New B.O.E. district boundaries proposed for Jackson Heights

In May, the transfer of about 90 square miles of land — including the community of Wetmore — from Prairie Hills USD 113 to Jackson Heights USD 335 was finalized by the Kansas State Board of Education, and with the growth of the Jackson Heights district comes the need to change the boundaries of the school district’s individual board districts.

During the USD 335 Board of Education’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, board members discussed how to handle possibly splitting the district into five board districts, with each of the overall district’s five communities — Circleville, Netawaka, Soldier, Whiting and now Wetmore — to receive its own voting district, along with two “at large” positions to flesh out the seven-member board.

District Superintendent Jim Howard and middle and high school principal Derek Smith presented board members with map options for redrawing boundary lines to accommodate individual board positions based on populations in each board district.

No official action was taken on any of the map proposals, although school board members noted that a redrawn map would have to be submitted to Jackson County officials sometime in February to accommodate the 2025 election schedule.

At present, the school district is split into six board district positions with one “at large” position, the latter held by Michelle Schierling. The other board district positions include:

• Positions one and four, respectively held by Dr. David Allen and David Holliday, covering the Soldier area west of J Road.

• Positions two and five, respectively held by Kallie Kirk and Matt Browning, covering land east of J Road and south of 286th Road, including Circleville.

• Positions three and six, respectively held by Neal Keeler and Doug Amon, covering land north of 286th Road and largely east of N Road, including Netawaka and Whiting.

Smith’s five-district proposal would put Allen and Holliday into the first district, covering the Soldier area; Browning and Schierling would remain in the third district, covering Circleville; Kirk and Amon would be in the fourth district, covering Netawaka; and Keeler would be in the fifth district, covering Whiting. At present, there would be no representation in the second district, which would cover Wetmore.

Holliday noted the importance of giving the Wetmore community its own representation on the board, owing to “what they went through” when the Prairie Hills board voted to close Wetmore Attendance Center in February 2023. He added that in most cases, current board members may be able to hold onto their positions until they are up for re-election, although that may put some board members into running for “at large” positions.

“I don’t think we need to worry about our positions,” Holliday said. “I feel like we need to worry about setting up what we think is the best format for the district as a new board.”

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