Chisholm Life Skills Center

Chisholm Life Skills Center emphasizes the development of basic work skills and habits, community survival skills, functional academic skills, vocational skills, and appropriate social behaviors. It is designed to address the individual needs of students and maximize the student’s potential. All students are expected to have studied daily living or functional skills in a classroom setting prior to enrolling in this vocational program.

While the Chisholm Life Skills Center's program is driven by each student's Individual Education Plan, a curriculum based on the Brolin's Life Centered Curriculum has been developed that places emphasis on gaining skills for independent living and vocational training. The program strives to teach and enhance those social behaviors and skills that enable each student to be successful in the community, both in independent living and in obtaining and maintaining a job.

Although the focus of the program at Chisholm is the development of vocational skills and independent living skills, students are able to experience a wide variety of activities during the school year. These activities include our Friday afternoon clubs, all-school dances, monthly assemblies, periodic field trips in the community, and the annual prom and yearbook-signing party. The school also has a large interior courtyard where students gain experience in gardening.
One of the students' favorite activities is attending basketball games featuring our own Chisholm Tigers. The Chisholm basketball team plays against teams made up of special education students from other high schools and is coached by members of the Chisholm staff.

The Jesse Chisholm Elementary School opened in January of 1949. The school was originally called the Southeast Elementary School; however, early in the 1949-50 school year, the Board of Education chose the name of Jesse Chisholm in honor of an intrepid pioneer and trail blazer.

Edwin Friesen was the part-time principal, and three teachers taught the 77 children enrolled. Two rooms were vacant, but only briefly, since the building boom for the area struck at the close of the school year. By September 1949, when the enrollment climbed to 203 and the teaching staff doubled, a double shift program was in effect.

In 1950, seven classrooms were added to accommodate the enrollment of 423 and the staff of ten teachers with a full-time principal. A peak enrollment of 538 was reached in September 1952, but the opening of Schweiter School reduced the enrollment to 515 by the end of the term. Although a large section of the district was divided in 1953 between South Hillside and Levy, the enrollment remained over 400, and portables were added in 1954 and 1955. From 1956 to 1969, the enrollment decreased steadily, and one portable was removed in 1960 and the other in 1965.

September 1969 found Chisholm at an all-time low of 220 students in the district. However, implementation of the Follow Through program in kindergarten and first grade increased the enrollment to 261 through the transportation of children into the district. The Follow Through program was removed from the building sometime in the 1970s. The ESL program was moved to Chisholm in the 1980s and then moved from Chisholm in the early 1990s. The Headstart program was moved to Chisholm at the start of the 1992-93 school year and remained through the 1994-95 school year.

Enrollment continued to drop at Chisholm and predicted enrollment for the 1988-89 school year was approximately 124. This was in part due to sixth grade being moved to middle school. There was a strong possibility that Chisholm would be closed due to declining enrollment. At one time there were plans for the merging of Chisholm, Griffith and South Hillside schools with a new building to be built on the South Hillside site.

Chisholm shared a principal with White school during the 1987-88 school year.

At the beginning of the 1989-90 school year, Linwood and Chisholm were merged into one school with two campuses and one principal. Kindergarten through second grade classes were housed at the Chisholm campus with students in grades three through five housed at the Linwood campus.

At the April 8, 1996 meeting, the Board of Education approved the closing of Chisholm School at the end of the 1995-96 school year, with students being sent to Linwood. The following year was the first year for the special day school known as Chisholm Life Skills Center.

Since that first year of operation, Chisholm has benefited from two building projects. The first occurred after the school sustained considerable damage from a tornado in May of 1999. Then, on October 14 of 2004, the school district dedicated the building additions resulting from the passage of the 2002 Bond Issue. These additions included four new classrooms and a multipurpose room that serves as a lunchroom and a gym.
From A History of Wichita Public School Buildings, c 1997