From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio.

PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week, a new option for parents in crisis.

We'll tell you what it is, where it's going, and how it will protect newborn babies.

Plus, a debate over federal grants sparks a tense showdown over local homeless services.

Why the mayor is pushing for a centralized hub at the new Second Light shelter.

But first, Wichita school officials are pitching a massive $615 million bond issue for the November ballot.

We break down the two part plan and what it might mean for your property taxes.

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas wheat.

And welcome to Kansas Week.

Hi, I'm Jared Cerello.

Wichita school officials are asking for a staggering $615 million to fix the district's aging buildings.

That price tag significantly higher than the $450 million that voters recently rejected.

The new proposal breaks down to more than $13,600 per student.

District leaders are pitching a two part bond for the November ballot.

They call the first question tax neutral.

But if voters rejected, the current tax rate would actually go down about of the.

Once the older bond is paid off in a few years.

Passing that first $407 million measure would keep the tax rate flat.

Officials say it would pay to entirely rebuild four elementary schools while funding critical Hvac upgrades across 17 other buildings.

The second question asks for another $208 million to upgrade career centers and preserve historic North and East high schools.

And that second measure would raise taxes by about $50 a year for a typical homeowner.

The school board will vote on the final ballot language in early June.

And we have a full panel today here to discuss this.

And some of the week's other local news and state news is Wichita mayor Lily woo.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, State Representative Casey Hobson and freelance journalist George Lawson.

Thank you, and welcome to all of you who don't have anybody from the school board here today.

But, I assume we'll have plenty of discussion.

Commissioner Howell, let me start with you.

You're not a school board guy, I get it, but, do you think this has a chance of passing the school?

The voters recently rejected $450 million, and now the school board.

The board seems to be asking for any.

You know, I'm sympathetic to the to the problem here.

I there's the information is so, messed up in the, in the public sector.

And I just like to say the school system has about 90 buildings they have to maintain some of those buildings are actually very old, is high school is a perfect example.

You want a bit about $20 million to modernize that one building alone.

And it's it's invaluable to our city.

Every one of those buildings that they have in that system was built with a bond.

It is true that this 5.5 mills would drop off the tax rolls in about ten, 20, 28, I think, is when that would happen.

And if this bond issue was to pass, it simply continues.

The old rate of about 5.5 mills.

That's about $60 per year on a median priced home.

But without a bond, they they really can't, modernize the buildings that they have.

And the this money is not used for operations.

People keep saying, well, the kids need to have better teachers and need to have better wages, cause that's about operations.

We're talking about structure, the footprint of the system is what we're talking about today.

And people are moved away from the city in some places, and the students aren't in the right places.

And so they got to build some buildings.

They need to modernize some buildings, expansive buildings, update some buildings and all that goes.

You can't do any of that without some type of a bond issue.

The bonds for structure and the operational support, people talk about that 20,000 per student.

That's operational support.

It's entirely different.

And it's gotten to the point where most school districts have a bond on on the rolls to begin with.

The fact in fact, I don't think we not my lifetime.

Wichita has always had a bond since I've been in Wichita and I've been here.

I'm in my 60s at this point.

Every school system pretty much has a bond to take care of how they that's how they build our schools.

I know people hate taxes.

I don't think it's going to pass.

If you ask that question.

I don't think it's going to pass.

I think it's going to struggle.

But if it doesn't pass, that will be right back at this again next year.

And they have to they've got to do a better job.

I think explaining what this is for and why.

Why is a bond needed.

Nobody likes taxes.

But we do want to take care of these kids.

And they do have to have a place to do the education.

And George Lawson, especially in this day and age, voters have been talking about property taxes being so high in this day.

As a journalist, what do you see here?

Well, they certainly had a lot of public meetings to talk about this, and it seems like they've done some due diligence the second time around.

They've gotten a lot of public input on it.

So we'll see how it turns out, how the board votes on it.

I don't know if they're looking at this for the August ballot or the November ballot, but they've got a lot of work to do.

And if they give themselves time to do it, they might be able to get at least one of these questions.

It's possible voters could pass one and not the other.

