Topeka ? Patrons of north-central Kansas’ Sylvan Grove school district have ample reason for pride, officials told legislators Monday.

All of Sylvan Grove’s seniors graduate, nearly all 160 students take part in extracurricular activities and the scores on standardized tests remain high, school board president Jerry Ostermann told the Senate Education Committee.

The panel is preparing to take up Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ proposal to raise state aid to school districts by $304 million plan over three years.

Ostermann’s testimony was intended to show that Kansas’ small districts use their resources wisely and to remind lawmakers of the character of rural schools.

“We feel like we’re doing OK,” Ostermann said, noting that community involvement in the schools plays a key role in district successes.

But small districts like Sylvan Grove are coping with financial difficulties and would face tough choices even if Sebelius’ plan were adopted, the committee was told.

Some districts have already consolidated and nearly a dozen will soon face that “painful” step, said Pat Baker, general counsel of the Kansas Association of School Boards.

“You lose the school, you wipe out many good jobs,” she said, adding that Kansas districts have cut about 1,000 jobs — including 532 of the state’s roughly 30,000 teaching positions — since 2000.

Today, Kansas has 302 school districts, sharing $2.6 billion in state aid.

Some legislators believe districts should be required to consolidate under certain circumstances, although the idea has hardly caught fire. Five bills on the topic were introduced last year, including one that would have allowed just one superintendent per county, but none made it out of House or Senate committees.

The President of the School Board for Unified School District 299, Jerry Ostermann, talks to the Senate Education Committee in Topeka about small-school education. Ostermann said his district was proud of the quality of education and the nearly 100 percent graduation rate even though the school district is economically poor.

Ostermann said forced consolidation was no solution and would simply take away local control over education.

“Just don’t take away our right to continue doing that,” he said.

Baker said districts are making the decision to consolidate on their own, based on economics and the need to provide curricula that satisfy not only college entrance requirements but also the federal No Child Left Behind law.

She said it was a “cruel hoax” to suggest that consolidation saves money solely through lower administrative costs.

“The only way you are going to save significant amounts of money is to close school buildings, particularly high school buildings,” Baker said.

Two districts in Ness County will merge July 1, when Ransom and Bazine combine as the new Western Plains district, Baker said.

A third district in the county, Ness Tre La Go — with 21 students in kindergarten through eighth grade — has petitioned the State Board of Education to dissolve and transfer its territory to neighboring districts.

In 2001, the West Graham district dissolved, transferring its territory to the Hill City district.