Approximately 225 school patrons attended Thursday night’s public forum hosted by the USD 282 school board and many expressed concerns over a plan to split the elementary schools when school starts in August.

The plan, called a “pilot project” by board members and Supt. Bert Moore, calls for grades 1-3 to attend classes at Moline and grades 4-6 would attend Severy Elementary School.

Moore spent the first 30 minutes giving facts and figures which led to the board’s decision at its June 9 meeting, saying the resignation of three teachers on May 15 left the board with crucial decisions to make, considering that it is difficult to recruit new teachers to come to rural schools.

“There are more than 1,000 open teaching positions across the state right now,” said Moore. “They can make $42,000 in their first year at Wichita and we’re only able to pay a base salary of $28,500. It is a problem faced by all small schools, especially those located in areas far away from metropolitan areas.”

Moore said the board had several options at their June 9 meeting:
• Go to a 4-day school day which could save around $55,000 per year. But this would be assuming that four new teachers would be quickly recruited for the fall semester.

• Completely close one of the elementary schools, making the remaining school the attendance center for grades K-6.

• Raising taxes (Local Option Budget) to accommodate costs incurred with higher fuel costs, etc., and keeping both Severy and Moline schools in full operation — again, assuming that four new teachers could be recruited.

• Keeping both Moline and Severy campuses open but splitting them into the one-year pilot proposal — three grades in Moline, three grades in Severy.

The board felt compelled to take action immediately because of the time issue, and the decision was made to adopt the split-elementary school proposal.

Board members listened and took notes Thursday night, interacting with audience members as everyone tried to reach some type of consensus. The demeanor was quite congenial even though many in the audience spoke with passion about keeping all three school campuses in full operation.

Several parents told about their children and the long bus rides which would result in splitting the schools.
Many also objected to a proposed change in names for the Severy and Moline schools. Moore said the board planned to rename the schools as follows: “West Elk Elementary School - Moline” and “West Elk Elementary School - Severy.”

That proposed change seem almost as upsetting to some as the pilot program itself. Several board members indicated they would like to revisit the name change idea.

Patrons from Severy, Moline, Grenola, Howard and the rural areas in between asked questions and gave their opinions during the meeting which board president Marty Taliaferro announced (at the beginning of the meeting) would be concluded by 9:30 p.m. It appeared that everyone who wanted to speak got that opportunity.

There was applause several times after a member of the audience spoke, but opinions were varied and there was no specific recommendation to resolve the issue of declining enrollment, teacher vacancies and considerably less funding than was available in the the past and current budget years.

It appeared that board members and Moore were open to tweaking the pilot project after several in the audience, including two teachers, suggested that a combined sixth grade class could be moved to the Howard campus, thereby eliminating one teacher position, and hopefully, allowing both elementary schools to continue operating somewhat as they have in the past.

Other than that, the only suggestion that seemed to interest many audience members was going to a four-day school day and utilizing those savings to keep both Moline and Severy intact as they currently are operating,

A key point that Taliaferro emphasized was the continuing drop in enrollment, which he believes to be a direct result of the high price of fuel.

“People are having to move in order to drive shorter distances to work,” he said. “I don’t see that situation getting better in the next year or two.”

Board members said they were shocked when informed about the nose dive in enrollment, especially since they had hoped that this might be a turn-around year for enrollment.

Moore said the enrollment last March was 370, then 340 in May. “We’re now preparing a budget based upon an enrollment of 328 students,” he said.

At meeting’s end, Taliaferro said the board would hold a retreat and work session in August to discuss the outcome of the public forum, and consider any written comments that might be forthcoming to board members.

Action to redo any part of the pilot program could be taken at the Aug. 11 regular board meeting, but that would be only a few days before the beginning of classes.

At this point, the June 9 “pilot” decision remains the policy of the district.

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