Monday night the Chetek school board decided its interested in taking the next step and looking into a possible merger with Weyerhaeuser.

The Chetek superintendent says the board voted to have a joint meeting with Weyerhaeuser's board on March 9 or 10 and then create a joint task force to investigate and make a recommendation.

As we told you last week, Weyerhaeuser needs to fight declining enrollment and decided it wanted to merge with Chetek schools.

Chetek school leaders tell us they are looking at a potential merge as an opportunity to increase the number of students in its district.

Information from last week:

The superintendent of the Weyerhaeuser School District says the board voted tonight to consider consolidating with Chetek. The district was looking at a merge with Ladysmith-Hawkins or Bruce, but Superintendent Chris Nelson says Chetek showed the most interest.

He says declining enrollment will claim a third of the 180 students. He hopes the board will approve it by June and it could go to a public vote this fall. He says the merge could happen for the 2010/2011 school year. He says a consultant recommends Weyerhaeuser close its one building and bus the students to Chetek.