Wichita school board signals next steps after failed bond issue vote
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
How school choice policies evolved from supporting Black students to subsidizing middle-class families
School voucher programs that allow families to use public funds to pay tuition to attend private schools have become increasingly popular. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia currently operate voucher programs. In addition, 15 states have universal private school choice programs that offer vouchers, education savings accounts and tax credit scholarships. More states are considering school choice and voucher programs as the Trump administration advocates for widespread adoption. School vouchers have a long history in the U.S. The first vouchers were offered in the 1800s to help children in sparsely populated towns in rural Vermont and Maine attend classes in public and private schools in nearby districts. After the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which justices ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional, segregationists used vouchers to avoid school integration. More recently, school voucher programs have been pitched as a tool to provide children from low-income families with quality education options. As a scholar who specializes in education policy, law and politics, I can share how current policies have strayed from efforts to support low-income Black children. Research from education history scholars shows that more recent support for school choice was not anchored in an agenda to privatize public schools but rooted in a mission to support Black students. Over time, as school voucher policies grew in popularity, they evolved into subsidies for middle-class families to send their children to private and parochial schools. School choice policies have also expanded to include education savings account programs and vouchers funded by tax credit donations. Vouchers can redirect money from public schools, many of which are serving Black students. States looking to add or expand school choice and voucher programs have adopted language from civil rights activists pushing for equal access to quality education for all children. For example, they contend that school choice is a civil right all families and students should have as U.S. citizens. But school voucher programs can exclude Black students and harm public schools serving Black students in a host of ways, research shows. This impact of voucher programs disproportionately affects schools in predominantly Black communities with lower tax bases to fund public schools. Since the Brown v. Board ruling, school voucher programs have been linked to racial segregation. These programs were at times used to circumvent integration efforts: They allowed white families to transfer their children out of diverse public schools into private schools. In fact, school voucher programs tend to exacerbate both racial and economic segregation, a trend that continues today. For example, private schools that receive voucher funding are not always required to adopt the same antidiscrimination policies as public schools. School voucher programs can also negatively impact the quality of public schools serving Black students. As some of the best and brightest students leave to attend private or parochial ones, public schools in communities serving Black students often face declining enrollments and reduced resources. In cities such as Macon, Georgia, families say that majority Black schools lack resources because so many families use the state's voucher-style program to attend mostly white private schools. Moreover, the cost of attending a private or parochial school can be so expensive that even with a school voucher, Black families still struggle to afford the cost of sending children to these schools. Research from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., shows that voucher programs in Ohio result in majority Black school systems such as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District losing millions in education funding. This impact of voucher programs disproportionately affects schools in predominantly Black communities across the U.S. with lower tax bases to fund public schools. Another example is the Marion County School District, a South Carolina system where about 77% of students are Black. Marion County is in the heart of the region of the state known as the 'Corridor of Shame,' known for its inadequate funding and its levels of poor student achievement. The 17 counties along the corridor are predominantly minority communities, with high poverty rates and poor public school funding because of the area's low tax base due to a lack of industry. On average, South Carolina school districts spent an estimated US$18,842 per student during the 2024-25 school year. In Marion County, per-student funding was $16,463 during the 2024-2025 school year. By comparison, in Charleston County, the most affluent in the state, per-student funding was more than $26,000. Rather than focus on school choice and voucher programs that take money away from public schools serving Black students, I argue that policymakers should address systemic inequities in education to ensure that all students have access to a quality education. Establishing restrictions on the use of funds and requiring preferences for low-income Black students could help direct school voucher policies back toward their intent. It would also be beneficial to expand and enforce civil rights laws to prevent discrimination against Black students. These measures would help ensure all students, regardless of background, have access to quality education. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Kendall Deas, University of South Carolina Read more: Trump order boosts school choice, but there's little evidence vouchers lead to smarter students or better educational outcomes States are favoring school choice at a steep cost to public education School vouchers expand despite evidence of negative effects Kendall Deas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oshkosh school board votes not to renew contract of ex-Vel Phillips dean involved in January student restraint
