18 January 2024
RUSSELL, Kan. (KSNW) — The Russell School District, USD 407, is looking for ways to cut costs and be more efficient. So, school leaders are considering closing Ruppenthal Middle School and the USD 407 District Office.
It is holding public hearings on both issues on Jan. 29 at the District Office Building, 802 N. Main Street.
Superintendent Jordan Perez said the proposed plan is for seventh- and eighth-grade students to be reassigned to Russell High School and sixth-grade students to attend Bickerdyke Elementary School.
The closure would reduce the district’s operating costs and improve staffing.
Perez said enrollment dropped from 852 in 2019 to 747 in 2023.
“When you lose 100 students over a course of that many years, and it’s not that many years, it impacts your budget moving forward,” he said.
It isn’t easy to pinpoint why the enrollment is dropping.
“It’s a bigger issue than just the schools to solve,” Perez said. “What is it in the community? Do we have industry that’s bringing workers to town? Do we have any new developments? You look at housing, and that’s kind of one of those issues … and day care. We just really struggle in the community with day care.”
The district has one high school, one middle school, and two elementary schools.
“If you break that down by building and just average it, I mean, we have less than 200 kids per building, so we’re not very efficient,” Perez said. “We did an efficiency study with KSDE (Kansas State Department of Education) earlier this year, and they said we are overstaffed.”
He said closing a school and redistributing the students would correct the staffing levels. He said it would also offer new opportunities.
“If you put seventh and eighth grade at Russell High School, our middle schoolers now have the opportunity to be exposed to agriculture, our brand new welding program we just invested in,” Perez said. “Our kids can take construction classes. It’s not that you’re taking away. You’re building something new and providing new opportunities that weren’t there.”
The middle school is the district’s oldest building. It was built in 1938.
“It’s kind of a fixture of the community. That’s where Bob Dole went to high school, and everyone really loves the cool limestone building,” Perez said. “They have every reason to be proud of the building. It’s just a really cool structure.”
He knows that closing the school would be an emotional decision affecting many in the community. But he thinks the building could still be used in some way, possibly for the district offices.
“We really need to hold onto the middle school until we know what our long-range plans are because we still need to use the gym and have access to the auditorium.”
Perez said the district is also restructuring bus routes for efficiency and cost savings.
“Two weeks ago, the transportation director and I, we actually loaded up together, and we went and drove routes, and we looked at how we could create new efficiencies,” he said.
They believe they can reduce the current six bus routes to four and keep the bus ride to 45 minutes or less.
Perez said the district focuses on keeping the best of the best teachers, so teacher wages are a priority.
The public hearing on the proposed closure of the USD 407 District Office is at 5:15 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29.
The public hearing on the proposed middle school closure is immediately after that, at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 29.
Both meetings are at 802 N. Main Street.
During the meetings, a representative of the board of education will present the proposals, and the board will hear testimony as to the advisability of the closures.