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Posted on Sun, Oct. 12, 2008

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SUBURBS HAVE MORE SUCCESS

Tougher to pass bonds in Wichita

BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS

The Wichita Eagle

Over the past two decades, Wichita voters have approved a $284.5 million bond issue for new and upgraded schools -- its only bond issue since the 1970s.

Over the same time period, voters in six suburban districts have approved 21 bond issues for a total of more than $564 million.

"Perimeter school districts do seem to have an easier time (passing bond issues)," said Kenton Cox of Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey, a local architecture firm who managed Wichita's 2000 bond issue and helped formulate the $370 million plan voters will decide Nov. 4.

"Quite frankly, it just baffles me. I have never figured that out."

Cox, whose company has managed bond issues for dozens of urban, suburban and rural school districts in Kansas and elsewhere, points to several possibilities.

Suburbs are seen as education destinations, he said, full of young families who move there with schools in mind and become a powerful voting bloc.

Second, the size of most suburban bond issues may not seem as large and overwhelming to voters, even though their individual tax burdens often far outweigh those in urban districts.

But most notably, Cox said, "We just don't seem to have the organized opposition there (in the suburbs) that we get in Wichita."

Opponents of Wichita's proposed bond issue -- and those who opposed the bond issue in 2000 -- say suburban districts get bonds approved because rising enrollment makes a good case for new schools.

"Suburban schools are growing. Wichita schools are not growing. It's as simple as that," said Helen Cochran, spokeswoman for the anti-bond group Citizens for Better Education.

She said Wichita's total enrollment has remained relatively flat -- 49,146 this year, up from 48,228 in 2000-01 -- and that "the growth they projected (in 2000) did not happen."

The district argues that several of its schools are crowded and in need of additional space or upgrades.

Heights High School is "as full as the Maize schools -- maybe even more," Cox said. And 16 square miles of undeveloped land near Seltzer Elementary School does not bode well for that school, which already is overcrowded.

"There is growth that's very significant taking place," he said. "It's no different here than anywhere else."

Lack of bond issues

But Wichitans hesitated to approve bond issues -- or even propose any -- in the decades leading up to the 2000 bond issue.

Irene Hart, a member of the steering committee that developed the 2000 bond plan, said controversial superintendents and dissension on the school board translated to distrust among voters.

"The superintendent was at war with the school board, and there wasn't community sentiment to support that behavior," Hart said. "No one proposed a bond issue because there wasn't much chance one would pass."

No slam dunk

Some who have supported recent measures in suburban districts say that despite growth, bond issues are no slam dunk in the suburbs.

In fact, a few have failed, then been tweaked or overhauled and presented again.

Regardless of the size or type of school district, bond supporters say the challenge is the same.

"People just want to know if it's necessary. That is always the No. 1 question," said Judy Eberly, owner of Eberly Farm in west Wichita.

Eberly, who campaigned for bond issues in Maize during the 1990s and again last year, said the district's strategy amounted to "plain old legwork -- lots of little meetings in people's basements or living rooms.

"You've got to look them in the eye and say, 'Have you been up to that school? Have you seen what's going on?' " she said.

"You've still got a whole lot of people out there who don't have children or haven't been in the schools lately, and it's up to someone to make sure they are informed."

Pam McCue, a mother of three and co-chair of Goddard's successful $83.7 million bond issue last year, said the margin of that vote was "larger than it might have been" had supporters not campaigned hard.

The measure passed by slightly more than 500 votes, with some opponents saying they thought the district could have done more to cut costs and use tax dollars wisely.

"We worked really hard to educate people, and that was what we had going for us," McCue said.

McCue said she and her husband moved to west Wichita primarily to be in the Goddard school district. Now their oldest son, Colin, a fifth-grader, attends a school where crews turned old locker rooms into classrooms in a desperate quest for space.

"When I'd talk about that (at neighborhood meetings), I didn't run across any real negative responses," McCue said. "It's pretty obvious what the needs are."

Even so, she said, many voters balked at the idea of elaborate athletic facilities for the district's second high school. So the bond issue called for the two high schools to share one sports complex.

"We had done our research and knew what was needed," McCue said."... I think that goes a long way with voters, when you're asking for their support."

Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com.