REDMOND – Because it has not met state enrollment standards, the Brothers School District and its one-room school will officially come under Crook County School District’s control by next spring.

The board of the High Desert Education Service District, which oversaw the Brothers School District until now, voted unanimously Monday in a special meeting to merge the two districts, as dictated by state law.

The merger will not be completed until May of 2006 because of procedural requirements. In the meantime, Crook County will be contracted to maintain the school this year.

State law says that a school district located in a county with a population exceeding 35,000 must be merged with an adjoining district if it has fewer than 18 students for two consecutive years.

Brothers School, which is the only school in the district, had only three students in the 2003-2004 and the 2004-2005 school years. Technically, there are none left in the district this year, though the school still has a transfer student, Joe Terrill.

While the board’s action dissolves the Brothers School District, it’s unclear how the merger will affect the school’s long-term fate now that it’s in Crook County’s hands.

Brothers School Board Chairwoman Runinda McCormack announced last week that the school will close this year because it didn’t have enough students. The school may still be used as a place to tutor Terrill, who lives 10 miles away yet resides in the Crook County School District.

Crook County Superintendent Steve Swisher said in a past interview that no decisions would be made about keeping the school open this year until after the High Desert ESD board voted on the merger.

The Brothers School District’s beginning fund balance for this year is roughly $72,000, said High Desert ESD Superintendent Dennis Dempsey. With the school closed this year, Brothers School District is expected to have about $69,000 in expenses, he said. That includes a $42,000 loan payment for a replacement school that was built six years ago.

Brothers School District has no staff left. The teacher, Steve Talbott, resigned at the end of the 2004-2005 school year, and the district had to lay off the custodian. The High Desert ESD had been providing the remaining staff on a contract basis, Dempsey said.