The district, located in Stilwell, currently serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Independent status would have allowed it to expand to high school.
Superintendent Steve Cain said he believes it would be the right move for the community.
“We do know our kids. We do know our families,” Cain told the board. “We think that we can provide more so than if they do go out into another school.”
Cain did not respond to a request for comment.
However, board members voiced concerns the change would deplete students from nearby Cave Springs, which serves 166 students.
“Probably the most concerning [issue] would be Cave Springs, who is on the bubble at this point,” said board member Chris VanDenhende. “And if they lose kids there, they may not even be viable.”
Board members cited letters they received from Cave Springs and Stilwell, saying the districts were opposed to the expansion, citing the competition another area high school would create for per-pupil state funding.
Dahlonegah is currently building a facility to support upper grade levels with land leased by the Cherokee Nation for $1 per year. While the facility is expected to be ready by August, board members expressed hesitation there is not enough time to prepare the district and community for the addition of a high school.
“I think that it’s going to be very difficult to begin this school up in August with the amount of teachers that they would need, when we’re already pushed to the brink of having enough in the state to fill classrooms,” board member Becky Carson said.
Cain told the board the district would only need three more teachers — one for agriculture, one for English Language Arts and a head football coach.
Board member Wes Nofire, who represents the area, said as a former student at Sequoyah High School, he had concerns the change would discourage Native American students from going to Sequoyah Schools, a nearby high performing boarding school.
He said in his experience, students who had certain “circumstances” in their home lives fared better by “plucking them out of that environment.”
“We’ve watched whenever they go to Sequoyah and they had that dormitory, they got a chance to excel,” Nofire said.
The board voted unanimously to reject the request.
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