Greiffenstein Special Education Center

The Greiffenstein Special Education Program serves students with emotional and/or behavioral problems. We provide a therapeutic, secure environment for students who cannot function in a traditional setting. Our program is highly structured, allowing each student to work at his or her individual level. The structure of the school provides success in both academics and behaviors for children in kindergarten through 5th grade. One of our main goals is to prepare students to return to a regular elementary school.

The Need for a Therapeutic Environment

Emotional issues for the severely emotionally disturbed student make daily events irrelevant and unimportant. These children do not cope with standard routines, discipline procedures and expected academic outcomes. Their internal conflicts prevent them from focusing on specific tasks at hand. Trust issues, fears and insecurities contribute to their inability to function in a traditional school setting. Their poor positive behavior repertories, cognitive deficits, developmental vulnerabilities and inadequate support systems often make every day an unwelcome change.

The interactions that result from misbehavior become the daily task for the SED student. Winning, manipulating and engaging in these familiar interactions become the substance of school life. This reality is reinforced by the fact that the student is more adept at prompting these supposed negative consequences than they are at consistently gaining reward through production of desired behaviors.

The therapeutic approach engineers the environment to allow the majority of the students' time to be spent in the classroom demonstrating positive behaviors. A consistent, tightly structured routine allows safety and security needs to be met. Relationships are intentionally developed to build trust and reliability. Interventions are designed to help the child demonstrate personal control of behaviors. Interactions with the child convey safety, security, approval and confidence in the child's ability. Underlying this approach is an understanding and acceptance of the child's emotional and behavioral motivations.

Go south on I-135;  take the Hydraulic Exit. Go one block north on Hydraulic and turn west (left) on Fortuna (across from the McDonalds). Go west one block to Victoria and turn left. Go one block to Galena and turn right. The Wells-Greiffenstein special ed complex is located on Galena and Pattie. See Maps for all USD 259 locations.

The mission of Greiffenstein Special Education Program is to provide an appropriate educational setting for students with severe emotional and behavioral problems who have not been successful in the regular education system,

By providing:

• A therapeutic learning environment which contributes to behavioral and educational progress for each pupil.
• An environment that provides emotional support and academic success for students requiring a small structured environment.

In order to:

• Bring about desired changes as identified on the students' Individual Education Plan (IEP) through the use of therapeutic strategies and behavioral analysis.
• Increase academic skill levels.
• Prepare students academically, emotionally and behaviorally to be successful in a regular school setting.

Improvement of individual performance in the areas of behavioral progress, reading, mathematics.  

Each school has a site council, which is a group of parents, community members, business representatives, teachers and other school staff. Site councils identify, consider and discuss educational problems and issues at the school. Councils provide advice and counsel for evaluating state, school district and school site performance goals and objectives. Councils may also recommend methods that may be employed at the school site to meet these goals and objectives.

The site council is combined with the site council from Wells.

Meeting Day: First Thursday of each month
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Greiffenstein
Chairperson: Mary Spencer, 316 973-6403

• Occupational therapy
• Physical therapy
• Speech/languages services
• Social work
• Psychology and counseling services
• Community based case management
• Parenting classes
• Student intake process
• Behavior management
• Clinical treatment plans and individualized IEP’s
• Library
• Transition program
• Transportation
• Americorp
• Health and medication monitoring
• Extended school year
• Arts Partners
• Breakfast and lunch programs
• Therapy dog

• Music
• Physical Education
• Art Expressions
• Earned activities
• Winter Program
• Recycling Club
• Newsletter
• Year-End Fun Day

William Greiffenstein School opened January 13, 1950 as the 39th elementary school in the city's educational system. It was built to relieve the crowded conditions that existed at Gardiner Elementary School.

In the fall of 1949 several buses picked up pupils and teachers from the future Greiffenstein attendance area and transported them to and from the old Harry Street School until the present Greiffenstein building was completed.

The original building cost $75,000, had seven rooms and housed 177 students at its opening. Construction of the building required seven months, during which time the school was temporarily designated as the South Elementary School. Six teachers conducted classes in kindergarten through the sixth grade.

The first major addition was completed in 1951, bringing the total number of classrooms to 14. In 1953 several portables were constructed on the school site, and in 1956 an additional portable unit was added. During the summer of 1967 a wall between the library and an adjacent room was removed, doubling the floor space of the library.

The enrollment had a gradual decline from a high of 565 in 1953 to less than 200.

William Greiffenstein, a native of Ober-Ramstadt, Germany, the man after whom the school was named, was one of the most prominent and influential founders of early Wichita. He arrived in Wichita in 1869 at the invitation of James R. Mead, opened an Indian trading post, and helped in founding the new town. In 1870 he plotted 80 acres of land in Wichita which was the first plotted land on record in this city. Greiffenstein worked very hard to make Wichita grow. He did so much for the town that he is generally referred to as the "Father of Wichita." Greiffenstein is also well known as one of the planners responsible for the 81-foot width of Douglas Avenue. It is alleged by some historians to be the result of Greiffenstein's belief that the street should be wide enough for use as a drill field. He was the fourth mayor of Wichita and served in this capacity for eight years. In 1877-78 he represented this district in the State Legislature.

Due to low enrollment, Greiffenstein was closed as a regular attendance center at the close of the 1985-86 year. The special ed library and the library for the blind were housed at Greiffenstein between 1987-92. In August 1992 Greiffenstein was opened as an elementary special education center for behavioral disordered pupils.

From A History of Wichita Public School Buildings, c 1997