With the No’s ahead by 294 votes and the results of 535 provisional ballots to be added to the election totals, McCray-Miller signals Friday afternoon’s canvassing of the election results may not bring the election process to an end. If addition of the provisional votes doesn’t tip the election to a district win, McCray-Miller says the board may request a full recount of the ballots.
With YES behind by 294 votes and just 535 provisional ballots, to come out on top, more than 75% of the provisional ballots would need to be in favor of the bond issue, which is a pretty large lift.
What Went Wrong
McCray-Miller believes low voter turnout contributed to the close election results. Just under 14% of the district’s eligible voters participated in the election. The district had hoped for 15% turnout and she believes if they had met that goal, the election results would have tipped in their favor.
McCray-Miller also says the proposed bond issue, billed as a zero-tax-rate bond issue, was negatively impacted by an poorly-timed announcement from the Sedgwick County Tax Appraiser’s office. In the waning days of the election campaign, the appraiser’s office alerted g property owners to an average 9% increase on appraised taxable values notices due to be mailed March 1. The message: even though the bond issue wouldn’t increase property owners’ taxable rate, their taxes would still be going up since their appraisals were up.
Next Steps
If after all steps – canvassing and a possible recount – the bond issue fails, McCray-Miller supports bringing the bond issue to the voters again. This time though, the bond issue may look different. Some members of the Vote Yes coalition, who helped support the bond issue, have signaled the possibility of the district coming back with a smaller bond issue proposal.
At the school board meeting on March 3, their first since the election, the district’s Chief Financial Officer Addi Lowell outlined a process for the city to survey and gather feedback from the community.
“We do want to enact a focus group for constituents that cast a ballot on February 25 to help us get objective opinions on our education efforts to date and the facilities master plan,” Lowell told the board.
The district indicated they will use the feedback to help decide next steps.
Closures Still Planned
However, with or without the bond issue, district representatives say they still plan to move ahead with closure of L’Ouverture, OK, Pleasant Valley and Woodland elementary schools. Under the bond issue, students at these schools were to be moved to newer, larger schools. The students may be moving to “newer” schools than they were previously in, but without the bond issue, there will be no “new” schools for them to move to.
At Monday’s board meeting, architect and community-leader Charles McAfee asked the board to reconsider closing L’Ouverture, which is located across the street from McAdams Park and the pool house he designed that bears his name. L’Ouverture school building opened in 1951 at its current location, but the school’s history dates back to 1914 when it was opened, at a different nearby location, as part of the school district’s segregation of its schools.
L’Ouverture is one of just four school buildings in near northeast Wichita that would be shuttered if the current bond issue passes. The other schools are Dunbar, Little Early Learning Center and Chester Lewis Academic Learning Center (the old Mathewson). Concerns about the number of closings in Northeast Wichita may have contributed to a loss in some support for the bond issue from Wichita’s Black community.
McCray-Miller says she’s heard a lot of interest in purchasing several of the facilities. She says churches near two of the buildings have expressed an interest in purchasing Dunbar and Chester Lewis. She also says there’s a group interested in purchasing L’ouverture for use as a high-achievement preschool.
Especially for L’ovueture, McCray-Miller says she will support a requirement that the new use for the facility include a permanent display recognizing the school’s history.
