12/19/2008
TIM UNRUH
CARLTON — A committee of Chapman School District patrons in southwest Dickinson County has postponed efforts to influence a transfer of land from the Chapman School District to the Abilene School District. The four-person committee, headed by LaVerne Myers, met Thursday with Chapman Superintendent Tony Frieze and two school board members. “Our committee ... has decided not to proceed at this time,” said Myers, reading from a statement. Myers and the committee members, whom he said didn’t want to be named, discussed the transfer option with 90 people Dec. 1 in Carlton. By a vote, the audience favored pursuing the switch to the Abilene district, Myers said. But he said now is not the time to seek a transfer of that area into the Abilene district. “We feel that it would disrupt the education of students at Rural Center,” Myers said. Rural Center is a kindergarten-through-fourth grade school eight miles south of Abilene that is part of the Chapman district. “If we proceeded with the land transfer, it maybe would cause Rural Center to close quicker, and we don’t want to disrupt that,” Myers said. Chapman Superintendent Tony Frieze said the board has pledged to keep the Rural Center school open through the 2009-2010 school year.
Read the rest of this story in Saturday's Salina Journal.