During last Thursday's meeting, the Warren County R-III Board of Education rescinded an earlier motion to donate an extensive collection of birds displayed in a trophy case at Black Hawk Middle School. The school board then followed by approving a new motion to form a committee and find a solution on the matter over the next six months. The board is expected to come to a conclusion in February 2009. School board members John Nordwald and Teresa Scott will serve on the committee, along with undetermined community members. For now at least, the birds will be staying put. It's a brief consolation for the Spoede family who was responsible for the collection until donating it to the school district in 1963. "The best place is right where they are at," Margie Spoede said. "They are in there nice and secure. It's something that should be thought through." Nordwald, who will chair the committee, said the community needs to be involved so the board can make the right decision for the present and for later on down the road. "We're willing, or at least I am, to give this some time so we can all have time to explore our options and see where our finances are going to come from," Nordwald said. "We're not going to take it lightly with the decisions we make." Superintendent Dr. John Long questions the legality of housing the birds at the middle school. Since the collection includes some extinct and endangered species, Long, citing the Bald and Golden Eagles Protection Act, feels a new permit was needed when the collection was transferred to the school. "The issue is partially the legal issue and partially the educational issue," Long noted. "There was a time when the birds were used for educational purposes. It doesn't happen anymore. "It's not that they're not valuable, sentimental. But at the present, I question if it's the right place." Wendell Roehrs, who spoke to the school board on behalf of the Spoede family, believes there are no legal issues with the birds being housed at the school. He said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department examined the birds and approved the collection when it was donated to the school. Roehrs, who was a biology teacher at the time of the donation and later a superintendent in the district, said the collection is an educational asset that would be hard to find elsewhere. "It's an important issue," Roehrs said. Also at issue is whether the delicate birds can be handled and what costs might be associated with the possibility of moving the collection elsewhere. The birds have been in their present location since 1977 when the school district built a case specifically for the collection, Roehrs said. Initially, during the July school board meeting, a decision was made to donate the bird collection to a local chapter of the Audubon Society in St. Louis. School officials said contact was made with the Warren County Historical Society on whether it would accept the collection before making the first motion to donate the birds to the Audubon Society. School board member Jan Sutherland, who also is a member of the Historical Society board, countered by saying only 12 members of the Historical Society have the authority to make decisions and take it back to the boards for discussion. Margie Spoede said the board's earlier motion to donate the birds out of the area caught the family off guard. They would like to see the collection stay at the middle school, moved to the high school or see if the Historical Society could put it on display. Stacy Ray, Black Hawk Middle School principal, acknowledged she initiated the process of removing the birds. In her second year at the school, she said the collection is not used for educational purposes. She wants to use the trophy case to display students' work and accomplishments. Carmen Schulze, school board president, agrees that the collection needs to be displayed in a museum and not in an educational institution. "We have a valuable collection, but we also need to look at how are we are going to boost student achievement?" Schulze asked. "How are our ACT scores going to compete? How many questions on the ACT and the MAP tests really evolve around finding and educating birds?" Board member Teresa Scott disagreed, believing the current setup of the bird collection doesn't detract from the students' achievements. She also believed the district had funds available to build additional trophy cases if needed for hallway displays. "I understand that our mission is to educate," Scott explained. "I don't see that the birds detract from that mission in any way." Gene Cornell, president of the Warren County Historical Society, said the organization would be interested in accepting the collection. But right now, he doesn't know whether the Historical Society has the space or funding to properly put them on display. As of Tuesday, he added the organization had yet to be contacted by the school district.