ELLSWORTH — A group of Wilson patrons desiring their school’s removal from USD 112 Tuesday filed a petition to dissolve the entire district.
Tuesday morning, Wilson resident Kenny Beneda presented a petition to Ellsworth County Election Officer Shelly Vopat on behalf of a group of Wilson school district patrons at the Ellsworth County Courthouse.
Faced with closure of the Wilson grades 7-12 junior/senior high school at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year by the Board of Education for Wilson’s parent USD 112 school district last January, a group of Wilson patrons sought to petition for dissolution of the district after a request for a one-year extension failed to be taken up by the board.
On Tuesday, a group from the Wilson and Dorrance area gathered on the courthouse steps prior to the petition’s being filed.
USD 112
As one of the largest districts in the state in terms of geographic area, USD 112 spans five counties, with Ellsworth County serving as the county of record. It was formed over time from a series of consolidations, with the latest coming in 2010 with the merger of Lorraine USD 328 and Claflin USD 354. The district includes the communities of Holyrood, location of the district office; Bushton, Claflin, Dorrance, Frederick, Lorraine, Wilson, Beaver, Dubuque, Odin and Hitschmann, with nearby rural areas.
Wilson and Central Plains operate junior-senior high schools, with separate school colors, mascots, activities and sports programs. Central Plains Elementary is located in Holyrood, while Wilson Elementary is located in Wilson.
In April 2022, the USD 112 Board of Education voted 5-2 to close the Wilson high school building and move attend school in Claflin. The move, according to then-Superintendent Greg Clark, would help with staffing inequities as well as equalize enrollment and boost sports programs among both student bodies. The move to close followed a similar motion to combine all extracurricular activities for both schools, but that motion was defeated 4-3.
After several board meeting discussions including a public forum at Wilson High School last Jan. 4, the board again voted later that month to close WHS prior to the 2022-23 school year, with the motion again passing 5-2.
In the meantime, Wilson patrons formed a group with the focus to consider other options than closure of the high school. The petition to disorganize the district grew out of continued discussion attempts with the board, in seeking a year’s extension for the school.
The petition as filed
Vopat’s first duty is to now verify all signatures on the petition, which by statute must represent 20% of the patrons who voted in the last at-large election.
The petition option is from Kansas statute 72-635, which is a recodified verbatim version of statute 72-7302 passed by the state legislature in 2016 dealing with school district disorganization.
The other statutory option, and more commonly used, is disorganization by vote of the school board, according to Scott Gordon, general counsel for the Kansas State Department of Education.
“There are two ways for a district to be disorganized,” Gordon said Tuesday. “One, the locally-elected school board may petition the State Board of Education to disorganize the district and attach its property/territory to neighboring districts or a single district. The State Board shall grant such a petition if it finds there is only one high school in the district and it cannot meet the minimum accreditation requirements and the State Board finds that the educational system of the entire state and of the area in which the school district is located will be improved by such disorganization and attachment.”
The other way is by petition of electors, he said.
“Voters may file a petition with the county elections office of the home county of such school district seeking disorganization, and if a sufficient number of people sign it, the question will go on an election ballot,” he said. “If a simple majority of voters approve disorganization, the matter goes to the State Board.
“Either way, the State Board appoints a hearing officer to conduct a public hearing for the purpose of gathering information so that a recommendation may be made to the State Board on how to assign the property and territory of the now-disorganized district.”
Gordon noted that the statutes require any order consolidating school districts (which every school district that currently exists went through in the 1960s) to specify the home county of the unified school district as well as assign a number to it.
“So, the home county of a school district is based not on the physical address of the district office but instead is based on whatever county is designated in the original consolidation order,” he said.
Gordon noted that other than the stipulation that a special election cannot occur between the months of January through July, there are few written stipulations regarding the mechanisms of a special vote by electors.
“Between 2001 and 2011, my records indicate seven districts have been disorganized – all of which were disorganized and attached to neighboring districts by way of a school board petitioning to do so,” he said. “I could find no record of a district being disorganized based on a voted-upon petition. That’s not to say it hasn’t happened or been attempted, I just couldn’t find any records. I also found no records of any disorganization since 2011. This does not count land transfers between districts – that happens far more often,” Gordon said.
The statutes also do not specify who pays for the special election once called, he said.
As an example, an August special ballot would place the disorganization at the next July 1. In the case of USD 112, that would mean July 1, 2024.
The statutes also say that if the measure fails at the ballot box, it would mean that another attempt could not be scheduled until 2025.
If a ballot were to pass, the state board of education would appoint a hearing officer to conduct a public hearing to gather information toward recommendations how to assign the property and territory of the now-disorganized district.
Gordon stressed that it was important to note that once disorganized, the district ceases to exist. “You can’t just cut a piece off, or cut it in half,” he said. “There is no ‘reorganizing’ by this process, it’s all-or-nothing.
“It’s either USD 112 as it is, or it is broken up and given to other districts.
“To put it another way, if the population is not happy with the locally-elected school board, they need to vote in new members to the board,” Gordon said.
