About 90 square miles being added to Jackson Heights district

The transfer of about 90 square miles of land from Prairie Hills USD 113 to Jackson Heights USD 335 is expected to receive the Kansas State Board of Education’s final approval this week, bringing to a close more than a year of negotiations resulting from the Prairie Hills school board’s decision in February 2023 to close Wetmore Attendance Center, an action that sent most students from that school to Jackson Heights.

During the Jackson Heights USD 335 Board of Education’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, May 6 — held a week earlier than usual due to eighth-grade promotion ceremonies on Monday, May 13, the board’s regular meeting date — Superintendent Jim Howard gave an update on the state school board’s scheduled meeting for today (Wednesday, May 15), the consent agenda of which includes the land transfer.

“We anticipate that since this is a consent item, the state board may pull it and talk about it, but we expect that since both boards (Jackson Heights and Prairie Hills) already approved it, the state board will go ahead and approve it as well,” Howard said. “I have no expectation of it not passing, and it will go into effect on July 1.”

Howard said the state board’s expected action on the land transfer is “the culmination of our entire year-long process” that began with the Prairie Hills board’s decision to close WAC at the end of the 2022-23 school year, followed by more than 100 WAC students making the decision to attend Jackson Heights schools.

The Kansas State Department of Education’s general counsel “has reviewed the (land transfer) agreement and finds it to be legally sufficient and consistent with the school unification laws of Kansas,” according to agenda information given to state board members for today’s meeting.

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