NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 Superintendent Mike Folks said now that RSP has given the Board of Education its recommendations for facilities improvements in the district, it's time to talk to the public on what that might look like.
"The board hasn't been together to talk about it," Folks said. "In just the one on one conversations I have had, the board probably needs to do their own strategic planning to talk about that proposal. The one thing they did say was, we know we need additional community input and we need to realize slow is fast, we want to make sure, before we go to the public and say this is our proposal, we want to make sure everyone's on the same page."
Because that additional discussion and time is needed, it's likely that further progress on the issue won't take place until Dr. Dawn Johnson gets installed as superintendent in June.
"The information that really came out of what the RSP group provided for us is kind of a projection into the future," Johnson said. "It's going to be, embrace the brutal facts of that projection into the future. We know that Reno County as a whole is kind of declining in student enrollment across the county. That is not just 308, but the same thing is happening in USD 308. I think we have to take a look at that information, start sharing that information that they got to us, make sure that we're doing that first and then start talking about what do we do now?"
Neither Johnson or Folks provided a timeline for when the board would decide on its next steps regarding the facilities study.