Graduates from the Silver Grove Independent School District often refer to their classmates as a family.
Students grew up together, sharing memories from school events such as basketball games and dances. In many ways, the school was a unifying bond for residents in the community.
Since the district shuttered in 2019, former Silver Grove students have transitioned into Campbell County Schools.
Christopher Burton, who is 16, went to Silver Grove his entire life. The school district closed after the conclusion of his 7th grade year, and he started at Campbell County for his 8th grade year.
“I can say for me, I think I definitely had some benefit from it [consolidation],” Burton said. “But I mean, there’s always gonna be drawbacks, pros and cons with everything.”
The school district was established in 1911 for residents’ children in the small railroad town. After an 108 years, the Silver Grove School Board voted 4-1 in favor of consolidating with the Campbell County School District in February 2019.
Within the same week, the Campbell County School Board voted to accept Silver Grove’s students. May 16, 2019 was the final date of instruction at Silver Grove Schools, and the merger became official on July 1 of that year.
Local business owner and city councilman Joe Pelle told LINK nky in March that one of the reasons the school closed was due to dwindling enrollment. At the time of the school’s closure, Silver Grove had a total enrollment of 211 K-12 students. In the years leading up to the closure, graduating classes at the school oftentimes had fewer than 10 students. The school district had approximately 40 full-time employees their last year in operation.
Silver Grove also struggled with low standardized testing scores. In 2018, Silver Grove ranked second to last in Kentucky for average ACT scores.
In contrast, Campbell County Schools oversees approximately 5,000 total students. School ranking publications consistently rank Campbell County as one of the best high schools in Northern Kentucky, and the state of Kentucky as a whole. The Campbell County School District serves the majority of Campbell County students.
Portions of the community were divided on the issue of consolidation. Four of the five Silver Grove School Board members were elected over the issue of consolidation. The four school board members who voted for consolidation were elected in November 2018, while the lone school board member to vote against consolidation, Melanie Pelle, served on the school board for 24 years.
Much of the pushback against consolidation came from teachers, parents and families with generational ties to the district.
LINK nky’s Michael Monks extensively covered the consolidation for the River City News. His coverage detailed the raw emotion at the Silver Grove School Board meetings. At the time, there was a sense of loss and uncertainty from many in the community.
Debbie Burton, mother of Christopher Burton and two other children who attended Silver Grove Schools, said she was against consolidation at the time.
“I moved to Silver Grove, oddly enough, for the small district,” Debbie Burton said.
Debbie Burton said Silver Grove offered smaller classroom sizes, something she thought was beneficial for her other son’s education.
But Christopher Burton said many students from Silver Grove transitioned well — himself included.
“Switching over wasn’t too difficult,” he said. “I caught onto it pretty well. It’s always kind of like the same thing for me really, just another school year.”
According to Gary Paul Green, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pragmatic solutions can feel dismissive of the emotional elements that go into a tough decision such as school consolidation.
“The arguments for school consolidation lend themselves to a standard cost-benefit analysis. When the fiscal benefits of school consolidation exceed the costs, it appears to be a rational decision to find ways of consolidating schools and districts,” wrote Green in 2013.
Over the past two decades, two other independent school districts in Kentucky merged into their larger county school system: Harrodsburg merged into Mercer County Schools in 2006 and Monticello merged into Wayne County Schools in 2013. The Kentucky School Boards Association reported that Campbell County Superintendent David Rust sought advice from the Mercer and Wayne County superintendents, both of whom oversaw the unprecedented occurrence in their communities.
For many residents in Silver Grove, the closing of the school district meant Silver Grove was losing a unique aspect of its identity.
Years prior, the police department preceded the school district in closure. Upon the retirement of longtime Police Chief John Sayers in 2016, the Silver Grove Police Department dissolved into the Campbell County Police Department. Similar to the school district closure, community leaders determined Silver Grove residents could save money if they didn’t have to pay taxes to fund their own police department.
“It was determined that Silver Grove could have more police coverage for significantly less than the current budget,” Pelle said.
Despite the loss of a cherished community institution, there have tangible benefits for Silver Grove students and residents, both educationally and fiscally.
Pelle told LINK nky in March that students who live in Silver Grove now have access to a top 20 school district in the state. The merger also was a benefit to homeowners in the city, as a portion of their tax bill no longer goes toward funding the school district.
Longtime Mayor Neal Bedel is a graduate of Silver Grove High School.
“It’s been big savings as far as the taxes paid for the school district go,” Bedel said. “You know, it was almost basically cut in half between Silver Grove taxes and Campbell County school taxes. It was significant.”
Former Silver Grove students now have access to more educational resources, while their parents pay less money in taxes. While in operation, Silver Grove had one of the highest school tax rates in the state of Kentucky, coupled with some of the lowest test scores.
One of the stipulations of the consolidation agreement was for Silver Grove residents to pay the same rate set by the Campbell County Board of Education.
Bedel said home prices and property values in Silver Grove have increased since the school board’s decision to consolidate.
“There was a noticeable difference, and with everything that’s happened and housing values going up, I did pay less taxes for about two years and then they kicked up the housing value,” Debbie Burton said. “I’m kind of seeing that my escrow now. There was a noticeable difference in the taxes.”
There is a silver lining to every tough decision, and in the case of the Silver Grove Schools consolidation, former students are faring well. The old school building still stands today, and is a reminder of memories the community once shared together.