What could be next for Wichita schools? Possible bond issue, more consolidation of buildings

The Wichita school district could form a plan to further consolidate schools by this summer, just months after the board of education decided to close six buildings.

It also could ask voters for bond issue funding as it re-envisions schools for a future with fewer students and aging, partly vacant buildings.

The plan could mean merging some schools, Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld told The Eagle when asked about the district’s forthcoming 10-year facilities master plan.

“I wouldn’t use the word closing,” Bielefeld said.

“You take these two small schools and put them into one new school — all the same teachers, all the same kids — so we [wouldn’t be] really closing buildings the same way we just did. It would be more of a reorganization.”

Enrollment has dropped by more than 8% over the last seven years with dramatic decreases at the elementary and middle school levels.

Bielefeld couldn’t say how many schools would be affected by the consolidation or how much the district could ask voters to approve in a bond issue.

“It’s still not all pinned down because we’re looking at the K-8 model to see if we as a community want more K-8s. We have three right now that are very popular,” Bielefeld said.

“That creates another layer of, if we do a K-8, what happens to the middle schools? How big do we want them to be and that kind of stuff.”

Officials have said the district is facing $1.2 billion in deferred maintenance needs.

USD 259’s local option budget mill levy is maxed out at 33% of the general fund budget, meaning any major building project to renovate existing schools or build new ones would have to be funded through a bond issue. The last Wichita school bond issue was approved in 2008, when a narrow 2% margin of voters favored the $370 million renovation and expansion package.

Bielefeld said the district plans to host two public meetings on April 23 and 24 to outline different bond issue proposals and explain what consolidation-based upgrades they could support. Neither meeting date is currently listed on the district’s online calendar.

The closure of Clark, Park, Payne and Cleaveland Magnet elementaries and Hadley and Jardine Magnet middle schools at the end of the semester is expected to save $16.2 million, the district’s chief financial officer has said, which will go to help plug the $42 million budget shortfall that was first publicized in January, when board members were directed to choose between closing schools and laying off employees.

USD 259 plans to save an additional $9 million through a variety of cuts, including trimming all non-school programs by at least 5% and scaling back the number of schools that participate in the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) college readiness program. The remaining $16.8 million shortfall is expected to be offset through additional cuts and the possible expenditure of one-time funds.

Ultimately, Bielefeld said, the district likely won’t be able to keep up with its deferred maintenance needs without further consolidating facilities.

“Unless we grow [enrollment], which is not what any of the demographic studies tell us is going to happen,” he said. “We feel like just the deferred maintenance bill is going to be really hard to keep up with unless we do something over the next 10 years.”

The facilities master plan is expected to be presented for school board approval in June with a consolidation recommendation that Bielefeld said will be informed by public feedback collected next month.

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