USD 259

The Wichita Public School District is serving free summer meals for students beginning Monday through the start of school in August. But, the district is still preparing for a possible statewide shutdown in July that could impact the program.

The Wichita Public Schools Board of Education will review and vote on next year’s school calendar at its meeting Monday night.

The proposed calendar would continue the shortened school year adopted in 2016 as a way to save the district millions of dollars. The district lengthened the school day by 30 minutes to cut 15 days off the yearly calendar.

The Wichita Public School District has close to 10,000 students in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs, with more than 109 unique languages represented in the district. More than 19 percent of the total student population in Wichita speaks a language other than English at home.

Other than the U.S., the largest numbers of students have come from Mexico, Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Honduras. In total, students in the district represent 94 different countries.

The superintendent of Wichita Public Schools says it's impossible to know the immediate impact of Thursday's Kansas Supreme Court ruling that the state is not adequately funding its public schools. Still, the district says the ruling is a good thing for students here and across the state.

The Wichita Public School District is looking for feedback on the longer school days that were put into place this year.

In the face of increasing costs and flat funding from the state, the district lengthened the school day by 30 minutes. The change allowed USD 259 to make the school year 15 days shorter, saving nearly $3 million in operating costs.

For the first time ever, Wichita Public Schools will have a female superintendent. 

Wichita Public Schools' budget for this year has been proceeding according to plan. Next year, though, is another story.

On Monday night, Susan Willis, chief financial officer for the district, told school board members that budget planning for the 2017-18 school year is "the perfect storm of unknowns."