The Seaman USD 345 School District in Topeka recently announced that as a result of the financial ramifications outlined in the block grant funding, they will no longer accept out of district students into their district. This prompted a similar discussion during Wednesday night’s Manhattan Ogden USD 383 school board meeting.
Superintendent, Bob Shannon brought the discussion to light during his spoken report. Shannon said many people have asked him for his stance on the issue.
According to Shannon, he does not feel that cutting out of district students off from coming to the Manhattan/Ogden schools sends any certain message to state legislators. He said he feels it would only have a negative impact on the students, teachers and parents, especially those teachers who bring their children to local schools when they arrive for work.
Shannon said, at this time he does not feel it is necessary to pass a similar measure. He added he would like to proceed with caution, but continue to offer out of district students the chance to attend USD 383 schools if there is room available for them after district students enroll.
The board members appeared to agree as well.
Several items were unanimously approved during the board meeting, including the first reading of textbook purchases for the 2015-2016 school year (for several mathematics classes), the Ogden Elementary school playground surfacing project bid, and the Manhattan High School West south gym overhead volleyball system replacement bid.