Herndon ? The city’s school board took one more look at the numbers and voted — again — to merge the Herndon school district with Atwood’s.

The Herndon and Atwood school boards had agreed last month to consolidate, and had planned to ask voters in the northwest Kansas communities to approve the proposal April 1. But the school board in Herndon rescinded its earlier decision to consolidate during a meeting Wednesday.

Herndon board members reconsidered the proposal once more at a meeting Thursday night with the Atwood board. Herndon board members eventually voted 5-2 in favor of consolidation, with the caveat that the city will continue to have its own elementary school for at least four years.

Once the four years are up, the elementary school will stay as long as it is economically feasible.

The district in far northwest Kansas has received progressively less money from the state as its enrollment has shrunk to 84 full-time equivalent students this year, down from 103 in the 1999-2000 academic year.

At Thursday night’s meeting, Atwood board member Patty Wolters expressed concern at news that legislators were considering moving the state’s districts into “regional educational districts.”

“We might as well consolidate now,” Wolters said.

A team of three superintendents and a former district finance director presented the idea Thursday to the House and Senate education committees.

They outlined how, with as few as 40 districts, the state could improve education while redistributing scarce dollars for salaries, supplies and health benefits.

The proposal’s four authors estimated such a reorganization would save $240 million to $480 million that could be redistributed among the remaining districts.