Wichita-Area USD Cuts Bond Plan to $350M

DALLAS — Sedgwick County, Kan., Unified School District 259 trustees have directed the district’s master plan facilities committee to keep the project list cost for an upcoming bond issue to no more than $350 million.

The school board voted unanimously on Monday to cut approximately $30 million from the advisory committee’s initial estimate of a $379 million bond program. The final report will be delivered to the board on Feb. 11, when trustees are expected to set an April or May election on the bond package.

The district serves the city of Wichita. Current enrollment is almost 49,000 students.

Board vice president Lynn Rogers said he proposed the $350 million cap because that’s how much he believes the community will support, and because it is sufficient to meet current needs.

“We want to make sure we put only the high priority projects on the bond list, and handle other issues from our annual capital outlay budget,” Rogers said. “We’re not asking for everything. We’re asking for equity, we’re not asking for fancy.”

Rogers said suburban districts around Wichita have built attractive new school facilities that are causing families to move into those areas to the detriment of the Wichita USD.

“We want our schools to be as nice as those being built in the suburban districts that are passing bond issues right and left,” he said. “They are building facilities that have tremendous ‘curb appeal’ to students and parents.”Academic projects were the focus of the district’s last bond program, Rogers said, but this will include upgrades to fine arts and athletic facilities.

“We did almost none of that in the last bond package, but fine arts and athletics are academics, too,” he said.

Several schools are overcrowded, Rogers said, even though overall attendance has increased only 3% in 10 years. Some areas in the district are experiencing rapid development, and the average age of district facilities is more than 50 years.

“We built a middle school with proceeds from the last bond election that we planned for 600 students while expecting 400 at opening,” he said. “When we opened, we had 660 students and had to expand the school to a capacity of 800. Right now there are 820 students in that school.”

District voters approved a $284.5 million general obligation bond package in April 2000. All bond projects were completed by September 2006 under budget and on time, Rogers said, which should make it easier for the proposed 2008 bond package to win approval.

“The 2000 election was the first time voters had approved a bond election for this district in 30 years,” he said. “The board spent a lot of time before that election building trust with the voters, and knew that they had to do the right thing after passage because the program would be scrutinized closely. We delivered on every promise, and then some.”

Proceeds from the bonds authorized in 2000 were used to build two new middle schools, rebuild five elementary schools, build nine new school libraries and expand nine others, and renovate the infrastructure at 79 district buildings.

Rogers said if the projects in the 2000 program were to be done today, the cost would be more than $500 million due to increases in construction expenses.

“We built those projects at $90 a square foot, and with these projects we’re looking at $150 per square foot,” he said.

The district’s GOs have underlying ratings of Aa3 from Moody’s Investors Service and AA from Standard & Poor’s.

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