The Wichita School Board has unanimously approved a plan to significantly reshape the state’s largest school district — a plan filled with school closings, consolidations and new “right-sized” buildings as the district braces for shrinking future enrollment.
School district officials also laid out the stakes of a $450 million bond issue that would be needed to pay for the plan. The specifics of the bond issue are expected to be discussed and voted on by the board on Sept. 9. A bond issue would require approval from voters during a special election.
Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said the “newer and fewer” plan is necessary because the district has $1.2 billion in future deferred maintenance needs that it can’t afford and declining enrollment.
The school district already closed two middle schools — Hadley and Jardine — and four elementary schools — Clark, Cleveland, Park and Payne — earlier this year.
The plan approved Monday calls for closing L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland elementary schools and converting Isely and Cessna elementary schools to K-8 schools.
Adams, Black, Caldwell, Irving and McLean elementary schools and Truesdell middle school would be demolished and rebuilt.
The district would also build a new Coleman Middle School while the old school would be renovated and repurposed for relocated Chester Lewis, Gateway, and EI Academy schools.
Little Early Childhood Center, Sowers and Dunbar would also be relocated. Sowers would relocate to Wells, placing the two alternative schools on one site.
The plan also calls for building a new Future Ready Center at East High School for construction trades such as plumbing and HVAC.
“More closures are inevitable,” Luke Newman, director of facilities for the district, said. “This plan positions us for more sustained future-ready success by providing new and innovative spaces for our kids to learn, and it’s an investment in the future of our city, communities and kids.”
“Adopting this plan, not adopting this plan — we’re going to have to do something at some point because the deferred maintenance is going to keep stacking up,” Newman said. “So we’re going to be left with no choice but to just close buildings. If we don’t pass a bond, we’re going to have to close buildings with nothing else positive to go along with it.”
If a bond issue fails, Bielefeld said, the facilities master plan would remain in place but it could take nearly 30 years to complete instead of five or six years.
Without the bond issue, the plan would likely be unfeasible without some other major funding source. Without the plan approved Monday, schools would likely be closed on a year-by-year, case-by-case basis with little warning.
“Almost any one of these things that we do, there will be a dollar figure associated,” Bielefeld said. “. . . With some of the building closures, I believe we would again bring you some suggestions and recommendations for, you know, here is a building that we feel like enrollment has declined, just the same thing we did last spring — show you the data and bring a recommendation. . . . The impact of that would be different. It would probably feel much more like what happened in March.”
The facilities master plan approved Monday night give the school district “an ability to control our destiny, so to speak,” Bielefeld said, “as opposed to just reacting.”
Newman also said the district is working to offload some of its closed schools, including Jardine, for other community needs. It has approved selling Park Elementary School to the city of Wichita for $1. That will be the site of the future homeless shelter and service building called the Multi-Agency Center.
“We’re in really early discussions with the city and some community groups down there that have some pretty strong interest in the Jardine building. And that was something that, as we got into this plan, that was really important, that something meaningful happened with that building, with that land, you know, particularly in that community and what’s done to serve them.”
Newman also said the district is in discussions with the city of Wichita about possibly swapping Columbine Park – and possibly other city parks – in north Wichita for the closed south Wichita middle school.
“My preliminary discussions with a city representative has been potentially a sale. We’re also looking at trading some parkland. McLean is one where we’re actually, they’re appraising the parkland adjacent to McLean, and we’re appraising Jardine, and we’re going to look at numbers and see what makes sense. And then there might be some other parkland that makes sense to swap to make it an even trade.”
Here’s a look at what was approved Monday night:
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