Cold classrooms, leaky ceilings: Why rebuilding Wichita’s Caldwell school is on the ballot
Editor’s note: Before voters decide on a $450 million Wichita school bond issue on Feb. 25, The Eagle is profiling many of the schools affected. Read more profiles and find continuing coverage of the bond issue election here.
On a recent winter day, the temperature of one classroom at Caldwell Elementary School dropped to the 50s, leaving students shivering and a teacher looking for help from maintenance.
These low temperatures aren’t uncommon for the school.
“It sounds easy just to take a class and move them somewhere else, but I don’t have the room,” Principal Patricia Daman said.
So instead, sometimes the elementary students can be found wearing jackets and coats in the classrooms.
This is one issue Daman said she wants to see fixed in the 75-year-old building.
Caldwell Elementary, at 1441 S. Edgemoor, would retire its building and move to a new one if voters approve Wichita schools’ $450 million bond issue on the ballot in late February.
Built in 1950 with seven classrooms, the school houses 465 students in 26 classrooms after multiple additions.
What’s it like inside current Caldwell Elementary?
Daman said the school puts in maintenance requests three to five times a week.
Maintenance requests vary from toilets not working to water leaks and more. Walking through the school, Daman pointed out multiple discolored spots on the walls because of water leaks.
The school’s multiple additions mean that sometimes when you move from one part of the building to another, the floor is uneven.
“Which, of course, causes problems with water leaking in and things like that,” Daman said.
Space is tight, Daman said.
“Some of our rooms are pretty small,” she said. “They’re packed in here at times.”
The new building is estimated to cost $32.9 million and be completed by fall 2028, according to the district. The last time Caldwell got bond money was in 2008, when it received more than $1.6 million to add music and art classrooms, a link to connect two buildings, a remodeled student support room and more.
What one teacher says
Kim Williams is a fifth grade teacher at Caldwell.
Asked what she would want people to know about the bond vote, Williams said she wants people to do their research before making their decision.
“It’s very important to educate themselves, because just as a walk-through view, the building appears to be usable and fine,” Williams said. “[But] if you’re in it every single day, then you see all the different things that obstruct learning.”
Williams said the current building makes it difficult to do her job.
“Teaching sometimes is a struggle just because of the temperatures in the rooms,” Williams said. “Last week we had to move every single day to a different classroom. And it’s hard to do that because then you have to try to remember to get everything and things have to be modified and change to adapt to the rooms we have to go to.”
Wiliams also mentioned the bathrooms, which are commonly down a working stall.
Asked what would be ideal for a new building, Williams said newer technology and bigger classrooms.
“I have one of the smaller classrooms in the building, so it’s really hard to move around inside the classroom and help everybody and have the space that they need to not be on each other,” she said.
Other schools that would be torn down and rebuilt are Black, Irving and McLean elementaries and Coleman and Truesdell middle schools.
The district would also convert two elementary schools to K-8 schools, consolidate alternative schools and close four elementary schools and two administration centers. It would build outdoor athletic fields at Northeast Magnet High School, a new Future Ready Center for Trades at East High school and a new early childhood education center.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Caldwell received $1.6 million from the 2008 bond. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect dollar amount.
