After almost a year of kicking the tires on a potential merger, support for a combined Clymer, Sherman and Panama school district remains strong among those who are engaging in the process early.

Voters on the 2025 school budgets in the districts approved starting the discussion process with 73% approval in May 2025. Almost a year later, results from a community survey distributed to households in the three districts showed 78% of the 798 households responding still supporting the idea of a merger. That’s an encouraging sign as the talks head into the merger study phase. Residents who are engaged in the process aren’t dismissing the idea out of hand.

There are two more community forums scheduled this week, one each in Sherman and Panama. We have a feeling questions will be similar to the questions that came up at Clymer’s forum last week – what is the future of the existing school building and how will a potential new school board’s makeup be determined. Clymer residents are also concerned about the types of educational opportunities a merger will create.

We also know from the 2017 merger that there are ballots that were cast that haven’t yet participated in either the budget vote referendum vote or the community survey process. But it’s encouraging that support is still strong for the idea of a merger. It means, in our view, that those who voted to begin the process a year ago aren’t yet having buyer’s remorse. They haven’t yet heard something that changes their mind.

It’s still early in the process. Those who haven’t engaged in the process haven’t seen the merger study that will be released later this year that begins to paint a more complete picture of what a merger could look like both financially and educationally. As we near the quarter point of this particular trip it’s been a smooth ride. We’ll see what happens when June – and the release of the consultant’s merger study – brings.