Park Elementary history is interesting because it’s Wichita’s oldest operating school

Park Elementary School

Address: 1025 N. Main, just east of Ninth and Waco

Enrollment: 439 — 66% Hispanic, 13% Black, 12% white, 7% multiracial, 2% other races

Opened: 1921

The history of Park Elementary is particularly interesting because it is the oldest school operating in Wichita.

It was named Park because it was on Park Street, which later became Ninth Street. Part of the school’s property came from 160 acres that early Wichita settler Darius Munger had at what today is Ninth and Waco. Munger helped establish Wichita, and his house today sits at Old Cowtown Museum.

School records aren’t entirely clear, but it looks like there was a wooden school on the property first followed by a $10,500 two-story brick building in 1885. It had heat but no indoor toilets. There were wooden toilets outside.

The current Park Elementary is at 1025 N. Main St., which is just east of Ninth and Waco. It was built in 1921 with 14 classrooms and an auditorium that later was converted to classrooms and a library.

At one time, the school averaged about 470 students, but with a change in housing patterns, enrollment later dropped to about 200.

What had been a more elite area transitioned into low-cost apartments and commercial properties.

Former Park student Amira Nasser’s family moved to the nearby Midtown neighborhood around 2009, and she attended the school for second and third grade when she had the same teacher for both years.

“She made a really good effort at making sure the students felt included,” Nasser said.

She remembered an award system for good behavior “that was really cool.”

Nasser said the experience made a lasting impression and was good for children in an area of need who “maybe didn’t necessarily have that much attention at home.”

She said before the closure vote that is it’s upsetting to her that the school may close.

“We are moving further and further away from neighborhood schools, and I think that does some damage.”

Children won’t necessarily get to go to school with their neighbors anymore, “so the sense of community is going to start to be disrupted.”

She said some families may be put into a situation hers once was where a school was too far for her to walk to but too close to qualify for a bus.

“It’s also going to put a lot of pressure on families.”

Lisha Watts said her family is one of those families.

Her son Benjamin, a kindergartener at Park, would have to walk more than three miles round trip to his new school if his current one closes.

Benjamin has been at Park for an early learning program since he was 3, and he’s upset about potentially leaving, his mother said. He made a sign to hold at a school board meeting about the issue that said, “BOE (board of education) is looking kind of sus!”

That’s short for suspect.

“It’s kind of his way of saying the school board is acting kind of weird,” Watts said.

Nasser said she thinks the school district needs to take a step back.

“At the end of the day, these kids aren’t numbers. They’re people. It gets really easy to make these big decisions without considering the people that it’s going to impact.”

Information from USD 259’s “A History of Wichita Public School Buildings” contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 4, 2024 at 4:04 AM with the headline "Park Elementary history is interesting because it’s Wichita’s oldest operating school."