Voters will decide: Wichita school board sets date for $450 million bond issue election

The Wichita school board has approved a special election for a $450 million bond issue that would pay for a plan to significantly reshape the state’s largest school district — a plan filled with school closings, consolidations and new “right-sized” buildings as the district braces for shrinking future enrollment.

The election will be held Feb. 25, 2025.

If it passes, the bond issue would extend a 7.5 mill levy for 20 years, a similar rate to what property taxpayers pay now based on a bond issue that passed narrowly in 2008 and was set to expire in 2029. If it fails, homeowners would see an approximately 7.5 mill reduction to their property taxes by 2029. On a $200,000 house, 7.5 mills is $172.50 in annual property taxes.

Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld has said the “newer and fewer” plan is necessary because the district has $1.2 billion in future deferred maintenance needs that it can’t afford.

School board member Kathy Bond was the lone dissenting vote. She voted for the $450 million master plan at a previous meeting but has said she would rather find a funding source other than property taxes.

Voters will decide in February whether to fund a plan that would close at least 10 schools; tear down and rebuild seven others; and convert two elementary schools to K-8 buildings. It also would build a new early childhood center, a new Future Ready Center for construction trades and outdoor athletic fields at Northeast Magnet.

Bielefeld said the bond issue would allow the district to manage its school closures as enrollment declines and deferred maintenance piles up. If the bond issue fails, Bielefeld said, schools would likely be closed on a year-by-year, case-by-case basis with little warning. That’s how the district handled closures at two middle schools — Hadley and Jardine — and four elementary schools — Clark, Cleveland, Park and Payne — earlier this year.

The following schools would be closed under the facilities master plan, with some programs moving to other buildings and students shifting to other schools: L’Ouverture Elementary, OK Elementary, Pleasant Valley Elementary and Woodland Elementary, Chester Lewis Academic Learning Center, Dunbar Support Center, Focht Instructional Support Center, Gateway Alternative Program, Little Early Childhood Center and Sowers Alternative High.

Five elementary schools — Adams, Black, Caldwell, Irving and McLean — and one middle school — Truesdell — would be torn down and rebuilt at or near their current locations. The district would also build a new Coleman Middle School but instead of demolishing the existing building, the district would renovate the building and convert it to an alternative learning center.

Isely and Cessna elementary schools would be converted to K-8 schools.

Stan Reeser, president of the Wichita school board, said the bond issue would be a “historical and generational investment”

“I understand that this community loves their quaint, small, neighborhood schools, and this bond issue . . . will help protect our high-performing neighborhood schools,” Reeser said. “If we do not make this investment, then we will have tougher decisions down the road.”

“New schools are more comfortable and more inviting, better experience for kids,” Bielefeld said. “... Our kids are worth it. Our kids are deserving of great facilities, just like every other kid is, and our kids are growing up within the greater community. It’s an opportunity for our community to say, we believe in you kids.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2024 at 9:13 PM.