Just a few issue’s here:
1. Most small schools out here don’t employee a principle. It would be mandated to hire a principle to cover the smaller attendance centers.
2. Its been the habit of schools that do this to eventually close the small attendance centers after a few years because of high costs. Busing then becomes the issue.
3. The superintendent of the larger district will see a substantial increase in his/her salary.
4. High School students would be mandated to go to the larger attendance center leaving an elementary school and possible a Jr. High, but I doubt that the later would be possible and the Jr. High would be taken to the larger attendance center. After a few years the elementary school would be closed and all students would be bused.
My conclusion, no real savings are seen.
The only savings I would see are larger classrooms and less teachers after the other attendance centers are closed. An interesting case is a school district called Triplains (Winona) located in Logan County. They are one of the smallest schools in the state and if they were to close, some of those kids would be bused I’m guessing 50 miles to Oakley, Sharon Springs Leoti, or Brewster.
It might be an option in some cases but it would have to be done on a case by case deal. I still don’t think there would be much savings at all, at lease out west, the more populated centers in NE Kansas might be different.