TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Kansas Board of Education is settling a land dispute between two rural school districts in northeast Kansas.

USD 115 Nemaha Central Schools filed a petition with the state board asking for approximately 81 square miles of land currently belonging to the USD 113 Prairie Hills school district.

Nemaha argues the vast majority of students residing in the area have attended their schools for over a decade, but the families have had no school board representation or voting rights in the district their children attend.

27 News spoke with USD 115 board of education president Amy Sudbeck, who says the issue dates back all the way to a multi-district merger in 2010.

Sudbeck says there was an agreement between USD 113 and nearby Bern schools as part of the merger. She says the agreement promised the land would follow Bern residents to whichever district they moved to in the event Bern schools closed.

Bern schools closed in 2012 and according to Sudbeck an overwhelming majority of those students began attending Nemaha Central Schools, but the land stayed with USD 113.

“Over a decade is certainly long enough,” Sudbeck said, “for somebody to say ‘no this is settled and this is where we go to school now, so our land needs to be moved with us.’”

Sudbeck says USD 115 has made several attempts to negotiate a deal with USD 113 since 2012, but that Prairie Hills isn’t willing to play ball. She says that’s why decided to file the petition with the state board.

27 News also reached out to the Todd Evans, the superintendent of USD 113. He said their lawyers advised them not to speak with the press, and provided a statement indicating Prairie Hills believes the Kansas Board of Education will reject the petition.

Sudbeck, on the other hand, believes the facts favor Nemaha Central. She says it’s all about the families affected.

“It’s all in the interest of the fairness to those families and those kids,” Sudbeck said. “When we live in rural Kansas all these student matter. And these kids matter, and they’ve been treated like they don’t matter. They’ve been asking for ever ten years for their land to be transferred.”

The Kansas Board of Education is expected to make their determination at a June 12 hearing, but their deadline is 90 days from the initial public hearing that took place March 22.

For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.