25-04-2025
Smaller Wichita school bond vote not on horizon, district says. ‘We have no plans'
Wichita school district officials say they don't have plans now to come back to voters to ask for a smaller bond issue vote.
Voters narrowly rejected a $450 million bond issue earlier this year.
'We have no plans,' the district's Chief Financial Officer Addi Lowell said Thursday at the first meeting of a new citizen financial oversight committee.
That committee could eventually come back with a recommendation for another public vote on a bond proposal, though.
Right after the February election, officials with the district and the Vote Yes campaign had signaled that a smaller bond vote could be a possibility.
The newly formed committee, mostly composed of community members with financial backgrounds and some USD 259 parents and students, is an advisory group that can make recommendations to the district's school board.
It's tasked with finding short-term financial solutions for the district, which is likely to face significant financial challenges as deferred maintenance costs on school buildings continue to increase. The district had hoped to replace a bond issue that falls off the tax rolls in 2029 with a new one to address some of its building issues.
'Today we're focusing on the short-term options,' Lowell said. 'I've got to focus on the budget for next fiscal year and we can engage in future meetings about our long term options, certainly.'
Those short-term options could include finding outside funding, reducing the district's operating budget, or closing schools, among others.
The committee did not signal which direction it planned to go in its first meeting, but it could make some recommendations at its next meeting in May.
'I could summarize school finance in, there's never enough resources to do all the things we want to do for our kids and keep up with our infrastructure needs,' Lowell said.
USD 259 wouldn't be the first district in the state of Kansas to come back and ask for a smaller bond issue in recent memory.
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 issue, which passed several months later.
