BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas Attorney General’s Office blocked millions in school bond funds to a district in the state’s smallest county based on a rigid interpretation of a 2023 elections law.
Voters in the Greeley County school district, headquartered in Tribune near the state’s westernmost edge, approved in May a $4.6 million school bond for renovations and new construction, but the Attorney General’s Office refused to approve the funds.
“I feel like we have ignored a core tenet of our society and our government as a whole,” said John Niehues, the district superintendent. “You know, it’s the will of the people.”
The Attorney General’s Office determines whether any bond issue across the state meets legal standards. The Greeley County schools decision relied on a 2023 elections reform bill. It created a state law requiring county election officials to publish notice of an election three weeks in advance on a county election website, in addition to a traditional newspaper notice.
However, Greeley County, with a population of about 1,200, doesn’t have a website.
The office found the county clerk’s “non-compliance with the website notification” was equal to a failure to follow the law, said Danedri Herbert, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.
“This determination is purely one of compliance verification and not a judgment on the merits of or need for the bond in question,” she said.
In years past, when school districts or election officials were in similar situations, they relied on another state law for resolution. It says “the real will of the people may not be defeated by any technical irregularity of any officer, whenever the greater number of votes were in favor of a question submitted.”
Niehues, who has been at the district for about nine years and superintendent for four, said he was going to be OK no matter the result of the bond election. But with that acceptance also came mixed emotions.
“I don’t like that I’m the tip of the spear on this — that we chose the smallest county in Kansas to make a point,” he said.
Leading up to the May 21 primary, Niehues engaged the community to inform them about the bond, which would replace an old one and avoid tax increases for local property owners. Answers to frequently asked questions and in-depth information about the bond were — and still are — visibly posted on the school district website.
“There was no way anyone in Greeley County could not have known about this school bond,” said Jerri Young, the county clerk, who has acted as the county’s elections official for about 15 years.
The elections law was poorly written, Young said. State law doesn’t require Kansas counties to operate a website, and no funding was attached to the 2023 bill to ensure they did.
“I still don’t have one,” she said.
Young said she met with Attorney General Kris Kobach and office staff. She said she felt the decision had been made before the meeting began.
Outgoing state Sen. John Doll, a Garden City Republican whose district encompasses Greeley County, supported the 2023 elections bill at the time of its passage. Before leaving office, he said, he has attempted to help the district and the county remedy the situation without success. He said he didn’t consider how stringently the Attorney General’s Office would interpret it, even when small communities like Greeley County use their schools as sources of information.
The 25-year bond issue would have funded a new gymnasium, renovations in the existing gym and a new accessible playground. A private, anonymous donor also promised to cover about 10% of the project, which totals more than $4.7 million.
All now hangs in the balance as local officials wait to see if the 2025 legislative session might bring change.
The district had limited options in how to proceed once the Attorney General’s Office refused to release the bond funds. The district could still take legal action, which Niehues isn’t fully in favor of. The Legislature could remedy the requirement through new or amended legislation. Or the district could hold another election, but there would be no guarantee that a majority of voters would approve a bond question a second time.
“We did everything,” Young, the county clerk, said, “and the people voted. It was the will of the people.”