Voters in the Wichita school district will be asked to OK new bond issue. How much?
A little more than a year after voters narrowly rejected a $450 million bond issue, the Wichita school district will ask them to consider a $615 million bond proposal that USD 259 leaders say addresses critical facility needs without drastically affecting property taxes.
“We have asked a million questions about this. We have vetted this over and over,” school board president Stan Reeser said Monday night. “The time is correct at this moment, at this time, to improve our facilities that have been neglected for way too long.”
All six school board members present Monday night voted to put the bond question on the Nov. 3 ballot. Board member Amy Warren had an excused absence. The board’s approval comes after the district held a series of community feedback sessions in April to narrow down three potential proposals, each with a different impact on property taxes.
District leaders opted to present the second plan, which they refer to as a “tax neutral” option.
Voters will consider two questions on the ballot. Passing the first question would not raise the mill levy, district officials say. Instead, those new bonds would be paid off by continuing the current tax that is scheduled to expire when 2008 bonds are paid off in 2027.
If voters reject the first question, property taxes for district homeowners would decrease beginning on the 2028 tax bill by about $125 a year for the owner of a $200,000 home, district spokeswoman Susan Arensman said in an email to The Eagle.
The second question is contingent on the first passing. If it also passes, the mill levy would increase. District officials said the owners of a house valued at $200,000 should expect to see an increase of about $50 annually. The Eagle has asked the district to provide mill levy amounts and will add those when they are received.
Question one includes $407.1 million that would go toward rebuilding Truesdell Middle School and Black, McLean and Chisholm Trail elementary schools. North and East high schools would also get $20 million each for preservation, and an additional $20 million would go to traffic flow and HVAC improvements at specific schools.
The second question includes nearly $208 million for improvements at several of the district’s career readiness spaces, as well as the rebuilding of Coleman Middle School and Adams Elementary. Several million would be allocated toward turning OK Elementary into an early childhood center and repurposing Horace Mann K-8 Dual Language Magnet to use for Irving Elementary.
Several items in the new proposal were also included in last year’s $450 million proposal, which failed by 319 votes.
The $165 million increase in the cost of the second proposal, Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld previously said, is caused in part by increased building and material costs and inflation.
Luis Rodriguez, the chair of a newly formed committee that supports the passage of both bond issue questions, said that the price increase doesn’t make the bond less worthy of pursuing.
“My hope is our committee can do a better job of showing the high trust that we should have in this administration and our district, the high trust we have in this board,” Rodriguez said. “We are a different set of people. We can do this, and the right attitude is to say yes.”
Katie Grover and her daughter Lillian, a current Wichita Public Schools student, both spoke in support of the bond issue during the meeting’s public forum, urging board members to put the bond issue on the November ballot.
“At its heart, this bond issue is not about buildings: It’s about opportunities,” she said. “Many of those sitting here tonight benefited from the classrooms, gyms, auditoriums, libraries and career training spaces that existed because someone before us said yes. Now it’s our turn.”
Additional information about the bond proposal can be found on the district website.
This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 10:48 PM.
