As they prepare to send a $450 million bond issue to voters, Wichita school district leaders are making changes aimed at fulfilling some promises of a previous bond issue nearly two decades ago.
Beginning next fall, ninth-graders living within the northeast Wichita enclave of Bel Aire will get priority placement at Northeast Magnet High School — one of the district’s most coveted programs.
At the same time, Isely Elementary School in Bel Aire will begin a transition to a K-8 neighborhood magnet, accepting its first class of sixth-graders in the fall of 2025.
“The Northeast Magnet and the Isely moves are really both, ‘Hey, 17 years ago, this was the plan. And for a variety of reasons, it didn’t come to fruition,’” said Loren Hatfield, assistant superintendent of secondary schools for the Wichita district.
“So, what can we do now to kind of right some of the wrongs … and restore some faith and trust in the Bel Aire community and the Wichita public schools?”
Northeast Magnet, at 53rd Street North and Rock Road, was designed to be a new traditional high school that would alleviate crowding at nearby Heights High.
But because of budget and staffing concerns, it opened as Northeast Magnet High School in 2012, replacing a previous magnet high school near 17th Street North and Chautauqua. Ninth-grade students must apply to the school, and all are selected by random lottery.
Isely was designed to be a K-8 neighborhood school, with lockers, science labs and an 800-seat auditorium similar to Christa McAuliffe K-8 Academy in southeast Wichita. But it opened in 2012 as a replacement for the former Isely Traditional Magnet Elementary at 2500 E. 18th St.
District leaders said at the time that changes to state funding left them unable to staff or operate a new K-8 in Bel Aire. So they moved the Isley K-5 magnet to the new space, along with several programs for special-needs students.
Fast forward a dozen years, and the Wichita district is again seeking a major bond issue. In a special election Feb. 25, voters will decide on a $450 million plan to build several new schools, close others and reduce the district’s overall footprint to make it more efficient.
Hatfield, the assistant superintendent, said proposed changes at Isely and Northeast Magnet are responses to longtime concerns from Bel Aire residents.
“There’s been a strong contingent in the community that says, ‘I want to go to this high school that I can literally see from my front yard. How do I do that?’” Hatfield said. “So, we want to honor that request.”
Last spring, 32 ninth-graders who live in Bel Aire applied for Northeast Magnet High School, but only seven were selected. Next year, any ninth-grader with a Bel Aire address will automatically be accepted into the program.
“This was an easy way to honor that community, and a simple change for us to make,” Hatfield said.
That means, however, that unless Northeast Magnet increases its overall enrollment — currently about 680 — there will be fewer slots available to students living elsewhere in the district.
Hatfield said the district could consider gradually expanding the program, “because we don’t want to take seats away from others.” But there are no plans in the works to boost staff or make room for more freshmen, she said.
Northeast Magnet is one of the district’s most popular programs. U.S. News & World Report has ranked it the No. 1 public high school in Wichita and among the top public schools in the state, pointing to its 98% graduation rate and impressive scores on standardized tests.
