Even well before the USD 253 Emporia Board of Education decided against “pausing operations” at William Allen White Elementary last week, the question has been in the community: what’s different between pausing a school and closing it?
Another way to ask the question: what’s the criteria for reopening a paused school as recommended for William Allen White?
On KVOE’s Newsmaker segment Thursday, Superintendent Allison Anderson-Harder didn’t mention criteria for resuming operations. Instead, she focused on rebuilding enrollment and recruiting potential residents.
On KVOE’s Talk of Emporia in late May, Anderson-Harder said pausing a school could be considered, but the district would not close a school outright. On Thursday, Anderson-Harder says the district had been considering pauses of William Allen White or Logan Avenue, but pausing William Allen White made the most sense.
Anderson-Harder says the district had been using “natural attrition,” or leaving open positions unfilled, as its model — even as the district and building principals were recruiting for certain positions. However, Anderson-Harder says the district “just wasn’t getting the applicants,” despite work with Emporia State and an outside-the-box approach to recruitment.
Exit interviews, meanwhile, indicate several reasons why teachers are leaving the district or vacating the profession outright. Part of that includes increased criticism of education generally and teachers specifically. Part of that also includes concerns about district accountability, both at the student and staff levels. And part of that deals with concerns about teacher support.
Anderson-Harder says the district continues recruiting for its open positions, including the job fair held just before the pair of special meetings on the future of William Allen White last week. Anderson-Harder says the district moved quickly, despite an original timetable of the Enrollment Study Work Group making its final recommendations in October. The Work Group is tentatively set to continue its process the next few months.
