts for the consolidation to take effect in the 2010-11 school year.

"It's nice to enter into the next phase with this kind of public support," said Chetek school district Superintendent Al Brown. "It's a clear message of support for consolidation."

The two districts had been discussing a potential merger since April 2008, and Weyer-haeuser officials previously had broached the subject of consolidation with a few other nearby districts out of concern that dramatically declining enrollment was hurting the quality of education offered by the Weyerhaeuser school.

Chetek has about 900 K-12 students this year, while Weyerhaeuser is down to 132 students, including only four in fifth grade and six in kindergarten.

"This is the end of one stage and the beginning of a new one. Now the real work begins in bringing the two school districts together," said Brown, who pledged to continue seeking input from Weyerhaeuser district residents as the process moves forward.

The two school boards voted in July to consolidate, but a petition signed by about 130 Weyerhaeuser district residents in August forced the issue to go to a referendum.

The consolidated district, which will take effect July 1, 2010, formally will be called the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser Area School District.

"I'm confident that we will wind up with an outstanding educational institution for both districts," Brown said.

Ted Koehler, 48, who has a seventh-grade daughter at Weyerhaeuser who will attend school in Chetek next year, joined the majority in voting for consolidation.

"She's kind of excited to go, and pretty brave, I thought," Koehler said. "She's never had to ride a bus."

Still, Koehler expressed some sadness about the school closing.

"It's a shame we've got to lose our school," he said. "I don't see any other way around it."

Charlotte Bartels, 51, of Weyerhaeuser voted against consolidation, saying the district should have looked at closer districts, such as Bruce, before choosing to merge with Chetek.

"I can't see sending little kids - first through sixth grade - on a school bus for 20 miles," Bartels said after voting Tuesday afternoon. "Not when they have a school just six miles away (in Bruce.) I can't understand going all the way to Chetek."

By 4 p.m. Tuesday, 80 of Weyerhaeuser's 162 registered voters had been to the polls.

Larry Bates, 42, of Weyerhaeuser also voted against the measure. He has a child in sixth grade.

"If the kids go to Chetek, a lot of people will farm their kids to Bruce, or to Rice Lake," Bates predicted.

Bates said he's concerned about students who are used to small class sizes of a dozen or fewer students suddenly being put into classes with 30 children.

Beth Bates, 40, grew up in Hawkins and took a long bus ride to Ladysmith every day for school, and she's not a fan of the idea of sending her child to Chetek.

"The bus ride stinks," she said. "And you're treated bad for being an out-of-towner."

In Chetek, voters seemed upbeat about the prospect of consolidating districts.

"As a taxpayer, I thought it might lower my taxes," said Marvin Ziarnik, 81. "I feel sorry for the kids who might have to ride the bus for an hour or an hour and a half."

Ziarnik has one main concern about a combined district: He doesn't want the Chetek district to abandon the Bulldogs mascot or its colors.

"I don't appreciate that (idea of changing mascots) at all because we are the main source of the thing," Ziarnik said.

Nancy Rhoden, 82, of Chetek also voted for consolidation.

"It's not just the taxes," Rhoden said. "I feel we have to do something for these children too. Our enrollment (in Chetek) is down, and we need new blood."

Jeff Martin, 47, supported consolidation. Martin was on the school's consolidation committee, and he was aware that some Chetek residents didn't want to see any changes as far as mascots or school colors.

"They say, 'What about the Bulldog and all that purple-and-white clothing we have?' " Martin said.

Martin said his biggest concern was getting a large number of people out to vote in Chetek to ensure it passed.

Deanna Scharf, 42, a school bus driver, said she voted against the consolidation.

"There were lots of reasons," Scharf said. "I feel like it's just a band-aid and not a solution to the problem."

Though several west-central Wisconsin school districts have discussed consolidation in the past two years, the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser merger will be the first in the region since 1992, when Durand and Arkansaw consolidated.

Lindquist can be reached at 833-9209, 800-236-7077 or eric.lindquist@ecpc.com, and Vetter can be reached at 723-0303 or chris.vetter@ecpc.com.

Staff photo by Shane Opatz