OSHKOSH – Christopher Willems is not returning to the Oshkosh Area School District. OASD's Board of Education upheld the district's decision to not renew the Vel Phillips Middle School Dean of Students' contract after his role in a Jan. 10 incident that led to a 13-year-old being handcuffed and pinned under a school resource officer for more than two minutes. Records obtained by the Oshkosh Northwestern from an executive session of a special board meeting May 6 showed the board voted 5-2 to approve the non-renewal of Willems' contract — with Kelly DeWitt and Timothy Hess casting the dissenting votes. Willems was initially placed on a five-day suspension in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 10 incident, with plans of reassigning him to Jacob Shapiro Elementary. But the district eventually informed Willems he was being placed a non-disciplinary administrative leave with pay for the remainder of the 2024-25 school year on Feb. 26 — the same day the Northwestern published two articles about the Jan. 10 incident. One of the articles referenced his prior involvement with students of color within the district, where Black and biracial students were expelled from the former Merrill Middle School following a fight with a white pupil in a Donald Trump costume. The white student went unpunished. Willems was seen in body camera footage speaking with police after the incident saying, 'I'm not sure what happened ahead of time, but before the dance he had been grabbed by a bunch of students and thrown to the ground.' The ACLU of Wisconsin, in a civil rights complaint against the district, claimed the white student harassed and threw water on three Black and biracial students. Read more: OASD Assistant Superintendent Julie Conrad-Peters accepts offer to become superintendent in Florida Wisconsin Education Association Council Region 5 director John Horn accused the district of scapegoating Willems, saying OASD was concerned with public opinion. 'What changed in the several weeks between when the district administration signed this agreement and when it reversed itself and placed the employee on indefinite leave is that members of the Oshkosh news media showed interest in the incident and filed information requests,' Horn wrote in a public statement. 'The school district's policy and personnel decisions should be based on facts and what is in the best educational interests of students, not on public opinion.' The situation stemmed from Willems' role in the Jan. 10 incident, during which he called for a school resource officer's assistance to assist with a student who refused to hand his cell phone to another teacher. OASD Board Policy 5136 only references law enforcement with regards to cell phones if 'the violation involves an illegal activity' or the device is used to transmit things of a threatening, obscene, disruptive, sexually explicit or harassment nature. The SRO's body camera footage shows Willems shoving the kid through a door several minutes before he pushes that student up against a wall and assists the SRO in restraining the child after the kid shouted a number of expletives. Wisconsin Statute 118.305 prohibits "covered individuals" such as school staff from using techniques on students that 'cause chest compression by placing pressure or weight on the pupil's chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen' or 'place the pupil in a prone position.' Read more: Oshkosh school district holding one final brick giveaway from Merrill Elementary June 10 In the district's investigation records, Willems said he didn't believe it was a law enforcement matter, adding he felt partially responsible for the student ending up in handcuffs. But Willems said he was 'following practices that have been accepted by leadership' in the same investigation and contended that he was 'unaware there was a MOU with the SRO.' The district investigation took issue with Willems on four separate issues during the incident, prompting administration to recommend two forms of discipline: suspending Willems without pay for five days or terminating Willems. After finding 'no previous discipline' on Willems' employee file, the district opted for the five-day suspension on Jan. 24, according to the records, before Willems signed a disciplinary agreement that would see him suspended Jan. 27-31. However, OASD reversed course on Feb. 26, writing to Willems that his reassignment 'will most likely be met with disruption by those not satisfied with the disciplinary outcome' considering 'the race component of the prior incident.' Willems' status between Jan. 31, the end of his five-day suspension, and Johnson's letter Feb. 26 is unclear. The student involved in the Jan. 10 incident was immediately allowed to return to Vel Phillips. The Oshkosh Police Department referred him on charges of resisting/obstructing and threats to a law enforcement officer but Winnebago County Juvenile Intake recommended closing the case, saying the situation was managed at the school level. Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@ and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville. This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh school board votes not to renew contract of ex-dean involved in student restraint
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Will Trump's policies kill Massachusetts' life sciences leadership?
