Consultants hired by the Wichita school board say the district has too many small elementary schools and can’t afford to maintain them all.
The consulting firm is developing a proposal that could recommend closing some school buildings. It plans to present options to the Wichita board before the end of this school year.
David Sturtz, a partner with Ohio-based Cooperative Strategies, said nearly half of Wichita’s 54 elementary schools have fewer than 350 students, which is inefficient and costly to maintain. Twelve elementaries have fewer than 300 students.
“Having a few schools that are that low (enrollment), you can supplement (budgets),” Sturtz said. “Having nearly half of your elementary portfolio under that enrollment? That’s a financial struggle.”
Needed repairs across the district are estimated at more than $1 billion.
“I will not recommend a scenario that says, ‘You know what? Just keep everything the same and pay $1 billion over the next five years,” Sturtz told board members Monday. “That’s not a real plan. … And it’s not what you should do.”
Last spring, the Wichita school board used $1 million in federal COVID-relief funds to pay for a systemwide audit of district facilities.
Engineers and architects gauged the overall condition of school buildings, including roofs, HVAC systems, plumbing and more. Consultants looked at building capacities and enrollment trends.
Wichita has 54 elementary schools, 15 middle schools, three K-8s, nine high schools and nine special schools.
The average age of the district’s buildings is over 60 years. The average condition, according to the audit, “ranges from poor to replacement candidate.”
The audit also showed that about a third of Wichita classrooms are less than 700 square feet — much smaller than classrooms designed for modern teaching practices, such as small-group activities.
“If we do major work but we don’t change that, we’re baking in that low- class size for a very long time,” Sturtz said.
“You’ve got some beautiful old buildings, and you’ve got a lot of them,” he said. “Some are historic, and some are just old.
“Moving forward, we ask the question: ‘Over the next 10, 15, 20 years, what’s the optimum portfolio of schools?’ ”
Wichita’s enrollment has dropped by more than 8% over the past seven years. Some of that came from declining birth rates and shifting housing patterns, but the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the problem.
Sturtz said Wichita school buildings are well below capacity, with more than 18,500 vacant seats districtwide. Middle schools are especially empty, running at less than two-thirds capacity. Target utilization is between 85% and 95%, he said.
Next month, the district will survey families and area residents to get their input on the state of Wichita school buildings. By the end of the school year, Cooperative Strategies plans to present recommendations, which could include consolidating or closing schools.
The last time Wichita closed schools was about a decade ago. In 2014, as part of budget cuts and boundary changes, board members closed four elementary schools — Bryant, Emerson, Lincoln and Mueller — as well as the former Southeast High School, at Lincoln and Edgemoor.
Bryant was later repurposed as Bryant Opportunity Academy, an elementary school for children with behavior issues. Emerson now houses the Gateway Alternative Program. The former Southeast High became the new district headquarters. The other two elementary buildings were sold.
The most recent bond issue, in 2008, paid for nine new schools and improvements to 75 buildings.
Neither the consultants nor board members explicitly mentioned possible school closings Monday. But Sturtz said the district can’t afford to repair or replace all of its 90-plus buildings.
“Many of those schools have significant condition needs,” he said. “We’re going to provide you some options for change … from a more conservative to a more forward-leaning approach, all of which have benefits and challenges.”
This story was updated to correct the current use of Emerson Elementary.
