Topeka ? A school district’s request to acquire more territory, a school and hopefully more students was denied Tuesday by the State Board of Education, leaving the district’s future in doubt.

By a 9-1 vote, the state board denied the petition of Southern Cloud County school officials to acquire 12.25 miles of land and a school building in Delphos from the North Ottawa County school district.

It was the latest chapter in a never-ending story of rural school districts faced with declining enrollments, changing demographics and few options for keeping the schoolhouse doors open.

“We’re just running out of kids,” said Brian Spencer, Southern Cloud superintendent.

“You have to have places for the people to work. Less people are coming back to work on the family farm,” he said. “It’s a way of life.”

State Board member Bruce Wyatt of Salina agreed: “We know that it’s not just (Southern Cloud), it’s a statewide problem.”

According to state figures, two-thirds of Kansas’ 303 school districts are faced with declining enrollments. The problem is particularly acute in north-central and northwest counties, where districts such as Atwood and Herndon have voted to consolidate.

Kevin Ireland, hearing officer for the Department of Education, told the state board that there was no guarantee that transferring the territory would be enough to stabilize Southern Cloud’s declining enrollment. The district had 197 students last fall and was projected to lose as many as 30 in the coming year.

Board member Iris Van Meter of Thayer cast the only vote against the petition, saying Southern Cloud deserved the chance to make the transfer work. She also did not want to see the Delphos school left unused.

The issue was brought to the state board after local leaders could not work out an agreement on selling the Delphos building.

North Ottawa’s board voted earlier this year to close the school at Delphos and have students attend schools in Minneapolis. Northern Ottawa also has a declining enrollment at 617 students, with 187 in grades five through eight in Delphos.

Southern Cloud’s board sought to close its high schools in Glasco and Miltonvale and use Delphos as its combined high school. Even then, Ireland said, there would be a number of students who would go to neighboring Clay Center or Beloit for high school.

Spencer said the district’s two towns are 22 miles apart and that it would be just a matter of time before the district joined with neighbors to the east and west.

“Southern Cloud is clearly struggling to continue as a school district,” Ireland wrote in his report to the state board. “The district and its patrons are making an admirable effort to maintain a school system.”

Absent the land transfer, Southern Cloud will close one of its high schools, neither of which is accessible for students with disabilities.

Four new board members take office in the district in July, but Spencer said that would have little effect on the problems in the district.