WICHITA, Kansas — The Wichita school district's $450 million bond issue could be decided by provisional and mail-in ballots.
Unofficial results Tuesday night showed opponents ahead by fewer than 300 votes.
A final batch of unofficial results posted by the Sedgwick County Election Office late Tuesday showed 13,506 votes rejecting the bond issue and 13,278 in favor of it.
But election workers must still count provisional ballots, as well as any mail ballots postmarked on Election Day and received at the election office by Friday. Results won't be final until a vote canvass on March 6.
The proposed bond issue would pay for new school construction and other improvements. It is the Wichita district's first bond election since 2008 and only the third since 1974.
Voter turnout was low. Of the 200,500 registered voters in the Wichita school district, just over 13% cast ballots in this election. That's about the same number who voted in the most recent school board primary in August 2023.
Diane Albert, president of the Wichita school board, said district leaders will await final results but plan to hold a news conference Wednesday morning.
“Regardless of the outcome, our focus remains on improving student outcomes and facing challenges head-on,” Albert said in a texted statement.
“The facility needs in our district will not go away, and we will continue working to find solutions that ensure an effective learning environment for all students."
Ben Davis, a Republican strategist and spokesman for the bond opposition group Wichita United for Better Education, said he was not surprised by the narrow margin.
“I always knew it was going to be close,” he said. “I feel fairly confident that the no's will end up winning it at the end of the day.”
Davis and other opponents said during the campaign that the district should focus on basic maintenance and student achievement rather than building new schools.
He said Tuesday’s vote shows that lots of voters want lower taxes along with well-managed public schools.
"It seems like (USD) 259, has a lot of money and a really big budget, and we're just not really convinced that they're spending all that money exactly where it needs to be," he said.
The bond plan calls for rebuilding five new elementary schools and two new middle schools. It would also build a new early childhood center, convert two elementary schools to K-8 schools, add a career center focused on construction trades and build athletic fields at Northeast Magnet High School.
Property owners in the Wichita district are currently paying off a bond issue voters approved in 2008. If voters reject the proposed bond issue, that 7.5 mills is scheduled to come off tax bills in 2029.
Taxes for the proposed bond would continue through at least 2045 to finance new projects.
Tuesday’s vote came about a year after the board voted to shutter six schools to save on maintenance and help fill a $42 million budget gap.
District leaders have said more school closings are imminent with or without a new bond issue. They plan to close at least four elementary schools — L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland — because the buildings are inefficient and too costly to repair.
The district will likely redraw attendance boundaries before closing those schools and reassigning students. Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said the earliest they would close is the fall of 2026.
“Financially, we cannot keep up all of these buildings. We just do not have the resources for it,” Bielefeld said last fall. “In order for school districts to fund their facilities, they need bond issues.”
Board members hired the Ohio-based Woolpert consulting firm to manage an information campaign leading to Tuesday’s election. The district paid Woolpert $312,000; it also paid Sedgwick County about $113,000 to manage the special election.
Wichita school board member Kathy Bond voted against a resolution to send the bond issue to voters, voicing concerns about the scope and timing of the bond proposal.
The last bond issue for Wichita schools was approved in 2008 by a narrow 2% margin. That $370 million plan built nine new schools, including Northeast Magnet High School and the new Southeast High.
In April 2000, Wichita voters approved a $284.5 million bond issue, which focused primarily on air-conditioning and other infrastructure upgrades.
The last bond issue prior to that was in 1974.
Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KMUW, KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
