Elections

Coverage of Tuesday’s election for Wichita school district’s $450M bond

By Chance Swaim , Lindsay Smith , Kylie Cameron and Michael Stavola

Updated February 26, 2025 8:39 AM

Ben Davis, who led the campaign to defeat the Wichita school bond issue election, speaks to media outside the Sedgwick County Election Office on Tuesday night. Kylie Cameron The Wichita Eagle

Unofficial tallies showed opponents of Wichita Public Schools’ $450 million bond issue with a slight lead Tuesday night, but results were too close to call.

The Vote Yes side trailed by 228 votes with the counting for one precinct still to be completed at midnight. Provisional and some mail-in ballots still must be counted as well.

Latest news: Wichita schools’ $450M bond vote too close to call as ‘no’ side holds slight lead

The money from the bond was sought to rebuild seven elementary and middle schools, close four elementary schools, convert two elementary schools to K-8 buildings and consolidate alternative school programs, among a number of other items.

Ben Davis, who led the opposing campaign, said the close vote was something he expected.

“This crossed across … [the] political divide. I mean, you had Republicans, Democrats, unaffiliateds, on both sides of this issue, and so I knew it was going to be a close vote,” Davis said.

Bradley Dyer Jr., chair of the Yes for Wichita Kids campaign, stopped short of conceding as returns came in Tuesday night.

“There are provisional ballots that are out to be counted, but judging from the margins, I don’t know that the results will be different,” Dyer said. “But I tend to be optimistic, so we’ll just see what happens and not completely call it final. But . . . the writing is on the wall about the results tonight.”

The Vote No campaign said it’s confident in its victory, even with several thousand mail-in ballots yet to be returned to the election office. State law allows those ballots to be counted up to three days after Election Day, if postmarked by Tuesday.

“They’d have to overtake it four to one at this point to try to do it,” Davis said. “It’s always a possibility, but I feel pretty secure being able to say that I think we’ve declared victory at this point.”

“I still believe we have the better argument here, but I understand some of the concerns of the community,” Dyer said. “Part of the argument that we’ve had here is that if this bond does not pass, then some of those problems may be compounded, and so we’re still going to have to address those problems, and we’re still going to have to deal with aging facilities. So I believe the district at this point would have to come back to the table and look at what happened here, and then start to kind of evaluate next steps.”

Diane Albert, the president of the Wichita school board, attended the Vote Yes campaign’s watch party at Carlos O’Kelly’s in west Wichita. She said that the school board will wait until the results are final to determine the district’s next steps.

Jennifer Szambecki of the Vote Yes coalition looks at election results on her phone at Carlos O’Kelly’s at Maple and Ridge on Tuesday night. Travis Heying The Wichita Eagle

Wichita school board member Julie Hedrick, who also attended the Vote Yes gathering, said she was still holding onto hope that the official results would reflect differently.

“With 4,000 mail in ballots still out there, I’m hoping there’s still a chance, but I’m an eternal optimist,” Hedrick said.

The Vote No campaign took a narrow lead early on with advance ballots and maintained it throughout the night.

“The no vote’s small edge in early and absentee ballots may prove decisive, reversing the Trump-era strategic mistake by conservative campaigns to over-emphasize election-day voting for ideological reasons,” said Wichita State political science professor Neal Allen.

The district said it planned to hold a news conference Wednesday morning.

This would not be the only school bond issue in the state of Kansas that hasn’t passed in recent years. Voters in the Kansas City Kansas School District rejected a $480 million bond issue in early 2024 – the district then downsized its plans to a $180 million bond, which passed several months later.

Davis said he does not want that to be the case in Wichita.

“I want to send a hopefully unmistakable message that we shouldn’t be putting a bond measure on the ballot again,” he said.

Updated: 8:05 p.m.

Unofficial results Tuesday evening show Wichita voters narrowly rejecting Wichita Public Schools $450 million bond issue by less than 300 votes with one precinct to be counted.

The most recent count showed 13,506 votes rejecting the bond issue and 13,278 in favor of it.

Provisional and mail-in ballots also must still be counted. All mail ballots postmarked on Election Day and received in the election office by Friday will count.

