A retired teacher and a public education activist ousted incumbents to win seats on the Wichita school board Tuesday.
Amy Jensen narrowly defeated conservative board member Kathy Bond in a District 5 race that focused heavily on Wichita’s failed bond issue.
Bond was the only board member to oppose the $450 million bond issue, which voters narrowly rejected in February. Jensen campaigned in favor of another bond issue to rebuild and repair schools.
“I think public education won tonight,” Jensen said. “I ran on the premise that public education is a good thing, and we need to do everything we can to support our kids and our teachers, and I feel like the voters agreed.”
In District 6, which includes Riverside, Midtown and parts of north and northeast Wichita, parent and volunteer Amy Warren ousted incumbent Hazel Stabler.
Warren, who has three children in Wichita schools, said the board will benefit from parent perspectives.
“Even just the hiccups along the way that I’ve seen with getting our three boys through school, it gives me some different insight,” Warren said.
She said she looks forward to “getting the dialogue open between neighborhoods and the school district and parents, and getting some joy back into the process."
In District 1, board president Diane Albert held off her challenger, Mackenzi Truelove, to win a second term on the board.
Julie Hedrick was reelected to a third term in District 2, defeating Brent Davis and Valerie Most.
If Tuesday’s results are certified, the winning board members will take office Jan. 12.
This election was different from the one four years ago, when Albert, Bond and Stabler were elected as part of a conservative wave of school board candidates who focused on mask mandates, critical race theory and other national issues.
That year was the final Wichita school board election that used a hybrid voting model, in which voters across the district got to weigh in on all school board races.
Voters decided in 2022 to adopt a district-only system, where only people living in each board district can vote for candidates running in that district.
Warren served on a statewide task force on student screen time, which was charged with offering recommendations on the use of cell phones and other technology in schools. She says the topic is a personal passion that she plans to address as a board member.
“I feel excited about looking at ways we can work with parents, with medical providers, with community organizations, to bring some light on how we can support early childhood development and development for our teens,” she said. “Bringing some attention to teacher-student interaction, and how screens can either help or hinder that.”
She said Tuesday’s election showed that Wichita voters look for strong candidates and not a particular political party.
“Being a parent is not a partisan thing. Being an educator is not a partisan thing,” Warren said. “The issues I brought to the table are things that a lot of people care about, and it wasn’t about right or left.”
