Wichita school board signals next steps after failed bond issue vote

Yahoo

04-03-2025

The Wichita public school district has provided some insight into its next steps after last week's failed $450 million bond vote.
The proposal lost by 1 percent of the vote.
In a budget presentation to school board members Monday night, Chief Financial Officer Addi Lowell said the district will host a focus group this month with people who voted in the bond issue election and also distribute a survey for community members.
That feedback will then be used when the school district creates a new financial oversight committee sometime in April.
The committee will not focus exclusively on the bond issue, but the district's budget as a whole, revenue streams, and facilities needs.
'We do want to enact a focus group for constituents that cast a ballot on February 25 to help us get objective opinions on our education efforts to date and the facilities master plan,' Lowell told the board Monday.
District Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said the district had already planned to create the financial oversight committee before the bond vote.
The district did not provide immediate details for people who would be interested in serving on the committee or being part of the focus group. It's likely the committee would begin being formed in April.
Feedback from engagement efforts and the committee will help the district and school board decide its next steps, which some on the Vote Yes campaign signaled earlier could mean a smaller bond issue vote.
'We don't have the specifics of the makeup of this committee, but we'd like to include district leadership, Board of Education members, independent financial advisers, our municipal finance adviser, parents and students to help guide this work and help us figure out our path forward in funding those facilities needs,' Lowell said.
More specifics on how the district will move forward after it gathers feedback aren't likely until later this summer.
'We will need to make more decisions down the road,' Bielefeld told the board, 'and that's April, May, June, July, somewhere later on.'
Last week, the district continued to say it would still shutter L'Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland elementary schools. Those students would have been moved to newer, larger schools if the bond issue were approved.
Several members of the public pushed back on that idea at Monday's board meeting, including renowned architect Charles McAfee.
McAfee asked the district to reconsider closing L'Ouverture Elementary School, which sits near the pool in McAdams Park that he designed and is now named after him.
But that's not McAfee's only connection to the school. His wife, Gloria, also served as a principal there.
'What we want you to do is not do anything with L'Ouverture school without talking to a group of us sitting up there, over there and over there, because we're very interested,' McAfee said, pointing to supporters in attendance at the meeting.
Two people also spoke in opposition to closing OK Elementary.
'Families have settled in the area expecting long term stability, and didn't expect closure talk and busing children elsewhere,' Dave Fish said.