Wichita Public Schools has passed its first bond issue since 2008.
Voters in the Wichita school district chose “yes” on both questions in the bond issue by about 60%.
“Tonight, I'm relieved,” said Luis Rodriguez, president of the pro-bond campaign. “I’m grateful, and I’m so proud of our city.”
“Tonight, we learned that we have a path forward, and that we get to walk it together.”
The $615 million bond issue will fund heating and air conditioning improvements across the district, career and technical education programs, some new facilities, rebuilds of multiple schools and renovations and upgrades at others.
The district says the bond funds will also help free up capital outlay dollars to be used for maintenance work at schools not directly impacted by bond funds.
Maintaining some of the district’s oldest schools, like East and North high schools, regularly costs tens of millions of dollars from the district’s capital budget. The bond issue would put a combined $40 million toward preserving East and North.
“Our kids have needs, our buildings have needs, and we’re trying to do multiple things at once with this bond issue,” Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said in a recent interview with KMUW.
In February 2025, voters rejected a $450 million bond proposal by about 300 votes.
When crafting the new bond proposal, district staff proposed three different options. After hosting community feedback sessions in April, staff ultimately recommended putting the $615 million bond issue on the ballot, which the school board voted to approve in June.
The district also held tours at select schools during the summer, inviting community members to see how the buildings could be impacted by the bond issue.
“We learned a lot in 2025,” Bielefeld said. “We learned that we needed a more specific plan … We had done some community engagement (ahead of the bond vote in 2025), but nothing nearly as robust as we did this time around.”
Bielefeld said community input informed the district’s decision to break up the bond issue into two questions: One worth $407.1 million, and another worth $207.9 million. The second question could pass only if the first one passed.
Supporters launched a “Vote Yes-Yes 4 Wichita Kids” campaign in August, and opponents launched the “Improve Learning First” campaign in October.
During the campaign, supporters pointed to the fact that Wichita had not passed a bond issue in 18 years. Most surrounding districts have passed bond issues in the last 7 years or less.
The Wichita district also has less debt-per-pupil than most surrounding districts or districts of a similar size across Kansas.
Critics of the bond said the district should improve student learning outcomes, like scores on state assessments and the ACT, before asking the community to invest in facilities with a bond issue. They argued improving facilities will not necessarily improve learning.
“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.”
Supporters disagree. They say improved facilities mean better and more equitable learning environments for students, which they say can lead to better outcomes. They also argue many Wichita teachers deserve better working conditions.
“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.”
Some opponents also argued the bond was not worth the impact on property taxes. The district will pay off the 2008 bond issue in 2029, and opponents argue taking on new bonds denies property owners a pending tax cut.
“So there'll be no property tax relief for people in our community who really need it,” said John Todd, who supported the “Improve Learning First” campaign.
With both questions passing, the district says it will raise the property tax rate on a $200,000 home by about $50 per year.
Supporters argue students are worth the investment, and that improving schools can attract more economic development to the area.
The bond issue’s focus on career readiness and technical education earned endorsements from a number of local business organizations, like the Greater Wichita Partnership and the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“The Board’s support does not change the Chamber’s position on the need for lower property taxes,” reads the Chamber’s endorsement. “Rather, it reflects the belief that workforce demands by employers are critical for regional economic growth and that these investments will further enable the school district’s strategy to prepare our future talent pipelines.”
Bond issue supporters also point to the fact that other governing bodies, like the City of Wichita or Sedgwick County, routinely issue bonds to pay for construction projects, without ever having to ask voters for approval.
The district has about a $1 billion budget, but most of that money is restricted to specific expenses.
Some critics opposed the bond based on recent and planned school closures, including four elementary schools set to close over the next two-and-a-half years: L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland.
The district has said many of the schools set to close have aging infrastructure and low enrollment, citing a drop in the birth rate. Districts across Kansas and the rest of the country are seeing enrollment decline as people are generally having fewer babies.
“There was a point in time in Wichita where we had 92 elementary schools, and pretty much every square mile had an elementary school that had 400 to 500 kids in it,” Bielefeld said. “We’re in a different era in our community where there's not a need for that many schools.”
Wichita Public Schools is the largest district in Kansas, with more than 43,000 students and more than 8,500 employees. The district reported a 3% drop in enrollment this year.
