Woodland Elementary School opened in 1906. Here's why Wichita district plans to close it
Editor's note: Before voters decide on a $450 million school bond issue on Feb. 25, The Eagle is profiling many of the schools affected. Read more profiles and find continuing coverage of the bond issue election here.
Woodland Elementary opened at its location 'in the isolated territory between the Little and the Big Arkansas rivers' in 1906, according to Wichita Eagle archives. It was open to two grades and had about a hundred students.
By 1920, the district hired contractors to build a new school beside the old one that could hold six grades for the growing north Riverside neighborhood. That building — which started with four classrooms and has been renovated and added onto over the past century — still stands at 16th and Salina.
Address: 1705 N. Salina
Size: 41,252 square feet of building space on a 3.1-acre campus.
Built: 1919 with major renovations and additions in 1950, 2005 and 2014.
Enrollment (2023-2024): 327, with 91.1% economically disadvantaged, 30% English Language Learners (students who are not fluent in English language) and 13.1% students with disabilities.
Racial demographics: 68.5% Hispanic, 18.3% white, 7% African American, 6.1% American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian or multiracial.
Consultants targeted Woodland — along with three other elementary schools — for closure based on enrollment trends and its proximity to newer schools or schools it plans to rebuild with the bond issue.
All four schools are in the northwest quadrant of the school district, which has the highest density of small elementary schools in the city. The district said it's trying to 'right-size' the schools in that part of Wichita.
Wichita Public Schools is moving to a 'newer and fewer' buildings approach to education, putting smaller neighborhood schools with smaller enrollment numbers in jeopardy.
Unlike the other schools the district is closing, Woodland's enrollment numbers have been on the upswing in the 21st Century, rebounding from 212 students in 2008 to 347 this year.
As a neighborhood magnet school, it is open to students within the neighborhood boundaries and students outside the neighborhood who apply and are selected through the district's magnet lottery system.
When the district developed its master plan, Woodland's enrollment of 327 students was higher than the number of students at the school pre-COVID (325).
But district officials have said even that enrollment number is unsustainable when it comes to the expenses of paying teachers, staff and for programs at the school in the long term.
The target enrollment for pre-kindergarten to 5th grade is 'a little over 600,' according to the master plan.
Two elementary schools, as of the 2023-2024 school year, had 600 or more students: Isely Traditional Magnet (626) — which would be converted to a K-8 school if the bond issue passes — and Minneha Core Knowledge Magnet (621). Four others had more than 500 students.
A 2024 feasibility study found Woodland's building condition was in the upper half of all elementary schools in the district. It had an FCI of 0.48 — meaning the cost to maintain the building over the next five years was estimated at 48% of the cost to rebuild it with a new building of the same size — and an enrollment of 327 students, which was under the 350-student threshold the consultants chose as a standard.
Woodland was expanded through a 2000 bond and the 2008 bond.
The 2000 bond issue upgraded and replaced infrastructure at Woodland, added three classrooms, built a new FEMA shelter multipurpose room and kitchen, and renovated the second floor restrooms. The 2008 bond issue paid for a new cafeteria and kitchen. The district was unable to provide a detailed cost breakdown of how much money went to Woodland in the 2000 bond. The school got $900,000 from the 2008 bond.
Students from Woodland would be reassigned to Cloud, Irving, McLean and Riverside elementary schools, according to the facilities master plan approved by the Wichita school board in 2024.
The school district plans to rebuild Irving and McLean if the 2025 bond issue passes. A timeline in the master plan shows they could be complete in 2028 or 2029.
Cloud was built in 1964, with additions in 2005 and 2010. Riverside was built in 1910 with additions in 2004 and 2014.
Woodland could be closed by 2028, according to a timeline in the district's master plan that's guiding the bond issue.
The closure is expected to coincide with the completion of a tear-down and rebuild of McLean and Irving, which are scheduled for 2028 and 2029.
Luke Newman, facilities director of Wichita Public Schools, indicated that the district plans to close Woodland — and three other elementary schools — whether the bond passes or not.
'The master plan is the master plan, and we have to move forward with it, with or without a bond,' Newman said. 'And so what will happen is we'll still need to move forward with the building retirements, but we would just have to do it without the rebuilds on the other side of it.'
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