© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

UPDATE: Wichita School Board Approves 2017 Budget

Abigail Wilson
/
KMUW/File photo
The USD 259 Board of Education at a meeting earlier this year.

Updated on 08/23/16 at 10:00 a.m:

The Wichita Public Schools board voted on Monday to approve the budget for the next school year.

The 662 million dollar budget passed 5 to 0, with 2 board members absent.

Original Story:

The Wichita public school district is holding a public hearing this evening about the budget for the next school year.

The school board is expected to approve the $662 million budget, which cuts about $22 million in expenses. The district is facing increased operating costs and a lack of new funding from the state.

The budget eliminates more than 100 positions across the district and consolidates the two remaining alternative schools into one location. Other changes include a school day that is 30 minutes longer and a school year that’s 15 days shorter. Many transportation routes would also be changed or eliminated.

Members of the public can speak before the board by signing up at least 10 minutes before the meeting begins. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Wichita North High School.

--

Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.