Previously: Tears shed at USD 259 proposed school closures meeting
1 March 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Wichita Public Schools Board of Education met Thursday night. The only item on the agenda was a public hearing on school closures.
Over 30 parents, concerned residents, and teachers were given three minutes to fight for their school. Nearly every one of them went over the time they were allowed.
Wichita Public Schools Board of Education sat, listening to the parents fight one final time for their schools.
“It’s really tough; no one gets on the school board to close a school,” said Wichita Public Schools BOE Member Stan Reeser.
Reeser said their choice would come down to the wire. The schools recommended for closing are Clark, Park, Payne, and Cleaveland Traditional Magnet Elementary School. Also, Hadley and Jardine STEM and Career Explorations Academy.
“I expect each board member will take all these comments right up to the very last moment Monday night and make a decision on that plan,” said Reeser.
He said the school cuts in phase two will still need to be followed by additional moves in phase three to erase the budget deficit.
“It’s going to basically be done through attrition, through staff, through plugging some holes in the cash reserves that I think we’ve been very prudent in building up over the last several years,” said Reeser.
Reeser said summer programs will not be cut completely, but they will be affected.
“The types of programs you saw before COVID. We will still have them. They just may not be as big and robust as we expanded on them during the COVID years,” said Reeser.
Parents at Thursday’s meeting are convinced that their voices did not get heard.
“I still feel like it’s set in stone. I’m hoping that they take a step back and realize what the impact will be and not just make a rash decision,” said Samantha Stillman.
“The message to me is that they don’t want to listen to what we have to say. This is just a formality,” said Megan Buettgenbach.
She and many other parents said She feel their plea for help has been ignored.
The decision on which schools to close will happen next Monday night.