BORDEN, Ind. (WDRB) -- Years in the making, West Clark Community Schools has become two systems: Borden-Henryville and Silver Creek.
Borden-Henryville made the split official Wednesday by holding its first school board meeting.
In June, voters finally approved the split after the communities disagreed on how to spend money. The move is uncharted territory, the first district in Indiana to split and only the second in the nation.
"I've tried to say to our school board that's history. We move forward. We do the best thing to do here for the children in our community," Interim Superintendent Sam Gardner said.
Gardner's appointment was one of the first orders of business for the Borden-Henryville school board. He's coming out of retirement to lead the schools at an unprecedented time as the newly formed district must quickly develop a plan to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're going to follow every guideline we have for the Centers for Disease Control, the state, the county to provide for safety health concerns, transportation, food service, how we manage things in the classroom," Gardner said. "We're trying to cross every T, dot every I in that area."
Lisa Gardner, who has a third- and a sixth-grader who attend school in the Borden-Henryville district, is confident the district will have a plan in place by the start of school.
"We have great leadership, we have great schools, we have a great system in place," she said. "So I am not worried at all. I think the kids will move on successfully just like they always have."
While the divorce is final, the two districts will still share some services, which was agreed upon during Wednesday's school board meeting.
"We've entered into some cooperative agreements having to deal with technology and food service," Gardner said. "Hopefully, there will be an agreement having to do with special education services. So yes, we'll still be doing some things together."
Silver Creek board member Chris Rountree attended the Borden-Henryville meeting. Silver Creek will hold its first official school board meeting Monday at the primary school in Sellersburg.
"I think all three communities feel real good about it," Rountree said. "I think we've worked tirelessly over the last few months as interim boards to make sure that there's no disruption for starting school."
School for both districts is scheduled to start July 29.
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