Two school districts in Barron and Rusk County are consolidating, which means more money for one district.
But that also means some teachers could lose their jobs.

We visited Weyerhaeuser on Wednesday and talked to students and community members about Tuesday night's vote, which will consolidate the school districts of Chetek and Weyerhaeuser into one, after 18 months of discussions.

Community members and students are buzzing about the consolidation. Mary Dusza graduated from Weyerhaeuser back in 1940, but she says, “It's absolutely wonderful, we were hoping it would happen!”

And freshman student Paige Traczyk is also looking forward to the changes, “I'm excited, I can't wait for it, because our school is getting small.”

But other's are slower to respond, holding on to their deep roots in Weyerhaeuser. Angel Brueske hasn’t always attended Weyerhaeuser, but she has grown to love it, “It's sad I really like this school.”

Life-long Weyerhaeuser resident freshman Colton Ashley says, “I’ve got mixed feelings about it, because first of all my uncle, my auntie, and my mother went to this school so we have a history here.”

Whether they voted yes or no, the move is happening on July first of next year.

Many questions still remain, including who will keep their job, and who will be cut. Principal of Weyerhaeuser Schools Rhonda Coggins says, “I know here in our own district we've been very upfront with out teachers here in the past, you know if you don't have very many years you might consider looking other places.”

Coggins says administrators are still in the process of forming committees to ease the consolidation, so the future of many teachers is still up in the air.

At the same time, Coggins says students will gain so much with the merge, “When you talk about your extra curriculars, we have some, but we've had to co-op a lot; so more extracurricular activities for them. Just the wide range, especially at the high school of course offerings is gonna be vey beneficial to our students.”

One of the main reasons Weyerhaeuser had to change the way it does business is because of it's severe declining enrollment, it has lost more than half of it's students in the last eight years.

Transportation has also been a key question. A committee is being formed to address how Weyerhaeuser students will be bussed to Chetek, about 20 miles away.

The future mascot of the district is also being discussed.