After eight-years of a whole-grade sharing agreement and two failed consolidation votes, the Odebolt-Arthur and Battle Creek-Ida Grove (OA-BCIG) districts will merge. Tuesday marked the third time to the ballot boxes for members of each district with 540 votes in favor and 70 votes against from Battle Creek and Ida Grove and 418 votes for and 163 votes against from Odebolt-Arthur, clearing the 50 percent approval required by Iowa code. The merger will go into effect July 1, 2018, and school officials say there will be no buildings closed in the consolidation process. Previous votes in 2011 and 2016 failed in the Odebolt-Arthur district, mainly on their concerns that they would not have fair and equitable representation on the school board. The OA-BCIG high school is located in Ida Grove, the middle school in Odebolt and there are elementary schools in both of those communities.
