We’re sharing the content of a Facebook post by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, a reporter at the Topeka Capital-Journal.

A bill in the Kansas Legislature would require school districts to consolidate into countywide districts for all counties that have fewer than 10,000 students. In Kansas, that’s 98 of 105 counties. Here I’ve produced a map that shows them in red, and a second map that shows the 22 counties that currently do only have one school district based in them. (State data lists district enrollment according to where each district is based, but district boundaries can spill over into more than one county.)

Under the bill, the seven counties with more than 10,000 students aren’t fully immune from consolidation either. Each district would need to have more than 1,500 students. In Shawnee Co, for example, that means Silver Lake USD 372 would need to merge with another district. Seaman, Auburn-Washburn, Shawnee Heights and Topeka USD 501 would have enough students to continue existing.

A few caveats: Kansas’ six “Innovative School Districts” would not be required to dissolve or divide under this bill. (That’s Marysville, McPherson, Hugoton, Concordia, Blue Valley and KCK.) It also contains an exemption for Ft. Leavenworth. Also, the bill would allow some flexibility to create countywide districts that don’t exactly match county boundaries. In case it’s more convenient for the affected towns.

Finally, I’ve attached a third map, from the Kansas Association of School Boards. Released today, it is KASB’s best guess at how districts might be redrawn to meet the requirements of the bill.