ith the Washita Heights School District out of money and no help apparent on the horizon, Superintendent Steve Richert went before the school board and told its members he needed to lose his job -- because the district would have to be shut down.
The district's already precarious financial situation became untenable when state appropriations began to be cut as legislators scrambled to make up a $669 million budget hole for the current fiscal year. Richert worked the numbers and determined his school district -- which served the tiny Washita County towns of Corn and Colony -- would run out of money by May 1.
The western Oklahoma district was able to finish out the school year, barely, and now has been consolidated with neighboring Cordell, leaving Richert to wrap up Washita Heights' remaining business by June 30.
"Technically and legally, Washita Heights is a memory right now," Richert said Wednesday, sitting in his office. "We no longer exist."
| Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas