NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the repurposing of the Yoder Charter School building coming up after this school year, Haven USD 312 Superintendent Craig Idacavage wanted to be clear that the closure of the K-8 center was a decision made after much deliberation.
"It certainly wasn't done on a whim," Idacavage said. "This is something that, the discussions have been happening even before I came to USD 312, as they have looked at enrollment trends and different things like that. As we came on, we looked at those last year. They have seen a decline in enrollment since COVID, certainly. About half of their kids have left that building. This year, it's dropped again. The board, after that Sept. 20 date, they wanted to start having those discussions again. As we started those discussions, we looked at assessment data, we looked at enrollment trends, we looked at all this different information to see, is this the best use of our resources in our district?"
The Board of Education still has to approve any future uses of the building, but there are some ideas that have already come to the front.
"Can we use those resources better to offer some other programs in Haven?" Idacavage said. "We're also looking at growing our early childhood center there in Yoder. The building itself won't close, it's just going to turn into more of an early childhood center."
Lots of options are still on the table for the Board of Education to consider.
"It's very, very early in these discussions," Idacavage said. "We're going to work with our early childhood at the RCEC. They're interested in putting some spaces in and using some of our space. We've talked to Head Start here in Hutch about opening up more Pre-K possibilities. Then, also, our daycare that we opened up this year in Haven, both our toddler and our infant rooms have long waiting lists."
Yoder Charter School will no longer be a K-8 center after the 2023-2024 school year.
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