School districts take different paths to unification

Dec. 14, 2004

Jim Cook

Harris News Service

Declining enrollments, pegged to population declines and changing economies, have dogged most Kansas school districts for years.

For the most part, though, officials at the state's 300-plus school districts and patrons who live in them are unwilling to consider school consolidation as a way to deal with the problem.

One reason: State aid to schools historically has been linked to enrollment, although a pending Kansas Supreme Court case and possible ensuing action by the Legislature could change that. Add provincialism and fear for the futures of their communities to that mix, and the issue of school consolidation becomes a touchy issue.

The concerns are not limited to existing district borders, most of which were established with state-ordered school unification in the 1960s.

Some small school districts with more than one high school, for instance, face the same issues.

Nowhere has school consolidation been a more explosive issue than in southeast Kansas. Administrators and school board members at Erie-St. Paul USD 101 - with primary and secondary schools in Thayer, St. Paul and Erie and an elementary school at Galesburg - have quarreled with residents of those four small towns over closing the smallest schools in the district.

The primary issue is what would happen to the smaller towns if schools disappear.

Thayer and St. Paul will get a taste of that next year. On Dec. 6, the school board voted to close the high schools in those two towns at the end of the school year. Students from both schools will attend Erie High School in fall 2005.

The decision to close the two high schools came after voters earlier this year turned down a plan to build a new high school.

Pain and gain

One rural school district looked economic reality in the face and, with relatively little fuss, restructured to eliminate one of two small high schools and one of two elementary schools.

Bob Bartkoski, superintendent of Comanche County USD 300, said the loss of about 25 percent of enrollment over six years prompted changes.

It wasn't painless.

"You can talk about turning down thermostats, but the only way you can save significant amounts is to close buildings and reduce staff," Bartkoski said.

When the schools at Protection and Coldwater were consolidated for the 1999-2000 school year, 24 district employees - administrators, teachers and uncertified staff - lost their jobs.

"We took some shots from alumni," Bartkoski said, "but it wasn1t their school. It no longer existed."

Still, he said, the school consolidation went smoothly. The school board dealt with nuts-and-bolt matters involving the merger, but details of the restructured schools were left to students, Bartkoski said.

Trophy cases and sports banners were saved for displays at the Protection grade school and South Central High School in Coldwater, but otherwise the buildings were transformed into new schools. A year before consolidation, students in grades four through 11 decided on a new school name, school colors and mascot.

"Here was the key," Bartkoski said. "We highly respected and maintained the history of both schools ... but also allowed the students in the new system to have their own identity, and that is so critical."

High school student councils at Protection and Coldwater also worked together before the change to develop a new constitution and homecoming details.

"When school started, we were ready to rock and roll," Bartkoski said.

 

Seeking solutions

In a similar situation, Vermillion USD 380 in Marshall County has used innovation and technology to maintain two small high schools.

Superintendent Beth Reust said the district, north of Manhattan, has seen its enrollment decline by more than 100 students during her nine-year tenure. The district, with an enrollment of 530 students, has high schools 15 miles apart at Centralia and Frankfort.

"We haven1t talked about consolidation yet," Reust said.

"We have approached this differently. People need to realize that where the school is isn't what's important. The quality of the school is what's important."

Several years ago USD 380 implemented distance learning between its two schools. Block scheduling helps the schools share teachers for chemistry, art, science and instrumental music. Other classes, including college prep and dual credit courses with colleges, use the Internet.

"On top of that, for the last two years we have been working with the other three districts in our special education cooperative to find ways to share resources," Reust said.

That includes group bidding on transportation contracts. And by joining forces with a neighboring Sabetha USD 441, Wetmore and Centralia jointly continue to field an 11-man football team.

If the time comes when the district cannot provide quality education - and consolidation would improve it - "then I would be behind the bandwagon to close," Reust said.

 

Cooperative agreements

Several other districts are considering cooperative agreements with neighboring districts instead of consolidation. That action comes even though Kansas lawmakers have twice passed laws that would give merged districts the pre-consolidation equivalent in state aid, at least for a few years.

School boards from Agra-Eastern Heights USD 324 and Kensington USD 238, for example, met in early November to discuss increased cooperation involving sports programs, teachers and staff.

Kensington's sixth-grade volleyball athletes already play the sport at Eastern Heights, and vocational-agriculture students at Eastern Heights participate in Kensington.

Still, there are districts that fight on despite overwhelming odds.

Officials at Jennings USD 295 decided in November to try to keep the single-building school district open next year, despite an enrollment drop of more than 50 percent over last year, from 60 students to 30. Superintendent Emery Hart anticipates having only about 24 students in the district next year.

Hart said the school board hopes to contract out its upper-grade students to nearby districts.

"We'll make contact with joining districts of Oberlin, Norton and Hoxie," he said, "to see if they will accept the state aid of each student contracted."

Harris Group reporters Colleen Surridge, Parsons; Shanna Foster-Guiot, Chanute; and Jan Katz Ackerman and Stacie R. Sandall, both of Hays, contributed to this story.