On Feb. 2, there was a special meeting open to the public in the library where Matt Goetz provided 15 pages of findings from two months of research on the subject of a four-day school week verses a five-day school week. There was a handful of audience along with the Burrton Board of Education in attendance.... “The reason why we are approaching a four day school week is our enrollment,” Goetz said. “Ever since I have been here the enrollment has declined. We ran some numbers a couple days ago, where enrollment September 2021 to where we are currently at is [...]

The USD-373 Board of Education held a frank discussion about cost-cutting for more than two hours Feb. 1 as it looks for a solution for losing nearly 500 students in enrollment. Potential solutions included closing the Walton Rural Life Center or reducing it from two sections to one. The district also discussed the possibility of expanding alternative schooling options for students in seventh and eighth grades by next year. Source: Harvey County Now

For the last three weeks, community members, school board members, school administration, and students have met to consider the state of the district and discuss priorities to guide the board of education’s vision for the next five years. The final piece of that brainstorming came at last week’s special Board of Education meeting where Sue Givens with the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) led the board members through a series of discussions to help focus on areas of agreement and disagreement and what their priorities are from the community discussions. Source: Harvey County Now