Vote Yes on school bond vote

[shocker856]

People I belive it is our duty as sports fans to vote yes on the school bond vote. The kids really need improvements in the athletic facilites. They are old and out dated and as you all can see we have some good ball players out there and I belive that they desereve the best. Yes we are falling into some hard times with money but we shouldn't take it out on education and sports. Sports provides things that you can't get taught in class, like sportsmanship and responsibility and teamwork to achieve a goal.

To the no voters I cant figure out why you would want to vote no on something education and the childrens futures. I read an article today that bob lutz wrote today. He said that the leader on the anti bond group said that we should use the YMCA for swimming I belive, I dont think you realize how much that would cost!! as it is students who want to play a sport has to pay $50 to play.

[BenWSU]

My parents moved out of Wichita school district & relocated to Derby so that I could go to better schools & have a safer experience. During the entire time I went to school from 2nd grade to graduation, my parents had to pay higher taxes for the new high school.

Why should my parents be forced to pay higher taxes for a school district they never wanted to put their kids in???

[wxkid23]

Vote NO :good:

[Shocker85]

Agreed. Vote YES!

School districts don't have the luxury or ability to save or invest the way individuals or businesses do to fund long-term maintenance and improvement projects. Funds must be requested up-front via a bond issue or a mill levy to generate revenue for any capital improvement projects. With a bond issue, funds are targeted to address specific needs, which there are plenty in the Wichita school district.

The prior USD 259 bond issue helped take care of core infrastructure that was long overdue. Some school buildings were literally falling down around our kids, were grossly inadequate by any standard, and in many cases unsafe. USD 259 has been a great steward of these funds and the upgrades to the buildings have greatly improved the opportunity for our kids' education in Wichita.

The USD 259 bond issue on the ballot this year addresses many of the needs that the prior bond couldn't. One of the prime goals of the 2008 bond is to add 275 new classrooms district wide to bring class sizes in the the nationally recognized norms of 18-20 for elementary and 22-24 for middle and high school classes. Adding safe rooms to schools is also in this bond, and FEMA will bring an additional $18 million for storm shelter upgrades (that's free money).

If the bond issue is approved, the state of Kansas will pay approximately $92.5 million plus corresponding interest of the total. This is standard procedure and Wichita tax payers have been paying state taxes right along that have gone into other communities for their school bond improvements. It is time for some of OUR money to be invested back into Wichita. That's a 25% contribution by the state of Kansas to the total.

Fine arts facilities in most high schools in Wichita date back to the 1950's when our parents were in school and some back to as early as 1922 (Wichita East). We've read accounts of poor and unsafe wiring, staging, and production facilities. I can tell you these accounts are not exaggerated one bit. In many cases, teachers and students succeed in spite of the facilities in which they must rehearse and perform. I have many first-hand account from my own kids of these occurrences at East.

Athletics facilities across the district are equally as desperate for renovation, repair and improvement. A good example is the second Friday of this year's football season. Rains in the area cancelled all football games in Wichita because the fields couldn't take the rain during the day and a game that night - they would have been destroyed for the entire season. Instead, fields/stadiums in suburban districts were utilized to host the Wichita games the next day on fields that were funded by bonds in those communities. They had enough foresight to build staduims with all-weather fields and saved USD 259's bacon.

You might ask, "But how does better fine arts and/or athletics facilities benifit me because my kids aren't even in Wichita schools?" The answer is this, education of our children is the #1 goal and mandate of state government. Children learn hard work, discipline, and teamwork when they participate in the extracurricular activies offered by their schools. Athletes and fine arts participants perform better on standards testing and have better atttendance records than students who do not participate in those activities. You see, a well-rounded education that offers diversion and fun outside the classroom makes the experience better and more valued than one that does not offer those activities. These kids are our future and the small investment now will pay-off in a huge way 10, 20, 50 years down the line.

Technical education is also a target of the bond funds. Most schools do not have facilities that can handle the computers and other technical equipment required in the 21st century to bring this type of hands-on education to our students. Upgrades in labs and shops are badly needed, and technical education for students who are not college-bound teaches them skills to allow them to be highly productive as they enter the workforce.

In recent years, about 80%-90% of the National Merit Scholars in this area have come from Wichita Public Schools. These are the next generation of movers and shakers who are going to law school, medical school, top flight business schools, etc. across the country. Upping the ante with this bond issue will give them and their successors the best opportunity to succeed even further.

