Jackson Heights, Prairie Hills boards at impasse on land transfer

Jackson Heights USD 335 and Prairie Hills USD 113 remain at an impasse on the transfer of land from the latter district to the former as students from the recently-closed Wetmore Attendance Center prepare to begin their first year as Cobras this fall.

During the USD 335 Board of Education’s regular meeting on Monday, board members discussed communications with the Prairie Hills board regarding the potential transfer of land in Nemaha and Brown counties into the Jackson Heights district, including the city of Wetmore, as proposed by USD 113, to accommodate students from Wetmore who will attend Jackson Heights this fall.

The Prairie Hills board, in a letter to USD 335, had proposed a land transfer that would extend Jackson Heights’ district boundary to 56th Road in Nemaha County, which runs west to east about two miles north of Wetmore. But on Monday, board members discussed concerns raised by landowners living north of that road who will be sending their children to Jackson Heights in the fall.

If the two boards continue to remain deadlocked in their demands for a land transfer, those concerns could be used in mediation discussions with state education officials in the future, Jackson Heights board members noted.

How Jackson Heights would cover the cost of educating and transporting students from Wetmore was also discussed, particularly a proposal from USD 113 to offer about one-fourth of what Jackson Heights would normally receive in base state aid per pupil in “transportation weighting,” which USD 335 would receive from USD 113 in June of next year.

“What they’re saying is that they’re going to give us a portion of the total cost per student, and they keep the rest of the money,” District Superintendent Jim Howard said of Prairie Hills’ “transportation weighting” proposal, which he also termed “inappropriate.”

After members of the USD 113 board voted in February to close Wetmore Attendance Center at the end of the 2022-23 school year, members of the board said they were not opposed to the idea of transferring land from the southern portion of their district, including Wetmore, to another neighboring school district, such as Jackson Heights.

Unfortunately for USD 335, the state’s funding formula would enable Prairie Hills to continue to receive state aid based on the district’s enrollment numbers for the previous two school years — money that Jackson Heights board members continued to argue should go to their district and others that will be absobing students who had previously attended WAC.

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