School closures for USD 259 still planned, despite voters rejecting bond issue

Certain aspects of USD 259’s Facility Master Plan, which was tied to a failed bond issue vote earlier this year, are moving forward, including school closures.

Isely Elementary, located in Bel Aire, is now a kindergarten through eighth grade school. Sixth graders were back at the school Wednesday.

“It is truly a fantastic opportunity for our students to learn and grow in a community that they are very fully entrenched with and have lots of connections with,” Principal Allison Renner said.

The school district said even without the new bond, it was able to find the funding to move forward with its plan to transition the school to a K through 8.

“We’ve approached that as the parts of the plan that we have the funding for, we’re going to do,” USD 259 Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said.

School closures are still planned, though.

The district warned during the bond vote that regardless of the outcome of February’s election, school closures would still happen, even without new schools being built and others expanded.

Four elementary schools were slated to close by 2027 during the bond vote, including L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland.

Bielefeld said parents should expect notice of the closures by this fall, pending a school board vote, but a timeline on when those closures would happen is yet to be determined.

“We did have a pretty clear timeline on school closures if it passed,” Bielefeld said. “When it failed… we let families know that they would be hearing something this fall.”

Voters will also likely be going back to the polls next year to vote on another bond issue, but those plans are yet to be finalized by the board.

“It’s really yet to be determined,” Bielefeld said about a bond vote. “We have recommended a timeline of November of 26 but … that’s up to the board to decide and take action on down the road.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 12:55 PM.