The Wednesday, Dec. 7, public hearing at Wilson School was canceled by the Central Plains USD 112 school district on Monday.

The hearing was to take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday regarding the closing of the 7-12 building at Wilson School at the end of the 2022-23 school year and reassigning those students to Central Plains Jr./Sr. High School in Claflin.

According to Diane Ney, USD 112 board secretary, the cancelation was necessary because the address for the hearing location was incorrect on the notification of publication.

USD 112 Superintendent Bill Lowry said the public hearing process will start from scratch at the upcoming school board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, at the Wison School commons.

The last-minute cancellation was prompted by a letter from attorney Joshua Ney with Kreigshauser Ney Law Group in Overland Park on behalf of WHS Future Committee, a group of parents and community members.

The document refers to legal notices published in the Great Bend Tribune on Nov. 18 and Nov. 25.

The document states the Nov. 18 meeting location was listed as “2005 Ave. D, Wilson, KS” and the Nov.

25 “legal notice listed a different address,‘3005 Ave.

D, Wilson, KS’ as the place of the public hearing.”

The I-R reviewed physical copies of the Great Bend Tribune. Both copies list the address of the meeting as 2005 Ave. D, Wilson.

The USD 112 Central Plains website lists the address of Wilson Schools as 3005 Ave D, Wilson.

“The district’s notice was legally insufficient because it had the wrong address for the ‘Wilson Schools Common Area’ listed in the notice,” Ney wrote via email Monday night.“To the extent it was uniformly incorrect both weeks, it does not change the fact that the notice did not comply with K.S.A. 72-1431, and as a result, the hearing cannot take place on Dec.

7.”

Lowry said the district submitted the incorrect address, which was a mistake.

“It was a typo that wasn’t caught in the first publication,” Lowry said.

A second concern was listed in the letter.

“In addition, my clients are very concerned regarding the seemingly “secret” nature of the school board meeting held on Nov. 16 at which the insufficient legal notice was apparently authorized for publication. As a result, this letter also contains an open records request regarding that meeting and surrounding correspondence and documentation.”

The document requested any legal notices related to the Dec. 7 hearing, correspondence or communications related to a hearing, any written notice related to the school board meetings held on Nov. 14 and Nov. 16 and all records distributed or used by the school board or staff during the board meetings held on Nov. 14 and Nov. 16.

“Not everything is open records,” Lowry said.“All that is open records will be sent to the attorney.”

No time line was given for the delivery of the records. According to Kansas open records, the district has three working days to respond to the request, either with the requested information or with a reason why it cannot be released.

As part of the process, notice of the hearing must be published for two consecutive weeks in an official newspaper for the district (the I-R or the Tribune). The hearing must take place 10 days following the last publication.

“The school board owes the Wilson community and the entire USD 112 district far more transparency instead of ramming through a misguided decision to close a school that has faithfully served this community for generations,” Ney said.