Burr Oak ? Noise during the passing periods at White Rock High School hardly reaches a dull roar.

The hallways aren’t crowded. The lockers — each student gets two — don’t have locks. The school has plenty of new computers, and books are stacked in shelves in the hallways, hundreds of volumes the library can’t hold.

While most schools would consider those circumstances a blessing, White Rock officials would trade the low decibel level for a few more students. But in Jewell County, just south of the Nebraska border, the average age is 46.2 and more than a quarter of residents are over age 65. The district’s enrollment has dropped nearly 36 percent since 1992.

“There just aren’t many children,” Supt. Bill Walker said. “When they graduate, not too many come back.”

It’s a situation common to many rural Kansas counties, where schools have seen dramatic drops in enrollment. And those districts are among the target of legislators drafting a response to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling ordering them to improve the education provided by the state’s public schools by April 12.

For years, small districts like White Rock, with 122 students, have received extra money from the state on the theory they can’t take advantage of the same economies of scale as large districts. In White Rock, that’s led to annual spending of $17,104 per pupil, while the base state aid is just $3,863.

“We’re rich money-wise, but we’re poor kid-wise,” said Lori Yelken, a 1987 White Rock graduate who now serves as president of the school board.

Some legislators are questioning that policy as they look for ways to provide additional dollars for special education, bilingual education and programs that help at-risk students — all of which were identified by the court as areas in need of extra money.

Should districts like White Rock lose the extra state funding, the subsequent cost cutting could mean closing one of the district’s two schools — in Burr Oak or Esbon — if enrollment declines further. Eleven seniors will graduate in May, to be replaced by only four kindergartners.

Fifth-grader Lindsey Underwood entertains students during lunch at White Rock Elementary School in Burr Oak. Small districts like White Rock, which has just 122 students, spend considerably more per student than larger districts and are at risk of losing some of their extra funding as the Legislature works on a school finance package.

Consolidation, a solution favored by some legislators to reduce costs, came to Jewell County in 1983, when Burr Oak and Esbon schools merged to form the White Rock district. Five years ago, White Rock combined sports teams with the neighboring Jewell district. The mascot, the Predator, looks like a mythical griffon with blue, orange, white and black colors.

“Yeah, Mankato says it took two schools to beat them,” said senior Derek Ault, 19, recalling the Predators’ 70-22 thumping of their archrival in eight-man football last fall.

It’s only in recent years that the population of Jewell County has become a consideration. In 1900, the county boasted 19,420 residents, more than Johnson County’s 18,288. The fertile soil made the county one of Kansas’ agricultural jewels.

Though agriculture remains a viable industry, most workers leave the county for their jobs, either to neighboring counties or across the border to Nebraska. Today, the county has fewer than 3,600 residents.

Yelkin’s family is one of the few remaining to rely exclusively on farming for its livelihood. She and her husband, Scott, have fields in Jewell County and Nebraska, separated by 60 miles.

Yelkin, the mother of 6-year-old Jarett and 2-year-old Jaclyn, sees Burr Oak as a great place to raise a family — a place where kids learn to appreciate nature and togetherness with friends and relatives. The virtues, she said, out weigh inconveniences like the 30-minute drives for groceries.

But many graduating students, uninterested by a life spent farming, are leaving the county. Burr Oak senior Jim Garman, 18, plans to go to college, and isn’t sure whether Burr Oak is in his future.

“It’s always a possibility because of my farming background,” Garman said.

Walker concedes the loss of students means his district’s days are numbered. And that’s a shame, he said, because White Rock’s two schools are thriving.

The schools earned top state honors on state tests for science, math and reading, and the district has been able to save money for projects such as new playground equipment in Burr Oak and Esbon, as well as better classroom technology.

In Burr Oak, small class sizes allow teacher Linda Scott to float among classrooms. Scott teaches both first-grade and Spanish, and elementary school students here receive foreign language lessons from her, something that might not happen in a larger district.

“Parents are in and out of the building all the time,” Scott said. “You don’t have to track them down. If you don’t see them during the day, they find you at a basketball game. I think that leads to trust and more confidence in what the teacher is doing.”

For Yelkin, that means the tiny White Rock district is something worth saving. She and other Jewell County residents are offended by some legislators’ desire to force school districts to consolidate, which she worries would lead to longer bus rides and less individual attention to students.

“This is the heart of America. This is where we live,” Yelken said. “Why should the kids suffer?”