Latest news with #VoteYes
Times
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Share your story: did you get married in Ireland after the marriage equality referendum?
In 2015 Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote, with a majority of 62 per cent. At the time, this was a vote that made people proud to be Irish. A decade on, we want to hear from you. Is this sense of pride still there? What has been the experience of those who got married after the vote? Were you among them? Did the 'yes' vote give you a sense of relief? Do you continue to face challenges despite the results of the vote? Please share your experience with us; it may appear in an edited selection of comments that will be published in The Times and The Sunday Times. To take part, fill in the form below (not
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
USD 259 bond fails, supporters plan next steps
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Wichita public schools will not get $450 million to renovate its buildings and build new ones. The school bond issue failed by just over 300 votes. KSN spoke to both sides of the bond campaign about how they're moving forward. Bond supporters tell KSN that they knew this would be a tough vote. They were hopeful voters would approve it, but that didn't happen. They are now saying that their fight to improve Wichita schools continues. With the vote failing, the district and its supporters are not only going back to the drawing board but also trying to find a deeper connection and understanding with the voters. 'It's time to step back and kind of look at where we are, allow the district to review what happened here, and then let them figure out next steps,' said Bradley Dyer, Jr., with the Vote Yes campaign. The bond would have funded new facilities, security upgrades and repairs to existing buildings. 'We're still going to have kids that would be going into these older buildings. So, the problems are unresolved,' he said. The group that campaigned against the bond says district leaders did not give enough clarity on how it would affect property taxes. It also claims the district mismanaged its finances. 'This wasn't just on taxes, but it was on transparency and accountability. A lot of unanswered questions, a lot of plans that just didn't make sense in the short or the long term,' said Ben Davis with the Vote No campaign. United Teachers of Wichita says district-wide improvements are desperately needed, but the district has a lot of work ahead. 'The district is going to have to work to overcome that and be open, honest and transparent and listen to the community and make sure that they understand the criticisms and how they can work with the community to address them appropriately,' said Mike Harris, Vice President of United Teachers of Wichita. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘No' side holds slight lead in Wichita school bond vote; some ballots still to be counted
Voters appeared to reject a $450 million bond issue for Wichita Public Schools on Tuesday, but the race was too close to call on election night. Unofficial results showed the Vote Yes side trailed by 228 votes, or less than 1 percent of the vote. At least 395 votes from one precinct had not been reported as of 11 p.m., according to an Eagle analysis of the election office's turnout numbers. An unknown number of provisional and late-arriving mail-in ballots could also affect the outcome. The Wichita school district planned to use the bond money to rebuild seven elementary and middle schools, close four elementary schools, convert two elementary schools to K-8 buildings and consolidate alternative school programs, among a number of other projects. Voters who opposed the plan cited concerns about rising property taxes along with distrust in the district and disapproval of the plan. 'They just want a blank check,' Robert Haines, who voted no, told an Eagle reporter. 'I voted no because the things that they're saying about needing new buildings, I don't believe,' said Cherie Kessler, a northwest Wichita voter. A loss would be a major setback for Kansas' largest school district, which had banked on winning the election. It would also deal a financial blow to the school district, which was criticized during the campaign for what the Vote No campaign viewed as wasteful spending. Wichita Public Schools spent $113,000 to hold a special election in February instead of during the election in November. It also paid an Ohio-based consultant, Woolpert, $312,000 to manage an educational campaign about the bond election. Bradley Dyer Jr., chair of the Yes for Wichita Kids campaign, stopped short of conceding after what appeared to be the final results of the night. 'There are provisional ballots that are out to be counted, but judging from the margins, I don't know that the results will be different,' Dyer said. 'But I tend to be optimistic, so we'll just see what happens and not completely call it final. But . . . the writing is on the wall about the results tonight.' The Vote No campaign said it's confident in its victory, even with several thousand mail-in ballots yet to be returned to the election office. State law allows those ballots to be counted up to three days after Election Day, if postmarked by Tuesday. 'It's always a possibility, but I feel pretty secure being able to say that I think we've declared victory at this point,' Davis said. It was a low-turnout affair, with just over 13% of the district's 200,333 registered voters participating in the February special election with a single question on the ballot. Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld previously told The Eagle that low turnout was not a concern 'At the end of the day, I think there were a lot of people who voted no in this election, ultimately, because they don't want any bond at this time,' Davis said. 'They're really struggling, they're really hurting, and they're feeling the squeeze on property taxes, and they're ready for a break.' Last week, the Sedgwick County appraiser's office said property valuations would go up for most property owners by 9% this year — casting doubt on the school district's campaign to continue its current bond mill levy. It billed the bond issue as 'zero rate change' because it sought to continue a 7.5-mill levy for the new bond issue after it pays off an earlier bond issue in 2028. Without the new bond issue, the tax rate will go down. 'Asking voters for permission to spend money is always difficult, and current voter anxiety over the cost of living made USD 259's effort even harder,' Wichita State political science professor Neal Allen said. The district said it plans to hold a news conference Wednesday morning. The Vote Yes campaign hinted Tuesday night that the school district may ask for another bond election — possibly with a smaller amount. 'I don't know if the February time frame matters, yes or no,' Dyer said. 'I think that's one of the things when we go back to the drawing board that we're going to have to assess. . . . Judging by what some other districts have done, maybe that is something that we need to look at — time of the year.' This is not the only school bond issue in the state of Kansas that hasn't passed in recent years. 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. Davis, with the Vote No campaign, said he does not want that to be the case in Wichita. 'I want to send a hopefully unmistakable message that we shouldn't be putting a bond measure on the ballot again,' he said. 'What I'm hoping we can do is, they can go back to the drawing board, reworking the table, using the money that they already have, and being more up front about … the budget that they do have and where that money is going to go.' If the bond issue fails and the district decides to not move forward with another vote, or it is rejected again, it's unclear what could happen to several of the projects in the district's facility master plan. The district has said even if the bond issue doesn't pass, it will still shutter L'Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland elementary schools. Those students would be moved to newer, larger schools if the bond issue passed. The district has said recently it would still move those students to other schools, but spread them out among more existing schools to keep class sizes down. Many questions still remain about other capital projects that are planned as part of the district's facility master plan. 'Because they were well funded and they were well organized, their message got out there. They were loud and they got out there,' Dyer said. 'But the message that I want people to understand is that the district really does have real needs. They really do have aging facilities. There really are challenges with spacing and the ability to properly staff these buildings. They're still going to have to address these issues. It's not going to go away.' Election results will be certified at the March 6 Sedgwick County canvass. Contributing: Michael Stavola of The Wichita Eagle
