School District Consultants Present Revised Proposal

Thu, January 05, 2012

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KMUW / Fletcher Powell

Consultants for the Wichita school district outlined their revised proposal for school boundaries in a presentation Thursday night at North High.

The consulting firm’s revision makes some changes to the proposal given in mid-December to a district focus group studying potential boundary lines for USD 259 schools.  The new proposal downsizes two new facilities in northeast and southeast Wichita from K-8 schools to Kindergarten through 5th grade.  The update also includes closing Emerson Open Magnet Elementary at the suggestion of the school district, leaving Woodland Elementary open, and relocating Mueller Magnet to the new northeast K-5 school.

Superintendent John Allison repeated his earlier comments that the district was having to make quite a few changes from what had originally been expected of the 2008 bond issue approved by Wichita voters, due to drastic cuts in state education funding.

Allison:  There’s so much investment and desire about how that plan looked at its origination, but with a $50 million swing in revenue since its inception, it’s gonna have to look different.

The district begins holding public forums on the boundary proposals on January 11th at West High School.

School Boundary Proposal Public Forums:

January 11th: West High School
January 12th: Brooks Middle School
January 18th: North High School
January 19th: Curtis Middle School

All forums are scheduled from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM.