Financial problems and declining enrollments are prompting two rural school districts to seek annexation by neighboring school districts. Tuesday, voters in the Farris School District in Atoka County and the Butler School Disrict in Custer County will consider annexation proposals.
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Farris is seeking annexation into the Lane School District, and Butler is asking to consolidate with the Arapaho School District.
Farris has approximately 70 students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. Lane School District has 215 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade.
The two schools are less than seven miles apart.
"We have had a drop in enrollment,” said Brian Walker, Farris superintendent. "That's why the board voted to (seek annexation).”
For the past five years, the school's enrollment has steadily declined, he said.
"I am for the annexation,” said Roland Smith, Lane superintendent. "The combined schools will offer a better education and more learning opportunities, such as art and foreign language for our students.”
If the annexation is approved, the Lane School District will receive a one-time payment of $250,000, he said.
Smith said if the annexation is approved the Lane School District will hire the entire Farris teaching staff, which is five teachers.
"We have a lot of facilities we can remodel to accommodate more classrooms,” Smith said.
Rural schools are under attack financially, Smith said. Through unification, the schools can be more viable.
"I would love for the two little school districts to pull together,” Smith said.
Butler superintendent Rod McDonald echoed his southeastern Oklahoma counterpart.
"We have lost so many students,” McDonald said. "When you lose students, you lose revenue.”
Nobody is living on the farms any longer, he said.
Approximately 75 students are in grades prekindergarten through 12 at Butler. McDonald said the school lost more than $50,000 in state aid in January.
The county has about 12,000 acres that is tax-exempt land, he said.
"If that land was on the tax rolls, we would last forever,” McDonald said.
In another election Tuesday, Muskogee, the mayor's race pits a fresh face against a political veteran. John Tyler Hammons, 19, was the top-vote getter in the April election in a field with five other candidates. His opponent Hershel Ray McBride, 70, got the second-most votes to get into the runoff with Hammons. Hammons, a University of Oklahoma freshman, will become one of the youngest mayors in Oklahoma history if elected.
Contributing: Staff Writer Julie Bisbee
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Yeah Tim....I know....Which is why it's not news worthy. It's more opinion bending news stories. It's just like when The Oklahoman started publishing obesity stories when Mick Cornett started his weight loss program. Get the point now?
hmm.. i think OKCPS should be next.. seriously. As a junior at one of district's school. I feel that not having a steady superintendent for past few years is jeopardizing my education. I just hope next year OKCPS will have a superintendent that will stay for years to come. One that will give OKCPS a 180 degrees turn into the right direction for the next generation.
This story is meant to fuel the concept that Oklahoma needs school district consolidation across the entire state of Oklahoma.....And it's true. Oklahoma needs to start consolidation. This process is probably favorable to a forced process by the state legislature. However, this lays the groundwork for analysis of what happens after a district consolidates with another.
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