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Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wichita School Board member clashes with facilities plan critics during meeting
Wichita School Board member Stan Reeser criticized several people who spoke out against the district's Facility Master Plan at Monday's meeting. During the public comment portion of the meeting, several people spoke in opposition to closing OK Elementary, which is part of the master plan, with one person suggesting that the plan was not tied to student academic achievement. Reeser made the comments about the critics during a budget discussion, which led to an outburst by an audience member, Marty Fish, who had spoken during public comment earlier in the meeting. 'When the speaker says the plan had nothing to do with academics, that is … an example of not listening to a single thing that was said during the summer of that presentation,' Reeser said during the meeting Fish responded towards the end of Reeser's comments by yelling at the board, 'Is this an open forum now?' Board President Diane Albert responded saying it was not; Fish left for the rest of the meeting. The budget presentation that board members were listening to at the time said the district had saved $14.5 million after closing six schools last year. 'So if you think about the actions that we took in the spring of 2024, extremely hard, extremely emotional,' district chief financial officer Addi Lowell said. 'The last thing, the last resort in our budget toolbox for resolving budget issues is closing schools. … We did not close schools only for the budget. We closed schools because we were faced with other challenges, because our facilities have needs, major needs.' During the public comment section of the meeting, former state school board member Walt Chappell had criticized the district, saying it didn't save money from those closures. 'My concern is very sincere, folks,' Chappell said during public comment. 'I've been in your place. I know how it is to get accurate information, and I ask you to please look at this master plan again.' Chappell was not in the board room later in the meeting when Reeser made his comments. Reeser indirectly spoke about Chappell during his comments, saying he was 'censured' during his time as a state BOE member. Eagle reporters could not find records that confirmed a censure, but Chappell was reprimanded by the state board chair during his tenure. When asked for further comment after the school board meeting, Reeser initially declined to comment further, but then clarified some of his statements made during the meeting. 'All I was trying to say was that we are making these decisions based off the total picture,' Reeser told The Eagle. 'I got offended by the fact that it seemed like they were insisting… this bond issue was not about student achievement. It was about buildings. 'That's not true. We spent all summer tying those two items together.' After the meeting, Reeser approached Dave Fish, husband of Marty Fish, to apologize for some of his comments. Dave Fish had also spoken earlier during public comment against closing OK. Despite Reeser's comments, Dave Fish still questioned whether the district should be closing schools. 'I just feel like, if I don't step up and talk, then nobody else will,' Dave Fish told The Eagle. Budget conversations come amid a looming deficit for the school district, and a shaky financial future as the school's current bond is set to expire by 2029. Voters turned down a bond issue earlier this year that would have extended that bond. The district has said it currently does not have plans to revisit the bond issue. The district has also created a financial oversight committee to address some of those budget issues. The committee is an advisory group that makes recommendations to the board on its financial future, but school superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said that group would not revisit the district's Facility Master Plan, including parts that would close and consolidate several of the district's school buildings. 'That isn't what that group is doing,' Bielefeld said. Contributing: Chance Swaim of The Eagle.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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.
