Wichita school district leaders are recommending closing four elementary schools as early as the end of next school year.
The plan would close L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland elementary schools.
The district is prioritizing closing schools that they say are aging and too costly to repair, as well as those that have low enrollment. Staff say consolidating elementary schools would create a more equitable learning experience for students across the district.
The goal is not bigger classrooms, said Wichita school board member Diane Albert, but for each student to have a learning environment of similar quality.
“We want to keep the classrooms fair across the district, and we’re trying to figure that out,” she said. “You’re talking about the child study teams, you’re talking about the nurses in the buildings … each school having those types of pieces.”
USD 259 leaders presented a proposed timeline for closing the schools Monday at the monthly Wichita Board of Education meeting. Some parents and community members spoke against the proposed closures.
Aaron Andrews has children who go to OK Elementary School, the same school he once attended. He said his kids have had a positive experience there and don’t want to start over.
“I was a child that fell through the cracks,” he said. “It was obvious there was something I was struggling on, but back then, my parents didn’t understand.”
“That’s something I do not want for my children or any other child.”
Chief Operations Officer Steve Noble said the district needs to consider the neighboring community’s feelings about each school that closes by giving them a proper send-off.
“A building is never just a building,” he said. “It’s memories; it’s a lifetime of memories. It’s generations of families and kids. We have to be mindful of that.”
The proposed timeline would give OK and Woodland an additional two years in the event that voters approve a bond issue.
Voters narrowly rejected a $450 million bond issue last February, but WPS leaders say the district still needs bond funds to build new facilities and maintain existing ones.
Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said some buildings need to be replaced entirely, rather than renovated, because the cost of repairs would outweigh the building’s monetary value.
“If [an old car] needed an engine, I would really have to weigh out the value of the car versus the cost of fixing it and decide what I wanted to do,” he said. “Our schools are the same way.”
School board members will likely vote this year on whether to propose another bond issue in time for the November election.
They will also ultimately decide if and when to close the four elementary schools. Bielefeld said the district would not lay off staff as part of the closures, but would instead relocate them to different schools.
The district recently closed Chester Lewis Academic Learning Center after board members learned last month of unsafe conditions in the 75-year-old building.
Some Black community members in Wichita are asking the district to reuse the Chester Lewis name for a future building or project, considering his role in the landmark Dockum Drug Store sit-in.
