What did you want to know about Wichita’s plan to close schools? We answer your questions

The Wichita school board has been discussing budget challenges and deferred maintenance needs since 2018, but the topic of school closures was first broached publicly in January.

The six buildings that may be closed the end of the school year — Clark, Cleaveland Magnet, Park and Payne elementary schools and Hadley and Jardine Magnet middle schools — were named last week.

A $263 million infusion of federal pandemic relief funds allowed the district to put off tough conversations about rightsizing for several years, but now USD 259 is facing a $42 million budget shortfall and seeking efficiencies. Officials say shuttering schools would save an estimated $16 million.

The closings are slated for a school board vote on March 4. A public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Alvin Morris Administrative Center, 903 S. Edgemoor.

With the process moving along quickly, The Eagle asked readers what questions they still have about the proposal. Here’s what they are wondering. Where readers gave permission, their names are included along with their questions.

And if you think of more questions, drop them in the questionnaire at the bottom of the story.

What happens to teachers?

Joan Bledsoe asked:

Will the teachers be offered positions in other schools in the Wichita district?

Under the closure proposal, teachers and other employees at affected buildings would be given priority in applying for vacant positions across the district.

USD 259 has been dealing with a staffing shortage, and Bielefeld said there are enough comparable positions for affected staff members that no one who wants to remain employed in Wichita schools will be out of work.

Affected teachers who stay will be given a one-time $2,400 retention bonus — one-third of which will be paid at the end of the semester and two-thirds of which will be paid upon their return to the district for the 2024-25 school year.

For non-teachers who accept a lower-paying position in USD 259, the district is guaranteeing one year of pay at their current rate.

How will closings affect class size?

How will this affect class sizes at remaining schools?

Average class size for elementary schools accepting new students will be 21 and average class size for middle schools accepting new students will be 24, according to estimates provided by the district.

Both estimates are close to the district average, and officials have said ensuring manageable class sizes was a major priority during the development of closure recommendations.

What about increasing property taxes?

Gentry Thiesen with Realtors of South Central Kansas asked:

How much of an increase in the mill levy would Wichitans face if the $42M budget deficit was paid for by taxes?

Raising taxes is not a viable option for offsetting the budget deficit.

The district’s Local Option Budget mill levy is already maxed out at 33% of the general fund budget, and under state law, the Capital Outlay and Bond & Interest mill levies can only be used to fund very specific purposes.

“Based on the current funding per student, including Special Education, this is a challenge that can only be solved by cutting expenditures,” district spokesperson Susan Arensman said in an email.

What about busing?

Lesa Schwartz asked:

When closing a school, that means students have to travel farther to their new school. How much will transportation increase to cover that since busing will increase?

Bielefeld said current estimates don’t show any cost increase associated with additional transportation. Kansas provides funding to bus only students who live more than two and a half miles from their neighborhood school.

“The reality is, we already have a lot of kids that have to walk two miles to get to school currently,” Bielefeld said.

The district does have a policy for providing transportation to students who live closer to school but would face hazardous conditions if they had to walk, including crossing busy streets without a crosswalk. In these special cases, transport services can be authorized with a majority school board vote.

Board member Melody McCray-Miller said if closures are finalized, she plans to identify potentially hazardous routes — including current Park students who would have to cross Kellogg to reach Linwood — and propose solutions.

“We could maybe provide a shuttle that would pick up students at a designated spot at a designated time and drop them back off at that same spot so that parents could pick up or they could walk home more safely,” McCray-Miller said.

Did these schools get bond money?

How many of these buildings got improvements from the bond issue and what was the total spent on them?

Four of the six schools slated for closure under the district leadership team’s proposal received a combined $4,335,000 in upgrades through the 2008 bond issue:

Hadley: $2,550,000; Clark: $690,000; Jardine: $600,000; Cleaveland: $495,000

Park and Payne were not among the 75 Wichita schools that benefited from the $370 million bond issue. Nine new buildings, including two high schools, six elementaries and one K-8 school, were also constructed with the funds approved by voters.

What will happen to the buildings?

Carrie Van Sickle asked:

Will the school system sell these buildings quickly to developers to gain the best return possible or allow the buildings to be vandalized and more rapidly decline?

The district’s 10-year facilities master plan, which is expected to come before the school board in May or June, will include ideas about what to do with closed buildings.

“We will essentially close them, we’ll solve our short-term budget need and our short-term staffing need, and then over the next few years, we’ll decide what might be the best use of those buildings,” Bielefeld said.

If closures are finalized, the district said, it will retain insurance on the buildings and continue doing basic upkeep so former schools don’t fall further into disrepair before a potential sale.

Overall, USD 259 is facing $1.2 billion in deferred maintenance needs.

Did district spend COVID relief money responsibly?

Why hasn’t an audit been performed to ensure the money received from covid relief was spent responsibly? Were there frivolous purchases with this money?

Information about how Wichita Public Schools spent its $263 million in relief funds is available on the district’s website, along with the Kansas Department of Education’s requirements for acceptable uses.

COVID-19 funds were spent on a wide variety of expenses, from purchasing PPE and technology for converting to online learning in the early days of the pandemic to expanding tutoring and supporting positions added to address student behavior and academic deficits, including paraprofessionals, counselors and social workers.

The district also increased wages for teachers and other employees.

“To not give raises when historically high inflation was occurring would have been a very difficult decision for the board to make,” Susan Willis, USD 259’s chief financial officer, said last week.

“You might not agree with the choices but it was not a misuse of funding. All of those were allowable uses under the federal guidelines.”

Bielefeld said using $20 million each of the last few years to balance the budget was a strategic decision aimed at staving off school closures for as long as possible, but demographic studies have given the district no reason to believe enrollment trends will reverse soon.

“COVID allowed us to delay this decision to close buildings,” he said. “We had funds available — historic, one-time federal money that allowed us to not have to make this decision to balance the budget. It was the right decision. Closing a school should be our last option.”

What about the newcomer program?

Megan Upton-Tyner asked:

Regarding the Newcomer Program at Jardine — where will that move to? Will it? What action has been taken/will be taken to ensure those students are cared for?

The newcomer program aims to ensure equal access to educational opportunity for students who recently arrived in the United States and have limited English proficiency.

Jardine Magnet middle and Park elementary both have newcomer programs, which provide English lessons and “strive to meet the physical, linguistic, social, emotional, and academic needs of students and their families,” Arensman said.

“We are finalizing the details and will ensure every student receives the services they qualify for and need for their success,” she said.

As a neighborhood magnet, Jardine serves roughly 190 students who live around the school and more than 300 other students from around the city. If closures are finalized, the neighborhood students would be reassigned to Mead. Park’s students would be split between Irving, Washington, Harry Street and Linwood elementaries.