A handful of people gathered in downtown Wichita on Thursday to launch a campaign opposing the $615 million bond issue proposed by Wichita Public Schools.
Representatives of the anti-bond campaign, called “Improve Learning First,” said the number of Wichita students who demonstrate proficiency on the ACT and state assessments is lagging behind the rest of the state.
The group said Wichita district administrators should improve those outcomes before asking the community to invest in schools with a bond issue.
“We're very concerned about how well these kids are learning in (USD) 259,” said Walt Chappell, treasurer of the campaign and a former state school board member. “The fact is that 80% are not proficient in reading, math, and science.”
Supporters of the bond, however, say improved learning outcomes are exactly what the bond issue aims to accomplish.
“Our building conditions are learning conditions for our students,” said Katie Laske, president of the local teachers union. “And if our learning conditions are compromised because of broken HVAC systems, bats, leaking ceilings, doors that aren't working — our students are the ones that face those consequences.”
A campaign to support the bond, called “Vote Yes Yes 4 Wichita Kids,” launched in August. Signs from both campaigns have started popping up around town.
What’s in the bond?
The $615 million bond issue would fund improvements to heating and air conditioning at schools across the district, traffic flow improvements at some schools, preservation work at the district’s oldest high schools, and multiple new buildings and large-scale renovations.
Voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to approve the bond referendum. It is split into two questions, with the second one contingent on the first one passing.
If both questions pass, the district says the bond issue would increase property taxes on a $200,000 home by about $50 a year. But critics say that doesn’t capture the full picture.
Bond payments from the district’s last bond issue, in 2008, are set to expire in 2029 — which would mean a tax break for property owners. Passing a new round of bonds, critics say, would amount to a tax increase for decades to come.
“So there'll be no property tax relief for people in our community who really need it,” said John Todd, who attended the event and said he plans to vote against the bond.
Supporters of the bond say it’s an investment worth making.
“Every one of [the schools I attended in Wichita] was already standing, waiting for me before I was born,” said Luis Rodriguez, president of the “Vote Yes Yes” campaign.
“Because Wichitans I never am able to thank looked at a child who they'd never meet, in a family that could never pay them back, and decided that child was worth it.”
In the 18 years since the last successful bond issue in USD 259, many surrounding districts and districts of a similar size have passed multiple bond issues. Many of those districts have open enrollment and end up attracting students who would otherwise attend Wichita Public Schools.
But Chappell said that those schools perform better due to higher quality instruction, maintaining that there is “no relationship” between student outcomes and the quality of learning facilities.
“Absolutely none,” he said. “I've traveled around this world — I've been in countries like India and Russia and (in) Africa and Europe and South America.”
Chappell, who graduated from East High in 1959, said he grew up in schools without air-conditioning and walked to school — the latter of which he said students can no longer do in many Wichita neighborhoods because schools have closed.
He said Wichita schools could save money to improve facilities by cutting back on other expenses.
“Right now, we’ve got all kinds of things we’re giving away,” he said. “We feed [students] breakfast. We feed them lunch … and we bus them every day back and forth.”
“None of that was (an) expense we had for most of us, or for the rest of the world.”
Some local conservatives differ on the bond
The Sedgwick County Republican Party is also opposing the bond, sharing “Improve Learning First” materials through its official channels and offering yard signs at its headquarters.
Some local Republicans, however, are breaking with party leadership to support the bond issue, including Wichita school board member Diane Albert.
“What changed my mind were facts,” she said at a recent pro-bond rally. “Facts about how school finance operates, about how the budget operates, about the constraints that school districts face.”
The bond issue has been endorsed by the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce, a local business organization that did not endorse the district’s failed attempt at passing a bond in 2025.
Chappell said the bond issue will primarily benefit local construction companies.
“This is not for the kids; this is for the contractors,” Chappell said. “This will not improve student achievement. It's only going to give them a profit margin that they can count on for years.”
Campaigns clash on school finance, building maintenance
Some critics of the bond say the district should instead fund needed improvements with money from its budget.
“You’ve got to get control of your budget, and you’ve got to get control of the management of a multi-million-dollar enterprise,” Chappell said of the Wichita school board. “You can see that we're spending more money. We're not getting results.”
While the district’s budget is more than $1 billion, the majority of the money is earmarked for specific expenditures.
The state sets the district’s funds for capital improvements at around $50 million per year. With the average building in USD 259 over 60 years old, district officials say that money doesn’t go far.
Structural work at East High and North High, the district’s two oldest high schools, has cost tens of millions of dollars in recent years.
“When we have $50 million for the entire district and 83 different buildings, if two of the buildings take up 90% of that, that doesn't leave much for everybody else,” Wichita Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said in a recent interview with KMUW.
Todd, who opposes the bond, said he questions why the district is closing schools like Woodland Elementary School, which received an addition as part of the bond issue in 2008.
“Now they’re thinking about closing [Woodland],” he said. “I really have to question the stewardship of people in charge.”
“You build all these new things, and then you’re going to close them. This doesn’t make any sense.”
If this round of bonds passes, the district would establish a Bond Oversight Committee of parents, teachers, staff and finance professionals. That process would include quarterly financial reports from the district and independent audits once a year.
Eligible voters must register or update their registration by Oct. 13 to vote in the November election. Advance mail-in ballots will be sent out starting Oct. 14.
Early in-person voting begins Oct. 19 at select locations in Sedgwick County, with more early voting sites opening Oct. 27.
The county has more details on the election process on its website.