$370 million dollars seems like a huge price tag for this bond issue. What needs to be remembered is that USD 259 is one of the larger school districts in the entire US. Many areas have reduced district sizes to make them more manageable. Take the Kansas City area districts - the Kansas City KS district has only 4 high schools (Sumner is a fine arts academy) and 8 middle schools. The surrounding suburbs have their own districts (Olathe, Shawnee-Mission, Overland Park, etc.) Wichita by contrast has 8 high schools and 3 alternative high schools and 17 middle schools. The Wichita School District is the 4th largest employer in the Wichita Metro area. Being a large district, however, allows the burden to be spread across many more taxpayers. The cost of approximately $1 per week to the average Wichita homeowner is very small due to the district's large size. The USD 259 bond issue will actually have less impace on Wichita taxpayers than the bond issues approved by districts that surround Wichita do to their tax payers.

Vote yes for our future!

--'85.

[BenWSU]

Copy & paste of talking points. :roll: :roll: :roll:

[Shocker85]

Copy & paste of talking points.

Sorry Ben,

This is from the heart and what I believe. Show me where I copied and pasted from and I'll link to it. Yes, I reference some important facts, but copied and pasted???

Are you really Karl Peterjohn?

--'85.

[shocks771]

Well said '85 and I couldn't agree more. Vote YES!!!! I want our local kids to have facilities that they and the City of Wichita can be proud of. Why someone would be against this bond issue blows my mind. I have no kids, but there is no way I will be voting against this bond. The kids in the Wichita district deserve better than what they have.

[Smooth007]

Vote Yes for the future of Wichita.

[BenWSU]

Are you really Karl Peterjohn?

No but it`s not the right time to be begging for more money. Economy is shaky plus the local sales tax is still at 6% to pay for the arena.

I can see why Fahnestock is a big supporter of it. He`ll be getting the contracts to do heating and air conditioning for the improvements. 8)

[shocks771]

Are you really Karl Peterjohn?

No but it`s not the right time to be begging for more money. Economy is shaky plus the local sales tax is still at 6% to pay for the arena.

I can see why Fahnestock is a big supporter of it. He`ll be getting the contracts to do heating and air conditioning for the improvements. 8)

No the sales tax increase on the arena went away at the end of 2007.

[SHOCKvalue]

Are you really Karl Peterjohn?

No but it`s not the right time to be begging for more money. Economy is shaky plus the local sales tax is still at 6% to pay for the arena.

I can see why Fahnestock is a big supporter of it. He`ll be getting the contracts to do heating and air conditioning for the improvements. 8)

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

-The 1% SG CO sales tax for the arena concluded on 01/01/08. I'm guessing you haven't made a large purchase in the past four years to notice the phase-in or phase-out of that 1%.

-Fahnestock was not low bid for the mechanicals on the Intrust Bank Arena. End of story. He has zero to do with the construction, other than being an initial PR booster years ago. MSI Services is doing the work.

On topic: I voted yes for the proposal, purely based off of the pathetic state of athletic facilities in USD 259. I struggled with that "yes" vote though, considering all the fat and inefficiencies in the district. Almost talked myself into a "no".

[ShockBand]

Everyone always yaps about inefficiencies. Name them. If you say that because of the number of non-teaching personnel, remember that USD 259 serves just under 50,000 students, some 2/3 of which are in the "free and reduced lunch" category (meaning they have the litany of issues of poverty and working poor to deal with) and 1/4 of which are Special Ed students, for whom the cost per student is likely $20,000 or more, due to the ratio of students to teachers and paras. Even if you slashed 100 non-teaching personnel, you wouldn't save more than 8-10 million at most.

I have no problem with someone complaining, but IDENTIFY A SOLUTION!

[BenWSU]

-The 1% SG CO sales tax for the arena concluded on 01/01/08.

Doesnt matter what the tax rates are. Your tax dollars will still be spent on some aspect of it.

-Fahnestock was not low bid for the mechanicals on the Intrust Bank Arena.

Never saw him campaign for arena.

-- I can`t vote yes on something that doesn`t directly benefit me. Do the Yes voters get to use the swimming pools anytime they want?

[SubGod22]

At our rules meeting last night this was brought up by the GWOA and they support it. And it's not just athletic facilities that will be upgraded. Many of which are in dire need. I don't do a lot of work in the city league, but the ones I know that do believe this is an important issue for HS student-athletes. HS athletics is about a lot more than just the sport and I couldn't imagine having gone through HS without decent facilities and the opportunity to be a part of the team. I can't vote either way for it since I don't live there, but I'm definitely a supporter of it and really hope it passes for the good of the kids.

[SHOCKvalue]

-The 1% SG CO sales tax for the arena concluded on 01/01/08.

Doesnt matter what the tax rates are. Your tax dollars will still be spent on some aspect of it.

-Fahnestock was not low bid for the mechanicals on the Intrust Bank Arena.

Never saw him campaign for arena.

^^^^These responses have nothing to do with your original post.