Results will not be final until a vote canvass on March 6.

Updated: 7:50 p.m.

The latest results show a close election for the Wichita school district’s bond issue.

The second batch of unofficial results show the opposition to the $450 million bond issue leading by 400 votes. The count is 9,610 “no” votes and 9,210 “yes” votes.

200,535 people were eligible to vote in the school bond election, according to Sedgwick County’s dashboard. The latest update posted by the county at 7:13 p.m. reported just over a 13% voter turnout.

Updated: 7:10 p.m.

Polls have closed for Tuesday’s school bond election, where voters will decide whether to approve Wichita Public Schools $450 million bond issue, and the first set of unofficial results are already in.

The first batch of results, which count for advance voting, show an early lead for opponents, with 5,980 votes, and the yes vote trailing behind with just over 5,100.

Original story:

Voters appear to be split over the Wichita Public Schools $450 million bond issue — for a variety of different reasons.

Tuesday’s special election will decide whether the district can fund its building plan school officials have said will “right size” its building portfolio by closing lower-enrollment, older buildings and building newer, larger schools in strategic locations.

Polls close at 7 p.m.

Alison Matson said she was in and out of her polling places in minutes Tuesday morning — the longest part was the check-in.

Matson, a 40-year-old Realtor, voted at the Wichita Brewing Company Event Venue, 6160 E. Central. She voted yes for the $450 million school bond, which she said will benefit her two elementary-age children and the community.

“It’s helping our community,” she said. “If we have to keep shutting down more schools and bad buildings, what are we doing for our community?”

Richard Leslie, a 73-year-old who retired after selling The Cotillion in 2018, said a successful bond would be good for his first-grade grandson and the community.

“I think it’s a good investment,” he said. “A lot of deferred maintenance (and the population has) changed over the years.”

A voter looks over a ballot at Grace Presbyterian Church. Voters in the Wichita school district are considering whether to approve a $450 million bond issue to modernize schools. Jaime Green The Wichita Eagle

Lynde Langdon, who voted at the Bel Aire City Building Tuesday, has kids in the Wichita school district. She voted yes because she said that the bond helps the community as a whole.

“I’m less concerned about the specific funding requests that the district has and more concerned about the staff, the teachers, the administrators, knowing that as a community, we support them and we want to help meet their needs in whatever way we can,” she said.

In southeast Wichita, Jennifer and Terry Sutherland voted at Woodland Lakes Community Church Tuesday. They both cast yes ballots, saying it was a good investment for kids in Wichita. Their kids, now adults, went to Wichita schools.

“In the long run, they’ll benefit from this,” Jennifer Sutherland said. “We’re always for the kids, always. We have teachers in the family, so you know what they’re up against.”

But not everyone agrees with the bond.

Robert Haines and his wife, Pat, both voted no.

“They just want a blank check,” he said, adding he didn’t think it was necessary.

Pat Haines said she voted no because of the continuing property tax. The couple are retired and on a fixed income. He had worked in construction; she worked as a bookkeeper.

Cherie Kessler, a voter from northwest Wichita who worked for the district decades ago, voted against the bond. She said she supports improving public schools but she felt the district was overstating the problems with its buildings.

“I voted no because the things that they’re saying about needing new buildings, I don’t believe,” Kessler said. “I do know that asbestos — until it is moved — is not dangerous. And I feel like that a lot of people are moving out of the Wichita area to get their children in better schools because of the curriculum, not the buildings.”

Kessler said she is not opposed to using property taxes to improve schools, but she doesn’t think new buildings should be the priority.

“Property taxes — if we were paying teachers more, I would be more inclined to vote yes.”

Breanna Maggart casts her vote at Grace Presbyterian Church. Voters in the Wichita school district are considering whether to approve a $450 million bond issue to modernize schools. Jaime Green The Wichita Eagle

Marcia Turner is retired and no longer has kids or grandkids in the school district. But she said she went out to vote because it seemed to be a “big issue.” She voted no on Tuesday.

“There seems to be a lot of money somewhere that isn’t being utilized,” she said.