WILSON — After 54 years as a teacher at Wilson Jr./ Sr. High School, Alice Peterka was asked to resign.

“The message from Mr. Lowry was ‘Due to state statute, you have an option to resign your position, or the board will be required to non-renew your contract at the May board meeting,’” said Peterka, who teaches business classes at the school. “The major reason was they didn’t want us to sue for unemployment — that’s my opinion.”

Bill Lowry, interim superintendent for the USD 112 Central Plains school district, said teachers at WJSHS are being given the choice to resign instead of a hearing having their contracts non-renewed.

“If you have a teaching contract and you’re not going to return and you haven’t resigned, the board has to complete a non-renewal process by the end of May,” Lowry said.

This school year is Peterka’s 58th consecutive year as a teacher, and while her status in the classroom is as a part-time teacher, she would return to her classroom in Wilson in the fall.

“I was asked if I would want to teach at Claflin, and I said no. I don’t plan to do that,” she said. “Why can’t they come here?

“He said, ‘Besides you’ve taught long enough.’ I said, ‘That’s not up to you.’” Instead of resigning, Peterka opted to submit her notice of retirement.

“I wrote, “As of July 31, 2023, Alice Peterka will be retiring contingent upon Wilson High School being closed. If closure does not happen, this statement is null and void,’” she said.

Lowry said four teachers from Wilson Schools, both elementary and junior/senior high school, have resigned or will have resignations accepted at the May 8 board meeting. The number could change if any additional resignations are submitted lastminute he said.

“I have two official open positions at this time at Wilson Elementary School,” Lowry said.

While Lowry has served as a superintendent for a total of 24 years, he said the closure of WJSHS is his first time to walk through the process of closing a school.

Peterka said the closure has been difficult for her students.

“Our students are nervous and in a quandary about what they should do and why doesn’t the board listen to anybody,” she said. “I took time to let them vent in my class. You have to have someplace to talk once in a while.”

WJSHS is set to close at the end of this school year, based on a January vote by the USD 112 Central Plains board of education. Two subsequent requests for an extension for the school were made. One was voted down; the April request by the Catholic Diocese of Salina did not make it to a vote.

With more than five decades of teaching at Wilson, Peterka said she remembers the mergers that led to the current closure situation.

“When we were still USD 328, we had a mission statement that said “We’re here for every student, every chance, every day,”” she said.

From her point of view, the district hasn’t taken an equal approach for all students or education centers.

“They used funds from our account to make their schools usable,” Peterka said. “There always has been disparity of salaries (between Wilson and Claflin).”