Mediation set to begin in Wetmore school land transfer

Mediation meetings between representatives of Jackson Heights, Prairie Hills and two other school districts regarding the possible transfer of land from Prairie Hills into the other three districts are “likely” to begin next week, Jackson Heights Superintendent Jim Howard told the USD 335 Board of Education at its monthly meeting on Monday.

“We got our mediator assigned to us today,” Howard told board members regarding the request from the Jackson Heights, Nemaha Central and Vermillion school districts to have land transferred from Prairie Hills into the three districts in the wake of Prairie Hills’ decision earlier this year to close Wetmore Attendance Center, prompting the vast majority of Wetmore families to send their students to Jackson Heights.

Howard said that even though he did not know what the mediation process “looks like,” he and representatives from Nemaha Central and Vermillion are ready to get started on the process of transferring land from the Prairie Hills district that includes Wetmore and the surrounding area into the three districts where former Wetmore students are now attending school.

As for how much land could be transferred into each of the three districts, Howard said a land survey is under way and could be completed sometime in the next couple of weeks. He added that whatever the mediator proposes as a solution for a land transfer may likely meet with resistance from the Prairie Hills USD 113 school board.

“What we suspect is going to happen, no matter what the mediator says… it’s going to be stone cold, arms crossed, we don’t care what the mediator says,” he said. “This might be their one chance to find the middle ground.”

School board members and parents of former Wetmore students have argued that state aid and tax dollars should follow those students into whichever school districts they choose to attend, and Howard said allowing the transfer of Wetmore-area land into the Jackson Heights district could eventually give USD 335 a financial leg up, should the district attempt to seek a bond issue for a district improvement project.

Howard also presented board members with information on the district’s Sept. 20 headcount, in which the district’s full-time enrollment (FTE) numbers for the 2023-24 district showed an increase of almost 100 students — from 362.9 FTE students in the 2022-23 school year to 456.5 FTE students in the current year, largely due to the influx of Wetmore students but also including incoming students from other nearby districts.

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