Gehlen and Spalding To Merge Next Year

(Le Mars) — At a joint school board meeting held Wednesday evening, officials from the Gehlen Catholic and Spalding Catholic schools voted unanimously to merge the two Catholic High Schools beginning next school year of 2013-2014.  Gehlen Catholic school board president Brian Kolbeck and Spalding Catholic school board president Jeanne Jungers appeared together to make the formal announcement.


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Kolbeck told reporters that many, may have thought the unification of both schools was a done deal once the idea was proposed.  But he says officials from both schools organized different committees to analyze the proposed merger.
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Kolbeck continues to explain how everyone’s concerns were carefully considered before reaching the final decision.
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According to Jungers, The merged Catholic schools will be called Gehlen Catholic High School and will be located in Le Mars.  Jungers showed her emotion as she discussed the history of Spalding Catholic High School.

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A Spalding Catholic school board member told KLEM news that there are 72 students between the 8th grade and 11th grade currently attending Spalding Catholic School.  He said that a survey was sent to each family with children attending Spalding Catholic School asking them if they are considering sending their children to Gehlen.  The school board member said the survey showed that at least 70 percent of the families would transport their children to Gehlen Catholic High School. Spalding Catholic will have three representatives, one from each parish, that will be members of the new Gehlen Catholic school board.