When Wichita opted to close six schools, it said staff would have jobs. What’s happening?

In our Reality Check stories, Wichita Eagle journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Story idea? tips@wichitaeagle.com.

The decision to close six Wichita schools at the end of the semester was a painful one. One upside was that no employee would be out of a job.

“It may be in a different location. It may be in a different grade level, but we have enough vacancies that we need everybody,” Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld said in January. The other cost-saving option presented by district leadership would have required layoffs for more than 200 employees.

Eight weeks after the plan was approved by a split Wichita school board, The Eagle wanted to know if USD 259 was keeping the promise it made to the 132 teachers and 190 other staff displaced by school closures.

Of the 322 employees at soon-to-be-closed buildings, 218 (68%) have accepted a new position with Wichita Public Schools for the 2024-2025 school year, district spokesperson Susan Arensman said.

“We are very pleased with the progress. In fact, it is going better than we anticipated by May 1,” Arensman said.

Another 87 (27%) are still interviewing for positions or waiting on job offers, and 17 (5%) have chosen to resign or retire rather than switch buildings next school year.

“It’s hard if you’ve been in a school for like twenty years and you haven’t had to interview and now you’re interviewing and having to do your resume,” said Katie Warren, president of United Teachers of Wichita.

Displaced employees have been given priority in the hiring process for positions they apply for, and the district held two job fairs this spring where building principals made some hires on the spot. Any staff member who does not accept a position by the end of next month will be assigned one on May 31.

“At this time, we feel that there will be enough open positions,” Arensman said.

Warren said it’s been difficult for some teachers in specialized fields to find a good fit — several social studies teachers, a vocal music teacher and a librarian who’s classroom-certified but wants to remain a librarian, for example. Others, she said, are struggling to find new positions that don’t require a sizable commute.

“It’s kind of a challenge,” Warren said. “If you live on a certain side of town and you really want to stay on that side of town because maybe your kids go to school there but there’s not any openings.”

To discourage resignations, the district offered teachers a one-time $2,400 retention bonus — one-third of which will be paid at the end of the semester and two-thirds of which will be paid upon their return to the district in the fall. For non-teachers who accept a lower-paying position than the one they’re leaving, the district is guaranteeing one year of pay at their current rate.

“The school district has done a good job trying to consolidate all those people and make sure that they get to a position. It’s just, I don’t know how concerned they are with the employees being happy with the position that they’re moved to,” said Esau Freeman, business representative for the Service Employees International Union, which represents the district’s paraprofessionals, custodians and other support staff.

“I have some custodians that are close to retirement who have not been getting interviews, or when they get interviews, they have not been getting callbacks for head custodian positions,” Freeman said.

He said he’s also heard concerns from paraprofessionals who don’t feel they’re being given enough time to think through job offers because of how quickly schools want to hire. In some cases, he said, paras have are being given as little as 24 hours to make up their mind.

“I’ve had some paraprofessionals that have made the decision on that hasty timeline and then, when they kind of look around, they’re like, ‘I don’t know if that’s the school I want to be at.’ And the school district’s position on that is ‘Well, you’ve got a position, so you can apply and try to go someplace else next year,’” Freeman said.

Under the service union contract, the district can reassign staff members to new buildings with as little as 72 hours of notice.

“The biggest trouble that most people are having is the change in scenery, the going into a new position, working with new people,” Freeman said. “Each school building is different.”

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