It’s official.

The Providence Board of Education took the final step during its meeting Monday night to commit the Providence Independent School District to a merger with the Webster County School District “no later than July 1, 2007.”

However, the vote wasn’t unanimous. Providence school board chairman Venita Murphy and board member Jerry Hopson both voted against the merger proposal, while members Kathy Atkins (who made the motion), Dianne Hardrick, and Kim Phillips all voted in favor of it.

Providence school district superintendent Edwina Slack, who recommended in April that the board approve a merger with Webster County, immediately expressed her thanks to the board for making a decision and vowed to say nothing more to the press regarding the issue.

“I appreciate all the hard work the board has done,” Slack said. “I value that decision.”

She also expressed her appreciation to the Webster County school board for reserving comment on the issue while Providence school board members made a decision.

“I’m going to grant them the same courtesy now,” she said. “I don’t intend to say anything about it.”

She advised the board to decline public comment as well.

After the meeting though, board members spoke to reporters about the decision.

Atkins and Hardrick agreed it was the hardest decision they’d faced as members of the Providence Board of Education, but felt it was the right one.

“This all comes from the desire for the best for our students,” Atkins said, to which Hardrick agreed.

“Webster County was very willing to accept us,” Hardrick said, referring to a joint informal meeting held June 14 between chairs, vice-chairs, and superintendents from both school districts. “We’ve got to think of these kids and the welfare of their future.”

They also agreed that if the school board hadn’t approved a merger, the state Department of Education would have stepped in and shut the district down.

“Absolutely,” Atkins said when asked if she thought the state would have forced the issue. “It would have happened.”

Board chair Venita Murphy disagreed with that assessment.

“I don’t believe that (state education officials would close the district),” she said. “They have not convinced me of that so far.”

Murphy recalled a presentation of a state management audit in January, where state education officials told the school board they would review progress on correcting the audit’s findings within 30 days of that presentation.

But Murphy said state education officials never returned to Providence.

State Education Commissioner Gene Wilhoit did appoint a special liaison to the district, though. Retired Breckenridge County superintendent Wayne Puckett has been working with district officials on a number of issues, including efforts to improve student achievement.

Low test scores for students in the Providence school district is the utmost concern at the Department of Education, Puckett told The J-E previously.

Murphy also said she’s concerned about how Providence students will be treated at Webster County, based on previous experiences where students have transferred and came back.

“I don’t think our children will be treated right,” she said. “We need parents to get more involved.”

Recalling the informal joint meeting, Murphy said Webster school officials told Providence district officials they have programs in place to help students adjust to the new environment.

“They have ‘tiers of popularity,’” she said. “If they already know this, how can they expect our students to be treated right?”

Webster County school district superintendent James Kemp has said previously if a merger takes place between the two districts, all students would receive equal treatment, a point he reiterated in a telephone interview with The J-E on Tuesday.

“When the merger takes place, all students will receive and continue to receive the best education we are capable of providing,” Kemp said.

Kemp also confirmed Providence board members’ comments that Webster school officials had agreed to accept the merger.

“Yes, when all the decisions are made,” he said when asked if such a commitment was made during the informal joint discussion.

The first step for Webster County school board, once it receives official notification of the decision, will be to discuss the issue and decide whether to accept the merger, accept the merger with conditions attached, or to reject the merger proposal.

Should the Webster school board decline the proposal, registered voters in the county would then consider the matter in a public referendum as early as November.

Kemp said the main issue for the Webster County school district is determining how to make a merger of the two districts successful.

“The question will be, ‘how do we turn a merger into a process that will benefit all students?’” he said.

“Now that Providence has taken a vote, from this point, it becomes a matter of how do we do it,” he added.

Kemp also pointed out that many of the students in the city of Providence are already also living within the Webster County school district because the boundary lines for the school districts are different than for those of the city.

“I don’ t think alot of people who live in Providence, or kids who grow up together... they don’t make that distinction,” he said.

The Webster County Board of Education is expected to open discussion on the merger proposal at its meeting in July.