Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn will not have a new league foe in the War Eagle Conference next year.

After hearing about conference affiliation survey results and much discussion, Sibley-Ocheyedan school board members on Feb. 12 offered a general consensus to remain in the Siouxland Conference for the time being. The decision to stay was made despite overwhelming support from students, parents and staff members to leave.

S-O officials announced last month they were gathering information about moving to the War Eagle Conference. Superintendent Stan De Zeeuw explained in a letter to district patrons that discussion was sparked due to declining enrollment – most Siouxland members are in Class 2A or 3A, while S-O competes at the 1A level for most sports.

During the board session last week, two separate speakers urged the board to stay with the Siouxland Conference.

Davis Beyer, father of three varsity wrestlers, presented his opinion during the public forum. A letter from his son, Dawson Beyer, was read by high school Principal Casey Hertz. The younger Beyer was participating in the state wrestling meet and could not attend the meeting.

Superintendent Stan De Zeeuw gave results from a survey following a Feb. 8 public forum in the auditorium. Out of 256 responses, the majority (70.3 percent) showed participants favoring a move to the War Eagle Conference while 29.7 percent preferred staying in the Siouxland.

De Zeeuw gave the survey facts on a slide show presentation, which detailed the responses of classes of 7-12 students, staff and family.

Of the 256 responses, 48 percent were students, 27.3 percent were parents/family and staff comprised 24.6 percent. Seventy parent/family responses voted 67.1 percent to apply to the War Eagle Conference while 32.9 percent wanted to stay in the Siouxland Conference.

Sixty-three staff members voted 90.5 percent to go to the War Eagle while 9.5 percent chose to stay in the Siouxland.

One hundred twenty-three students replied with 61.8 percent voting for War Eagle and 38.2 percent choosing Siouxland.

S-O has been a member of the Siouxland Conference since 1990 after it left the Lakes Conference. H-M-S was a member of the Siouxland from 1989-2009 before leaving for the War Eagle.