By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
If you look on the Central Plains school district website for building contact information, USD 112 has locations in Claflin, Wilson and Holyrood. It wasn’t too long ago that the district used to include Bushton too. School consolidation happens to many rural towns to combine resources and keep education options available to area families.
For more than a decade, Central Plains High School and Wilson High School have operated under the same USD 112, despite being separate high schools.
On Monday, the Central Plains Board of Education voted 5-2 to have all 7th - 12th grade students in USD 112 to attend school in Claflin, under Central Plains Junior/Senior High School.
Superintendent Greg Clark said the plan would take
effect in the 2023-2024 school year and would help with staffing shortages.
"The
enrollment at Wilson has dipped some," said Clark. "We want better use
of our staff. We want to give students more opportunities in school. We
felt like if we can get those two combined, that would be a positive
thing for the students. We'll see what happens over the next year."
Under this approved move, all 7-12 grade students in
Wilson would attend school in Claflin, just over a 20-mile commute. Clark
said staff has worked to create and estimate transportation costs for
transporting students, including routes for after-school activities.
A
state-mandated consolidation decades ago lumped Wilson, Holyrood and Bushton
together into the same district. In 2011, Claflin joined the district and
formed USD 112.
"We have operated buildings in Bushton, Holyrood, Wilson and Claflin,"
said Clark. We closed the building in Bushton a few years ago. Since
this district consolidated, we're down about 150 kids. Each of our
students are worth about $10,000 or $11,000 in funding. If we lose 150
kids, the district is losing about $1.5 million. That's caused some of
our need to continue to find efficiencies."
Clark added there is room for roughly 200 students in the Claflin high school
and there is currently 119 in there. Clark anticipated the Wilson high school
would remain open after the consolidation since Wilson Elementary School is still
housed in the same building.