And if the study finds otherwise, Griffin says the Chamber pledges the same support.

“It might be that we come back and realize that what we’re doing for our community right now is the best thing economically,” Griffin said. “And if so, the Chamber will be supportive of that, and from a community stand point, they will play a role in making sure the community is aware of the research and findings on this.”

While certainly not the first time the community or Chamber have visited the idea of school system consolidation, this effort will be the first scientific and unbiased research approach on the issue.

“There was a volunteer group of Chamber members who looked at this issue back in the early 90’s, but this is the very first time that there’s ever been an independent, objective, scientific study of the pros and cons of different school system organizational structures,” said Ballard. “That study was not an objective third party study because the people involved had very strong ideas about what should happen.”

Now, having a task force to oversee the research process and the dissemination of report findings to the community, the Chamber is hopeful about moving forward with this and other elements of the Impact 2012 Initiative.

“This is the first major initiative out of the 2012 plan, but not by far the only one,” said Griffin. “Additionally, school consolidation is only one aspect of education, but there are many other aspects of education that the Chamber believes are very pending which are imbedded in the 2012 plan.”

While in past years, the idea of consolidation — or “The C word,” as referred to by Ballard — has yielded some strong feelings and passionate debate from local residents, community support of the Impact 2012 Initiative could be a sign that people are ready to consider community benefit, whatever that may be, over tradition.

“Having reached this point, I think it says ‘Maturity,’” said Ballard. “It says that this is a mature community that wants what’s best for its citizens, and that the community has the courage to take on these big issues.”

More than supporting words, a number of community businesses, organizations and individuals have stepped in financially to support the 2012 Initiative, bringing $2.3 million investment dollars to the table to help the Chamber accomplish these five year goals.

“I believe the community needs to be commended for stepping out and looking at what we can do to make this a better community for our children and our grandchildren,” said Griffin. “And with this initiative, our main thrust has been to outline things that we as a community could do to improve the quality of living and standard of life in our area.”