The other.

So we'll we'll see how this goes.

But they do need some kind of upgrades for their facilities.

And they're going to have to continue looking at this no matter what the outcome.

Yeah.

And a lot of a lot of people have argued that how how is the school district, asking for more and more money when they've closed ten buildings or, and enrollment continues to decline?

We've closed the school district has closed buildings, but we still need more money.

So actually go ahead and move some numbers.

From 2024 to 2025, the district had 88 learning centers, a population of 46,500 students.

This year, the population of students went down, so enrollment went down to 45,000 students and also down the number of buildings, 85 school buildings.

So one of the questions I get asked very often is about schools, and I have to remind people that the city of Wichita has no jurisdiction over USD 259.

That's the school board, and those are elected individuals.

And you should definitely get to know your school board members.

One thing that I have really tried to push is to let people understand how property taxes work.

A large majority of your property taxes go to Wichita Public Schools 46%.

The next highest would be the city of Wichita at 29%, followed by Sedgwick County at 23%, then Kansas and WSU at 1% each.

So again, we get a lot of questions about the confusion between the two, and there is separation.

However, I also see collaboration.

The three of us, city, county and USD two, five nine had had these tri government meetings.

They just started last year.

We had one very recently.

And again, we see the challenges that school districts are facing, especially Wichita public schools.

It is the largest school district in the state and very diverse.

And they have very diverse needs.

So it is a conversation that this community should have.

Yeah.

Representative O. Harbison, how how does all this play in you as a state lawmaker?

How does all of this play into state level policy on the on the state level?

What we what we should be doing is actually what we actually are fully, fund special education actually takes away, pressure from the local on the local level.

That actually actual, in my opinion, actually drop property taxes because, you know, we're actually doing fulfilling our mandate on the state level.

I do agree with, you know, my colleagues here at the table that with respect to this bond issue, what's really going to make a difference is pretty much communication.

If the voters know exactly what's in it compared to when we the sales tax that what went down, you know, there was a lot of confusion.

There wasn't it wasn't, conveyed properly to the taxpayers as to what's in it.

So I think it is a lot of, communication between what the school district needs and to the voters, I think that there is a chance it will pass.

Yeah.

And one last question for the mayor.

Also, do you think this will have anything, to do negatively with there was a recent push for a sales tax vote in Wichita as well, which also failed.

Do you think this are we are the school district in the city kind of competing here with whoever gets the first sales tax rate is going to win?

I can't speak on behalf of school district, but on behalf of the city of Wichita and the council, we have to focus on the things that the city does take care of.

And so for us, it's the 16 departments.

And most critical to that is public safety and public works.

And so for us, we have to keep focusing on what does community want us to do with property taxes.

And I believe that's public safety and public works.

But if it comes to a sales tax, what are the additional things?

Yeah.

Well, you know, in that case one was a sales tax, one was a property tax.

But regardless of the form people are taxed to death.

This this these people right now are struggling with their money.

This economy's hard on everybody.

Are we all feel we all feel the pain of this economy.

I think tax increases, no matter what the form is, is, is going to be very difficult.

But you ask the question, why are they closing schools and doing a bond issue?

The population they're serving has shifted now.

The kids aren't where they used to be, and they have to have neighborhood schools where the kids live.

And unless you want to have more bussing and there's other expenses or come on, the come up is have a system that's not it has not pivoted to where the people live.

That's been, I think, the greatest need plus a lot.

Most of the spending is for modernizing buildings, actually.

Sure know.

Right.

Our next story, a debate over federal grant money, turned into a bit of a tense showdown over Wichita's homeless services this week.

Mayor woo is pushing for United Methodist Open Door to move its daytime operations inside.

Second, like that's the city's 24 hour homeless shelter.

The mayor argues that a centralized hub is the best way to tackle the crisis.

But Open Doors executive director pushed back, saying that moving into the new facility would double their operating costs and strain an already tight budget.

The city council ultimately voted down an attempt to force Open Door to move in exchange for the funding, and instead divided nearly $500,000 among nine local nonprofits.

