School board candidates Mackenzi Truelove and Diane Albert had contrasting responses when asked about diversity, equity and inclusion in Wichita Public Schools on Tuesday night.
“I, for one, think that it’s just important that we’re making sure that we’re maintaining teaching a non-revisionist history,” said Truelove, who has made a commitment to protecting and reinstating DEI in schools a central part of her campaign. “We need to make sure that we are advocating for students that actually need it in an equitable way … because equality is not equity.”
Albert, the incumbent, emphasized the district’s foundational priorities — reading, writing and math — and aligned her platform with the district’s official tagline: Every Student Future Ready.
“There’s no asterisks after ‘Every Student,’” Albert said. “So we truly believe that every student needs a good quality foundation for education, so reading, writing and math, so that they can go on and be who they need to be like.”
The two District 1 candidates spoke at a forum hosted by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative.
District 1 covers a broad area — stretching from 69th Street between I-135 and Webb Road down to Central. Albert, the incumbent, is seeking a second term. She and Truelove defeated two other candidates in the primary to advance to the general election on Nov. 4.
Although their views diverged on DEI, the candidates found common ground on several other key issues facing the district.
Both agreed that teaching has never been more challenging. They also supported the state’s new mandate limiting cell phone use in classrooms, emphasized the importance of retaining USD 259 staff and expressed openness to considering another bond issue.
But the two candidates had vastly different strategies to address these, and other, issues.
The school district started the 2025 academic year with about 70 teachervacancies, a deficiency reflective of a growing teacher shortage across the state.
Asked how they would promote teacher recruitment and retention, Truelove surmised that an increase in teacher salary would address the problem.
“I think teacher pay is always on the table,” Truelove said. “I think that we need to really try to pay the support staff better than we do.”
Albert said that because the school district has already made a commitment to being the highest paid district in the state, the board should shift its focus to providing robust teacher packages, supporting its recruiting department and using sign-on bonuses to help attract educators.
An issue important to voters and candidates across all districts has been whether to consider another bond issue after one to build some new schools and renovate others was narrowly rejected in February.
Albert and Truelove both said they would advocate for consideration of another bond issue.
“I do support another bond issue. I think that we need to maintain all the funding the way that it’s coming in now, because if the current bond lapses … we will be left with no funding. And that is not a great place to be at,” Truelove said.
Albert emphasized the need for additional community input and additional clarification in the plan’s language before she would support another bond issue. She also said she would want the mill rate to remain neutral.
“I think we do need to have better communication and interaction with the community on what that means and what that looks like, because there was some confusion before, and I would like to clear that up,” Albert said.
Additional information about each candidate and their campaign can be found on their Facebook accounts: Diane Albert for Wichita School Board and Mackenzi Truelove for school board USD259.
This story was shared as part of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, a coalition of newsrooms — including KMUW — and community partners joining forces to help meet news and information needs in and around Wichita.