Introduction

The Mission of USD 487 is to:

Engage children and youth, families, faculty, staff and community in creating positive, safe, nurturing, learning environments and experiences, which support all of our students to become responsible citizens and life long learners, successful in today’s world.

 

Background Information:

Herington, Kansas is located in Dickinson County with city limits bordering both Morris and Marion Counties. The city is named for its founder, Monroe Davis Herington. The city of Herington has a long history with railroading. The railroad is a major employer in the city and has a major economic influence on the city.

 

The Herington Public School system was organized in 1884. As the town grew so did the number of schools. There was a time when there were three parochial elementary schools in town. Today there is an elementary school, middle school and a high school.

 

Herington School District USD 487 serves approximately 499 Kindergarten through 12th grade students in Dickinson County. Herington School District is one of five school districts in Dickinson County. The district covers 93.7 square miles. Transportation is provided for students that live outside the 2.5 mile limit.

 

District Overview 2006-2007 school year:

*496 Students

*52 Certified Staff

*Average class size ≈11

*31 Classified Staff

*Serves students in 93.7 square miles

*Central Kansas Coop in Education #305

*Member Smoky Hill Educational Service Center

*Flint Hills League for sports and other activities

*2A School Classification for high school activities

*All buildings met Average Yearly Progress in 2005-2006

 

 

 

 

Demographics

Data for the Demographics Section of the report came from the following sources:

            Augenblick & Myers Study conducted for Kansas Legislature

Bureau of Vital Statistics for the State of Kansas

            USD #487 Documents and Web Site

            Economic Development Office for Wichita State University

Kansas State Department of Education Web Site

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Division

 

 

 

Population Dickinson County

 

Dickinson County Population by Age Group

Dickinson Co.

 

 

% Diff

 

% Diff

Age

1980

1990

80 to 90

2000

90-00

Under 5

 1,419

 1,298

-8.53%

1,103

-15.02%

5-9

 1,393

 1,383

-0.72%

1,333

-3.62%

10-14

 1,495

 1,463

-2.14%

1,542

5.40%

15-19

 1,749

 1,213

-30.65%

1,417

16.82%

20-24

 1,324

 871

-34.21%

806

-7.46%

25-34

 2,459

 2,643

7.48%

1,974

-25.31%

35-44

 2,152

 2,483

15.38%

3,106

25.09%

45-54

 2,218

 2,918

31.56%

2,549

-12.65%

55-59

 1,072

 906

-15.49%

1,009

11.37%

60-64

 1,044

 1,027

-1.63%

906

-11.78%

65 & over

 3,940

 2,753

-30.13%

3,599

30.73%

Total

 20,265

 18,958

-6.45%

19,344

2.04%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Estimated

 

 

*Estimated

 

Live Birth History

This graph reflects the number of live births for Dickinson County for the years 1995-2004.

Live birth data for 2005 will be available in January 2007.

 

 

 

Enrollment History

The enrollment data is from KSDE documents.  The data is from September 20, which is the official enrollment date for school districts in Kansas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of data:

 

Dickinson County:

  • Population is projected to remain fairly stable. This data does not include the possible growth in population due to the changes at Ft. Riley.
  • Live births recorded in 1995= 321; recorded in 2004= 208; a decrease of about 14%.
  • Kindergarten enrollment has increased about 12% since 2001-2002.
  • K-12 enrollment has declined about 4.1% since 2001.

 

Herington USD #487:

  • Kindergarten enrollment in 2006 is 41 students, 8 more than in 2001.
  • K-5 enrollment has decreased 13 students since the 2001-2002 school year.
  • Grades 9-12 enrollment has decreased by 5 students since 2001-2002.

 

 

 

Fort Riley Impact

 

Fort Riley as a military installation will remain open. In fact over 9,000 new soldiers will be located at Fort Riley in the next three to five years. The map that follows reflects the suggested area for location of soldiers and their families.

 

Some additional statistics provided from the office of Sam Robinson on April 14, 2006:

 

  • 1st I. D. aviation brigade will arrive during the summer of 2006
  • 1st I. D. Headquarters will transform and grow
  • 4th Brigade is moving in – 2,200 to date
  • Currently 11,580 active duty soldiers are assigned to Fort Riley
  • Over 30,000 people will be added to the Fort Riley Region due to the many transformations at Fort Riley.
  • Up to 70% of married soldiers may need to live off post
  • Adds approximately 12,375 family members

 

Herington should expect some growth in population and enrollment increase based on the above information. The amount of growth will depend on availability of housing in the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Programs and Services

 

The Herington School District is organized K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Generally speaking, instruction in grades K-5 is delivered in a self-contained format, instruction in grades 6-8 is departmentalized and instruction in grades 9-12 follows a block-scheduling format.

The major change in public education since 2001 has been the implementation of No Child Left Behind. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires "adequate yearly progress," a level of improvement school districts and schools must achieve to ensure all students are proficient in reading and mathematics by 2013-2014. In technical terms, adequate yearly progress (AYP) refers to the growth rate in the percentage of students who achieve the state's definition of academic proficiency. Each state will set the AYP gains every school must meet to reach 100 percent proficiency at the end of 12 years.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) also requires that every child be tested.  By testing all children, parents and teachers will know the academic achievement of every child, every group of students and all students.  This enables parents and teachers to work together to ensure that no child will be left behind and to ensure not only school-wide and individual progress, but subgroup progress as well.

Currently Kansas measures performance by the percentage of students who are at each of five levels:  advanced, proficient, satisfactory, basic and unsatisfactory.  In the NCLB act, AYP was based on the premise and promise that in 12 years, every student must be at the proficient level or higher in both reading and mathematics.  To respond to NCLB’s requirement for proficiency, Kansas AYP performance will be labeled as “proficient”, “advanced” and “exemplary”. 

 

The district has met the goal of Average Yearly Progress at all levels in each of the last two years.

 

 

The district is an active member of the Smoky Hill Service Center, Central Kansas Coop in Education #305 for Special Education Services, and Flint Hills League for activities. The graph that follows compares the percentage of district students with IEP’s and students on Free and Reduced meals to the state percentages.