They are already $740,000 in debt, and they expect to be able to run a K-12 school with less kids than they have now? From the last count published in the paper, enrollment will be down 20% from THIS year, and those are the kids they know about. There are more undecided, (or at least not telling that they are leaving, to save themselves harrassment.) They are going to put themselves even farther in debt, and we as the taxpayers will have to pay for it.
At least they will be able to play football, from the last meeting I was at, that is all at least one of the board members is concerned about.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

To Skyzacken. I'm guessing you are a sophomore or a junior this year. Are you affraid you might have to go to a different school and you may not be as popular or you may not be as smart as you think you are? In the long run it would be best for you. You are always talking about listening to the students. Why are so many leaving next year....i think you need to listen to the students. I would also encourage you to take an accounting class. You might be suprised to find out that the debt that the district is in is alot worse than you know. When you have to start paying for things like this, then you will look at it differently. Anybody that lives in the district can say what they want about it so STOP TELLING THEM TO BE QUIET! You don't hear what you want so your imature side tells you to tell people to shut up. SOOOOOO SAD!!

The people from Brownton and Stewart hang up their laundry on the Hutchinson Leader website and post their opinions but do not want anyone outside of Brownton/Stewart to comment on this debacle of a school district.

I think a Brownwart newspaper is a wonderful idea, but until then, expect people outside of the McLeod West Civil War to make comments.

It appears as though many parents are looking out for their kids and getting them out of dodge before it's too late. Good for them. The rest of the people remind me of those stubborn coastal people that refuse to leave their homes even though they've been warned several days in advance of a strong hurricane approaching and then get thrashed by a hurricane.

My reply is to thatssoraven
Brownton/Stewart does have their own paper. It is called the Bulletin (soon to be added to the Chronicle) If you could keep Jorge out of MW news we would not be on this website airing any dirty laundry.

Unfortunately the problems at McLeod West come down to simple economics. Even if Brownton and Stewart residents agreed on a path to try to save the district, there would still be major problems in the near future. Major issues with infrastructure, declining/stagnant(at best) enrollment numbers (even if a majority of the students came back to the district), and little, if any economic growth in the tax base to name a few. Compounding that is the rising cost of doing business. (Governmental or private enterprise) Having a sense of community is very important, but it is time to start changing what we view as a community. I think the entire "community" of western McLeod County has a wonderful opportunity at hand. Hutchinson has a dire need for a new high school, Glencoe-Silver Lake has similar infrastructure and economic problems, and I don't think I need to describe McLeod West's situation. Has anyone thought about a consolidation of the three district's? We could build a large, state of the art high school near Biscay to serve the needs of the "community". Middle Schools in Glencoe and Hutchinson, and elementary schools located closer to home. This is just a thought. The recent Northwest/Delta merger is just one example of this in the private sector. We may not like it, but unfortunately economics is forcing our hand.

I think the concept of a "County" high school is a great idea!!! Yes, the school would be larger than our small town schools and it would be expensive, but there would be more taxpayers available to pay for it!! Each town could maintain its own elementary schools, but a centrally located middle and high school would be great! The argument about a long commute doesn't fly in my book because right now now the students living in the northernmost part of the county in the GSL District have a long commute right now - this would be closer for them. This would solve the Stewart - Brownton problem because both town's students would be attending a new school. No school would have anything special about its former school in this new school. A new name, mascot, etc. would solve alot of problems for everybody. Times are changing, and education needs to change, too. Think of the classes this area could offer its students and the best of the best teachers would clammer to teach there!! I think this is something that all of the surrounding school districts need to look at. I, for one, would definitely vote yes for something like this!!