Advertisement Although the industry is centered in eastern Massachusetts, there's a statewide benefit from all the tax dollars those businesses and workers pay. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up In all, Massachusetts organizations — including universities, research institutes, and hospitals — received $3.5 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Massachusetts-headquartered companies raised $3.26 billion in venture capital funding. Among all drugs in the development pipeline in the United States, 15 percent were being made by companies headquartered in Massachusetts. But actions taken by President Trump and his administration — cutting funding for scientific research and universities, flirting with tariffs, fanning skepticism about vaccines — threaten to devastate the ecosystem. Today, the industry is at a precipice, and uncertainty abounds. Some companies are already feeling the pinch of terminated federal grants, while others are anxious about what might come. Taken together, Trump's policies could force some companies and scientists to take their money, talents, and products overseas. Advertisement Christopher Locher, CEO of Lowell-based Versatope Therapeutics, which develops a platform to deliver vaccines and therapeutics, said he worries the Greater Boston life sciences ecosystem is 'being flushed down the toilet.' For example, Trump is Trump's funding cuts are already having a large impact on some local companies. Part of the problem is the Trump administration isn't only cutting funding, but it's picking which technologies to fund — in some cases apparently based on politics more than science. Take flu vaccines. The Trump administration recently announced a $500 million campaign to fund the development of a universal flu vaccine, which doesn't require annual updates, using technology being worked on But simultaneously, he cut funding for other work on a universal flu vaccine. Versatope Therapeutics got $14 million in NIH funding and spent five years developing a universal flu vaccine. It had approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials when Trump terminated the contract's remaining $8 million, with the reason given being 'convenience,' Locher said. Trump also Advertisement Company executives say decisions by Trump officials to disinvest in vaccine-related technology — and concerns about whether government will approve new technology — means it's nearly impossible to find private investment funding to replace lost federal dollars. 'We're faced with bankruptcy in the very near future,' Locher said. Ironically, given Trump's stated commitment to bringing businesses back to the United States, one potential option Locher is eyeing is opening a subsidiary abroad. Conducting clinical trials would be cheaper in another country, whether in Europe, Australia, or China, Locher said, and some countries are offering financial incentives to American companies to relocate. Companies also face a potential workforce brain drain. There have been MassBio officials said China has less rigorous — but faster — safety and research protocols than the US. Australia allows a faster timeline for clinical trials. If regulatory approval of medicines is held up because the FDA is understaffed, companies may seek European regulatory approval instead. The loss of talent to foreign countries will be compounded if the pipeline of local university graduates dries up. One draw for life sciences companies to Boston/Cambridge is the presence of elite schools like Harvard and MIT, with their potential for faculty collaboration and skilled graduates. Advertisement Trump is trying to Chip Clark, CEO at Vibrant Biomedicines in Cambridge, said cuts to university research funding both 'shrink the pipeline of great ideas' that form the basis for many biotech startups and translate to fewer available scientists. Clark said the administration's policies 'seem like a deliberate attempt to try to cede scientific leadership to Europe and Japan and Korea and China. ... They will be delighted to capitalize on our talent, technology, and investment capital to make their robust biotech sectors grow and ultimately compete successfully against the US industry,' he said. Don Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, said he has postdocs with US visas applying for jobs in Europe, and others who were accepted to work at Harvard but are going elsewhere. 'The fact that places like Harvard and MIT and American universities are magnets for the best and brightest from around the world is what's driven our technology economy and certainly the Boston/Cambridge ecosystem,' Ingber said. 'With this uncertainty, I fear we'll lose a generation.' Ingber, who was forced to stop work on two government-funded projects on drugs designed to prevent injury from radiation exposure, compared administration policies to 'eating seed corn' needed to grow crops. Advertisement Trump's vendetta will undermine one of the most vibrant state economies in the country and set back American science by years. And it's not just eastern Massachusetts that will pay a price; the entire country will. As Ingber noted, it might take years to see the impact of medicines or technologies that aren't developed because of these shortsighted cuts. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us
