CARTHAGE -- After two years of empty classrooms and zero enrollment, residents in the Carthage School District today will vote on whether to formally dissolve the district.
A simple majority of voters must approve the reorganization for the plan to pass. Polls are open at the Carthage Community Center from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. If approved, the proposal would dissolve the district as of July 1.
If approved, it officially will close Carthage Elementary School, which served kindergarten through sixth-grade students through the spring of 2007, but which has been empty in the years since. While the school's attendance status has technically remained active, each of Carthage's school-age children has been open-enrolled in a neighboring school district in recent years.
"In this case, it's just easiest to dissolve the whole district and attach to other schools," said Jo Windedahl, who has worked as the district's business manager for four years.
The proposal on today's ballot would reorganize the Carthage School District, which is comprised of land in Sanborn, Miner, and Kingsbury counties. The plan would allow students to continue attending one of four area schools of their choice.
ADVERTISEMENT
Land in Sanborn County would be delegated to Sanborn Central in Forestburg, land in Miner County would become part of the Howard School District and land in Kingsbury County would be divided between the Iroquois and De Smet school districts.
Approval of the reorganization also will increase residents' taxes, with new rates depending upon where patrons live and where they will send their children to school. According to school board chairwoman Dawn Hamilton, the Carthage School District has been able to operate with little help from the state and taxpayers over the past few years.
"(Voters) know that, but it was a reality that needed to happen," Hamilton said of the reorganization.
The district is already accustomed to open-enrolling its junior high and high school age children. Those students are "tuitioned out," meaning neighboring school districts receive tuition for the open enrollees they educate.
By the district's count, no more than 12 children from Carthage are open-enrolled, including kindergarteners through 12th-graders.
"There just aren't that many children anymore," Windedahl said.
This is the district's second attempt at reorganizing. The district's initial proposal was rejected by the state last year, Hamilton said, because low enrollment incentives could not be provided to all of the school districts set to absorb Carthage students. One of the district's remaining options was to put the plan to a vote.
"The nice thing about an election is the taxpayers have a say before the state steps in," said Hamilton, who sent two children to Carthage Elementary. "Unfortunately, other families that come in don't have the option of getting that local education."
ADVERTISEMENT
Though Carthage High School remains abandoned since closing in 1983, plans are in place for the current Carthage Elementary building.
The building and nearby auditorium have been deeded to the city to be remodeled into a new city hall and community meeting space, and the elementary now hosts monthly council meetings.
