By Emily Hoffman
    The Wauneta Breeze
    
     At the beginning of the 1990-91 school year, Palisade high school students joined Wauneta's students for classes. The first year of the cooperative between Wauneta and Palisade soon changed to become a new school district.
     For 15 years the students from Palisade and Wauneta have studied together, competed in sports as teammates, acted together, worked together, and played together. The children of two communities have come together to form one school.
     What's ahead for the future? What challenges now face the district? What lies ahead for its children?
     The Breeze spoke with former WP school board presidents, Rod Wheeler and Rick Einspahr, district patron Stephanie Malcolm, and WP Superintendent Charles Isom to hear their opinions about where the district is at now, where it's headed and suggestions for keeping the district intact.
    
    Challenges facing the district
     One of the challenges confronting Wauneta-Palisade is the same one facing all the school districts in this area-low enrollment numbers.
     According to the feasibility study conducted by Gerald Ehlers in 2003, projected student enrollment will decline in every district in the area over the next 10 years. Depending on the district, the drop in numbers range between 16 and 39 percent (please see table on page 2). The study included data from Imperial's schools, Dundy County, Hayes Center, Hitchcock County Unified, McCook and Wauneta-Palisade. Projected decline for WP is 39.4 percent with Ehlers predicting 107 K-12 students for the 2012-13 school year.
     Those interviewed agree declining numbers pose a problem.
     "Definitely the challenges I see are low numbers," said Einspahr, who served on the district's school board 20 years, from 1984 to 2004.
     Isom echoes that. "Our biggest challenge is declining enrollment in my opinion. It's nothing that we can control."
     Yet Einspahr believes we could make the district a more attractive place, and draw in more students.
     "I think sometimes we have to start looking at the school district as a private business," said Einspahr. "You have to do things to attract people to your district. Make it a place where people want to come."
     Wheeler, who served on the school board 22 years, agrees.
     "Something in this district, if it's going to survive, needs to attract people," said Wheeler. "It appears, from the outside, that there's still too many people opting out, and choosing other things."
     Wheeler mentions that he doesn't include home school students, but then pauses and mentions that if we offered what they wanted, they might choose WP over home education.
     "Maybe there's something we can offer the home school student," said Einspahr. "Some will frown on it, but you have to think outside the box."
     Isom lists two other issues he feels are facing the district now and in the future. The financial situation, and the district's facilities.
     "Basically, we have to continue to watch our Ps and Qs, and hopefully we don't deny our children a quality education as things continue to tighten financially," said Isom.
     The fact that the buildings in the school district are older, the main structure at Wauneta is around 70 years old with the addition about 50, is another cause for concern to Isom.
     Wheeler mentions test scores, something he believes has never been effectively dealt with. When Wheeler retired from the school board in 1999, he stated then that he'd been disappointed with test scores.
     "I really thought that quality teaching could come to a level, and test scores would go up and they didn't," said Wheeler. "We were making excuses then, and it appears we still are. I don't know why that is. You don't have to have a large number (of students) to have a student do well."
     Wheeler also believes the patrons of the district need to support the school board, administrations and teachers.
     If there are questions, certainly ask, but don't go in as an adversary, he said.
     Malcolm, a Palisade mother of three who will soon complete her teaching degree, believes the biggest challenge facing the district is providing a quality education in the face of declining state aid.
     "The obvious challenge is giving our children the very best possible education with a decreasing budget," said Malcolm, "and I'm not exactly sure how it can be done."
     Malcolm said she's often bewildered at how the state prioritizes education, but isn't willing to go the extra mile and fund the programs needed.
    
    Steps of improvement
     When Einspahr retired from serving on the board, he cited his big disappointment had been that the communities of Wauneta and Palisade hadn't come together after the merger. It still is a disappointment.
     "I think the two communities need to come together," said Einspahr. "We have to do what's good for the district and quit this Wauneta-Palisade thing."
     Several of those interviewed suggested that one of the ways to stem the trend of low enrollment numbers is to encourage people to move back to the area.
     "The key to the whole thing is we've got to quit telling our youth to leave," said Einspahr. "We've got to quit saying, 'Don't come back to the farm, don't come back to this area and do business.' Everything they hear has been negative for the last 10 or 15 years."
     Isom agrees. "Encourage people to bring families here."
     "It really isn't that there aren't opportunities," said Wheeler, "you've got to make them. You've got to look for them."
     Malcolm believes that one way to improve the district is for parents to help their kids excel. "We live in a world of diverse competition and without a great education, our youth will be left behind," she said. "The inevitable solution to the budget crunch is consolidation, but maybe we could think out of the box to find unique solutions to those challenges ahead."
     Instead of just hoping enrollment numbers increase, or seeing that as the only solution, Malcolm suggests open-minded dialogue, with the district's youth as a priority in the discussion.
     Other solutions she suggests are utilizing the funds WP receives in the best possible ways, cutting overhead costs, and "maybe letting the students help brainstorm ideas and play a pivotal part in the implementation of those ideas," suggests Malcolm.
    
    Ten years into the future
     Both past board presidents believe goals are essential if the district wants to be here in 10 years.
     "If you don't have goals, you're not likely to be around," said Wheeler. "You need to set goals."
     "You need long-term, short-term and real short term goals," said Einspahr. "In my opinion, you need a one-year goal, a five-year goal, and a seven-year goal, and if you're going to be around, what are you going to do in the next five years to do that? You need to have a plan laid out."
     Both Isom, and school board members indicated that they have no current goals in place for the district.
     With planning, Wheeler believes that Wauneta-Palisade can still be here in 10 years. "Maybe 20 might be stretching it a little," he said.
     Wheeler believes the agricultural economy plays a big part in whether the district will be in operation.
     Isom agrees. "What kind of impact will the farm situation have on the school?" he asks. "Nobody knows that answer. If people continue to sell out, we might have valuation, but might not have kids to educate."
     Whether an exodus from the area will occur, no one can predict.
     "There were a lot of people that left this area in the '80s because it got so tough," Wheeler recalls. "If we can have 10 good years, people will stay around, if we have 10 bad years, people will be moving out."
     Bottom-line, Wheeler believes if we want to be here, if we want a viable district, we need to make Wauneta-Palisade the best possible school in the area.
     Einspahr agrees. "If we don't take a more proactive approach, than just sitting back and watching things go, that's what's going to happen. We have to decide if we want to be in the fight or just sit back. You can either be proactive or reactive."
     Malcolm sees further consolidations as a possibility. "Maybe unfortunately, maybe not, I see a wave of consolidation in the coming years, unless the population explodes or the lawmakers are willing to change how education is funded."
     "I see an enrollment of less than 200," said Isom, who believes that the district can have a school as long as it wants, but patrons will have to be willing to make sacrifices to achieve that.
     Isom said that what happens to surrounding schools will have an impact on what happens to Wauneta-Palisade in 10 years.
    
    Looking ahead
     Where the district stands today is not where the district will be in three years, five years or 10 years into the future.
     The ag economy, financial decisions coming down from the Legislature, the number of children in the area who will be in school 10 years-these issues are largely out of the hands of the board, the administration, and the patrons of the district.
     Working with what we have now and making the best of it, providing the best education with the resources we have at our disposal, and becoming active in the education of our children are the factors we can control right now.