Vote to split off two sections of Colome school district scheduled for Tuesday

Jun. 16—COLOME, S.D. — A small-town school district that covers a huge geographic region has a big decision.

Voters in the Colome Consolidated School District will vote on Tuesday, June 20 to decide on breaking off the Wood and Witten sections of the district and potentially ending a geographically eccentric relationship between towns 50 miles apart. A reorganization plan was approved by the South Dakota Department of Education and would split the territory between two nearby school districts.

Voters will vote either "For" or "Against"

the reorganization plan.

If it's approved, the changes will take effect for the 2024-25 school year. Voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Colome Fire Hall, Witten City Hall and the Wood Community Hall.

If approved, the new dividing line between the White River and Winner school districts would follow the county line between Mellette and Tripp counties. White River is about 17 miles to the west of Wood, a small community of about 40 residents. The new Colome district would shrink to about 325 square miles, down from its current 804 square miles and would lose more than $115 million in assessed value in taxable property in its boundaries, a decrease of about 33%.

The plan to change the district's boundaries came from residents in the Wood and Witten areas of the district. Both joined the Colome district in 2010 when they still had school buildings in those towns and at the time, Colome's district had vowed to keep those schools open in a potential consolidation, while the White River and Todd County districts did not.

Since then, the Colome Consolidated district saw attendance fall in both Witten and Wood, with the Witten school closing in 2021. The Wood school officially closed in November 2022 in part because the district could not hire a teacher to work in Wood, meaning they didn't have any students attending the facility either. The district had two teachers in Wood for the 2021-22 school year but both left mid-school year, leaving the school board to approve busing the students to Colome to finish the school year. As of March, seven students were being bused from Wood or Witten to Colome for classes, and Colome Consolidated School Board has since declared the old Wood school to be surplus and turned the building over to the community of Wood.

Wood area petition supporters indicated that they didn't want to see the Colome school close but wanted to change the district boundaries to send their tax dollars to the schools their children already attend, particularly White River. About three-fourths of the north section of the Colome Consolidated district is located in Mellette County and closest to White River.

"The feedback of those attending the public meetings was that they were satisfied with the language of this reorganization plan because it had the most potential to pass when it reached the public vote — especially since it kept the Colome school open," the Colome plan submitted to the state said.

As of fall 2022, Colome had 162 students in the district in grades K-12, which is 16th-smallest among 149 public school districts in South Dakota, and projects to have about 160 students if the new district alignment goes into effect. According to state data, Winner has 760 students and White River has 401, according to state data.

Open enrollment figures from December 2022 from the SDDOE shed light on the movement between districts. In 2020 and 2021, Colome Consolidated had net zero open enrollment, with the same numbers of students open enrolling in and out. In fall 2022, the district had a net loss of 20 students (53 students going out; 33 coming in.). White River had 54 students open enroll into its district for the 2022-23 school year, with 15 open enrolling elsewhere. Its net open enrollment has been approximately plus-30 students annually over the last three school years.

Approval of a reorganization would end a 15-year story between the two sections of the district. The SDDOE signed off on the

merger of Colome and Wood in 2008,

shortly after a state law prohibiting non-contiguous school district boundaries was changed, and voters in both districts approved the consolidation in 2009. Colome Consolidated voters failed to approve

a 2019 plan to spend about $5 million on a new high school facility in Colome,

in part because of concerns from Wood and Witten area voters.

No matter how the vote turns out, the Colome district is planning for the future again. With a main high school building that dates back to 1915, Colome is pursuing plans to build seven new classrooms on its campus, in part using funds from the coronavirus-related American Rescue Plan, connecting its elementary school and gym facilities. It has also approved moving to a four-day school week for 2023-24.