School building consolidations being considered across Kansas this year

Video above: KSN News at 5 and 6 p.m.

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – School building consolidations are being considered across Kansas this year. The Wichita and Garden City school districts are considering merging and closing some school buildings. One much smaller community, Healy, plans to dissolve its district altogether.

The Garden City Public Schools Board of Education met Thursday night to consider whether to approve a plan to close three elementary school buildings. Following our 6 p.m. broadcast, Garden City Public Schools announced that the board rejected the recommendation in a 4-3 vote.

They are not the only ones who have thought of building consolidation this year. Across Kansas, Wichita Public School’s Board of Education voted to move forward with its facilities master plan , which would close four elementary schools.

Experts at the Kansas State Department of Education say this year is comparable with past years. They say school districts consider closing buildings for many reasons, including population shifts across cities, declining school enrollment due to a lack of children in the area, and aging buildings that are no longer sustainable.

Some districts are also shifting to move students from multiple smaller buildings to one big building for staffing efficiency.

School closures affect different parts of communities in different ways.

“That’s part of what makes the consolidation so difficult is it impacts every resident differently,” said Frank Harwood, the deputy commissioner for fiscal and administrative services for the Kansas State Department of Education.

“Reduced number of childbirths across the nation, so as this trend continues, we’ll see reduced numbers in our elementary schools,” said G.A. Buie, the executive director of the United School Administrators of Kansas.

A spokesperson with the United School Administrators of Kansas said elementary schools will likely see more closures in the future.

Representatives with the KSDE say that the last time a school district closed or merged with a neighboring district was over 10 years ago. Seven districts closed in the 2010 to 2011 school year.

According to the KSDE, it’s normally really small districts that do close because they simply don’t have enough students. Healy is one of those districts. According to a report for the 2023-2024 school year, they only had nine students enrolled in grades K-12.

As of the 2020 census, the town had less than 200 people. The towns neighboring Healy are also sparsely populated.

“Districts in the western part of the state tend to be larger, even though they have small populations; they have large geographic areas, which is a challenge,” said Frank Harwood, the deputy commissioner for fiscal and administrative services for the KSDE.

According to the KSDE school district map, the nearest school to Healy High School is Dighton High School in the next district, over 20 minutes away.

Harwood says the community is putting the closure of its district on a November ballot initiative. He also says the disorganization of a school district is a local decision, not mandated by the legislature or state board of education.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.