Wichita school leaders set closure dates for four elementary schools
Wichita school district leaders approved a final timeline to close four elementary schools, with at least two scheduled to shutter their doors at the end of the next school year.
At Monday evening’s school board meeting, members voted on and approved a timeline of closure recommendations for L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland elementary schools.
While the decision to close the schools was made in 2024, many community members and district parents continued to advocate against the shutdown of the schools — some of the same buildings many once attended classes in — up until the start of Monday evening’s meeting, with some speaking against the closures during the public forum, minutes ahead of the board members’ vote.
“These are not hollowed out buildings. These are functioning neighborhood schools serving hundreds of children,” said Amy Draut, the last public forum speaker of the evening to address the council about the closures. “The board has the authority and the obligation to press pause. . . . Vote no on this timeline, go back to the community, rebuild trust.”
In August 2024, the school board unanimously approved the district’s Facility Master Plan. The plan called for closing the four schools, a decision the district justified by declining enrollment, a persistent budget gap and the fact that repairing aging facilities would cost more than replacing them.
“School closures were not driven by just one factor,” said board president and District 4 board member Stan Reeser.
He pointed out that at its peak in the 1970s, the district served around 60,000 students. That’s since decreased to about 40,000, with estimates placing the number of children in Wichita schools eight years from now at about 33,000, he said.
District 5 board member Amy Jensen said that’s already become apparent in her own neighborhood.
“On my block in District Five there are 12 houses, and there are no homes that have school-aged children in them,” she said. “That doesn’t take away from the love that people feel for their neighborhood schools — that love is real — but it does point to a reality we have to consider, in some areas, there just aren’t as many students as there once was.”
But the plan – and the timeline for the school closures — was written under the assumption that a school bond vote held in February 2025 would pass. When it didn’t, district leaders had to go back to the blackboard and reconfigure closure dates.
While the timeline approved on Monday is also based on the outcome of another bond proposal, this one on the November ballot, it now includes alternative dates depending on whether the measure passes.
If the bond fails, L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland will all close at the end of the 2026-27 school year; if it passes, Woodland and OK will remain open until the end of the 2028-29 school year.
But many community members and parents expressed their opposition to the school closures at Monday’s meeting, and in the days ahead of it. Aaron Andrews, an OK alum and a father of three children who attend school in the district, said the closures would present new problems to parents and students — from adjusted routes and commutes to different schools to rebuilding relationships.
“I don’t need this problem on top of everything else I’ve got going on while I’m trying to make a living, too,” he said while protesting outside the Alvin E. Morris Administrative Center on Monday evening.
Amy Warren, the District 6 board member, represents three of the four schools slated for closure. She brought forward a motion, which was seconded by District 3’s Ngoc Vuong, to reopen the Facility Master Plan and reassess the closures of the four schools. The motion ultimately failed and the proposed timeline was approved, with Warren and Ngoc in opposition.
“We, just as community members, have a different solution in mind, and it becomes really frustrating when our vision doesn’t align with the district’s vision.
“But I want to say, too, that I don’t know that their vision is wrong, I think it’s just a different solution than what many of us would want,” Warren said. “And … what I have heard clearly is that people want a chance to reopen the Facility Master Plan.”
Reeser said that while no one looks forward to school closures, feedback from students and staff who moved to new facilities after another round of closures in 2024 was largely positive.
“You don’t see an automatic decline,” Reeser said. “. . . The overwhelming response back to us was that they loved their new schools, and that the culture that they felt at their old school transferred to the new school.”
Reeser and Warren encouraged parents, community members, and anyone who had a vested interest in school closures to maintain that involvement in the district, especially now.
“This is the time now to … move forward,” Reeser said. “We’re going to be mentioning what the future of Wichita Public Schools is, and there’s going to be plenty of opportunities for engagement.”
“I still would ask for everybody who shows up to continue supporting Wichita Public Schools,” Warren said. “And know that we need you to still be as invested right now, today, as you might be on the other side of a different vote.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 11:03 PM.
