Special Edition

Superintendent presents plan to end busing for desegregation
Superintendent Winston Brooks presented his proposal to eliminate busing for desegregation in the Wichita Public Schools during the Dec. 18 Board of Education meeting. Some of the highlights of the proposal include:

·         Busing for desegregation purposes will be discontinued effective with the 2008-09 school year.

·         Commencing with the 2008-09 school year, all students will be allowed to attend their neighborhood school. This includes neighborhood magnet schools, but excludes pure magnet schools.

·         Secondary students who reside in the original Assigned Attendance Area (AAA) will be assigned to schools based on address until capacity issues have been addressed in the original AAA area. Secondary students who reside in the peripheral AAA area will be assigned to attend schools based on geographic boundary areas that will be established for that area.

·         Students who were bused for desegregation in the 2007-08 school year will be given priority magnet placement for the 2008-09 year.

·         Priority magnet placement will be given to students in the AAA area, subject to space availability, beginning in the 2009-10 year. This will continue until capacity issues have been addressed in the area.

·         Gordon Parks Academy will be a neighborhood K-8 magnet school, and half of the seats in the school will be guaranteed to students in the designated neighborhood. Gordon Parks Academy neighborhood students still must apply through the magnet lottery process due to capacity concerns.

·         Students bused for desegregation purposes, either forced or voluntary, will have the option to continue attending the school in which they were enrolled in 2007-08, as well as the feeder pattern for that school, through the duration of their education in the Wichita Public Schools.

More information on Superintendent Brooks’ recommendation can be found by clicking here.

“Our parents have told us they value diversity and they value choice,” said Superintendent Winston Brooks. “We developed this proposal with those items in mind.”

“This is a very positive plan,” Board of Education Vice President Lynn Rogers told Superintendent Brooks. “Many will say, ‘it’s about time,’ but you’ve shown that it’s not easy to develop a solution.”

The district will interview parents of students who have been bused for desegregation purposes at the end of the school year to help gauge where students may attend school next year.

The district will have community meetings in January to inform the community about the Superintendent’s proposal and to gather their feedback. Four community dates have been scheduled for Jan. 8, 10, 15 and 22 at 6:30 p.m. Locations for those dates, and a possible fifth meeting date, will be determined later. The information will be posted to the Wichita Public Schools’ website when the details are finalized.

The BOE will discuss the proposal again and welcome public comment during its Jan. 14 meeting. The Board plans to vote on the final plan on Jan. 28.

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BOE hears report on Facilities Master Plan update
The Board of Education heard an update the district’s Facilities Master Plan during its Dec. 18 meeting. Chief Operations Officer Martin Libhart and Kenton Cox and Shannon Bohm of Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey Architecture presented the Facility Master Plan Community Steering Team’s top ten facility needs and the total cost of making those improvements, which ranges from $467 million to $532 million. Click here to see the report.

Throughout September and October, schools have engaged their communities to review and identify their school and feeder-pattern facility needs. For the past three months, the Facility Master Plan Community Steering Team has met weekly to look at the district’s facility needs from a district-wide perspective.

The Steering Team identified their top ten facility improvement needs:

·         Address overcrowding and population growthImprove athletic and physical education facilities

·         Upgrade fine arts facilities

·         Add space for programs like pre-kindergarten, special education and ESOL

·         Provide FEMA shelters and improve safety around buildings, including bus loading zones and parking lots

·         General building upgrades to bring all schools to the same standards

·         Add classrooms to lower the district’s average class size to 18-20 students in elementary schools and 22 students in core classes in middle and high schools

·         Provide separate cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms for elementary schools with 400 or more students

·         Upgrade or expand libraries at 15-20 schools

·         Replace inefficient single-pane windows

“This is a global list,” Cox told the Board. “If you feel there are specific projects that need to be addressed immediately, you can move them up on the list.”

The Board instructed the Community Steering Team to come up with possible funding sources to address those needs. The Board also wanted the committee to consider Superintendent Winston Brooks’ proposal to eliminate busing as they look at the improvement needs. The committee will give another report to the Board in January.

The Facilities Master Plan last presented a plan update to the BOE in March 2006. The total estimated cost of facility needs in the 2006 report was $400 - $600 million. The district had a similar process in 1999, which laid the groundwork for the 2000 $284.5 million bond issue. The bond issue addressed many of the district’s needs, but the original facility master plan outlined $450 million in facility needs.

More information on the Facility Master Plan update process can be found on the district’s website. 

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