Wichita schools need to work on education, not another bond | Opinion

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Here we go again.

Just a few months after the Wichita $450 million dollar school bonds were defeated in February, the superintendent and his staff are already trying to coerce the newly formed Financial Oversight Committee into recommending that the school board approve another bond election for this November or next March.

Rather than suggesting priorities to improve the dismal test scores of most Wichita students and making sure that each USD 259 student graduates with employable skills to be "future ready," the administration is forcing this committee to make a school bond decision at its last meeting of the year at 10 a.m., June 18, at the AMAC building at 1847 N. Chautauqua.

During their May meeting, members were only given time for a few questions after a brief presentation. All answers given claimed that there is an urgent need to sell more bonds before the 2008 bonds are paid off in 2028. That's when the extra 7.5 mil property tax levy goes to zero.

The community members who volunteered to serve on this committee have not even been asked to suggest spending priorities for the FY 2025-26 budget, which must be approved by the board in August.

Instead, the administration is again going through the charade of getting "public input" so they can tell the school board that they have received agreement to put their Facilities Master Plan back on the ballot, in hopes that voters will approve it this time.

The superintendent and his staff did the same thing last spring. To justify closing six schools, they held "listening sessions".

Over 250 parents, teachers and taxpayers came. I sat in on most of those small groups.

Not one community member said "Yes, please close my neighborhood school."

Unfortunately, the USD 259 administrators just stood in the hallway chatting, rather than listening to the public pleading to keep their schools open.

Now they want to close Woodland, Pleasant Valley, OK and L'Ouverture elementary schools.

Again, parents, teachers, former students and neighbors strongly oppose closing any of these schools.

I have personally inspected each building. They have all had millions of dollars of upgrades and repairs paid for by previous bonds and the 8 mils in property taxes we pay every year for Capital Outlay maintenance.

Each of these schools has new classrooms, libraries, storm shelters, kitchens, security upgrades, HVAC and electrical systems which are in good shape. But no, the superintendent and local contractors still want those four buildings closed while they build new ones.

With the six schools they closed last year, this so-called Facilities Master Plan would close 24 schools, in which Wichita property taxpayers have already invested millions of dollars to repair and maintain.

Yet during the past 25 years, there have been no significant improvement in student achievement. State assessment and ACT scores for Wichita students are about half of the average for all Kansas school districts.

And now, the district has finally admitted that graduation rates in USD 259 have been padded to make them look good.

This is nothing new. While serving on the State Board of Education and since, I have been told by various Wichita teachers that they were being forced to change grades so some students could graduate, even though they had not passed exams and were frequently absent.

It is time to stop trying to get Wichita voters to pass another multimillion dollar school bond. Plus, parents, teachers, neighbors and taxpayers need to show up at the June 9 and future board meetings until the board votes to keep the four schools slated for closure open.

We deserve honesty rather than hype.

Walt Chappell is a former member of the Kansas State Board of Education.