By Clay LePard
clepard@cbs4qc.com
The results are in and it looks like there will be a merger between the East Central school district and the Preston school district.
According to the unofficial results on the Jackson County website, more than 86% of those in the Preston district voted for the merger.
While in East Central, it was 617-597, only 50.7%, who voted for the merger.
In order for the new Easton Valley school district to form, there needed to be a majority vote in both school districts.
More than 2,000 residents voted in the election, make it nearly a 70% turnout.
Check out the full results on Jackson County's website here.
The next step will be for a new school board election for Easton Valley in January.
After that, the new board will hire an interim or permanent superintendent. From there, the district will go into overdrive, getting everything up and running for the next school year.
"Those school board members and administrators along with the existing school boards in Preston and East Central district would have to make the decisions on essentially forming Easton Valley district by July 1," says Neil Gray, superintendent for East Central schools.
A lot of questions will be answered before that July 1st deadline, including which buildings would stay open and for which grades.
Grade sharing will also have to be decided since both districts have programs in place with separate school districts.