So, mayor, I'll start with you here.

Tell me why you made the push first there, that argument or the debate?

Arguments.

Not the right word, but the debate started with, Cdbg money that was allocated by a volunteer citizens group.

But tell me why you're pushing.

So this is really interrelated to the last topic as well.

As, you know, Park Elementary School was one of the schools that was closed by USD 259.

It's a 100 year old building, had a lot of maintenance that really needed to, come to, new Age.

We had to replace Hvac, made sure that the building was structurally sound.

For now, people living inside that's a different way than when it was a school building, and kids were only there during the daytime.

So the city of Wichita has actually invested nearly $30 million at second Light.

That includes the shelter.

It includes the emergency winter shelter months.

It also includes what's going to become transitional housing, which is, the affordable housing that's on campus called Park Landing.

So there's a coordinated effort in one location at ninth and Main Street.

The city has invested a lot of dollars into a location to help people have shelter.

24 seven have daytime services also wrapped around and community partners coming into one location.

So Open Door is a nonprofit that only provides daytime services, and they don't provide them seven days a week.

It's only open Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

so at 4:01 p.m., where do individuals go?

Yeah.

And so the city of Wichita has a shelter at 24 seven men and women's shelter.

This is the first time in our city's history that we've had a low barrier.

Are these the people that are taking advantage of the open door network services?

These are let's face it, they're the worst, the most, severe cases of homeless people.

Many of them, frankly, don't want to get off the streets if they don't have too many of them choose to be there.

Is there a way to force them to do this compassionately?

So the city of Wichita passed a ordinance back in December of 2024.

It was not new.

It was an illegal camping ordinance.

This is this had been in the books since 2013.

This actually allowed for officers to, clear out encampments that were posing a health and safety risk.

That would be sidewalks, because you and I want to utilize sidewalks as well as other individuals.

And then what has happened is illegal camping or, the illegal camping, cleanups have gone up over the year.

So just in 2026 alone, 195 orders, the total amount $172,000 just to clean up encampments this year alone.

Last year, the whole year, it was 176,000 at 459 work orders.

That is a problem.

And we need to have a serious conversation about the cost of either enforcing ordinances that are in place and what is a humane way to help individuals connect to resources.

And those resources are at second light if everyone works coordinated.

One last question before I move on to the other panelists with future operational funding at second light isn't guaranteed right now, there is no secure source of funding for second light, so why would the city or you as the mayor, believe it can pressure an independent nonprofit to move its services somewhere where this where the funding is not secure yet?

So out of full disclosure, I am a board member of Second Light, and so I know the coordinated services that are in the works.

This is real investment by the city of Wichita.

The council has unanimously approved these dollars.

So there's a commitment.

And you can tell by this council making sure that we address homelessness in a holistic way.

But it has to be coordinated and everyone has to come play and be at that table.

All right.

State Representative Harbison, tell me your thoughts on this one.

Well, first, I commend, you know, any entity, whether as a federal, state or local level, in terms of trying to solve the homeless problem.

I believe it was a week ago.

There was a meeting at BSU, that, try to find ways how we can actually deal with homelessness and also other issues facing, you know, our city and state.

We just have to, you know, continue to collaborate, with on a state level that how we can assist local, local governments throughout our state battle this particular issue.

You know, of course, I commend the mayor in terms of, helping on the city level, but more needs to be done.

Yeah.

These are our fellow citizens, our fellow Kansans and definitely they also may need help.

Yeah.

Commissioner Howell, your thoughts on the the mayor's comments?

Well, you know, as I say that, the city council and especially Mayor Wu have done a great job trying to figure out what what to do.

They're doing a good job leading on this topic.

The county trusts them to be the the guiding light on what needs to happen with the issue of homelessness.

The county has focused more on mental health, but together we're we're attacking the problem.

And, together.

I guess that's the right way to say that.

I would say, though, you know, other cities have had the same problem and some cities have done a good job in solving this problem.

I just spent, three days in the three days in Detroit last October, and I was impressed.

You know, they don't seem to have the problem.

We see downtown Wichita, and they're a much larger city.

They've actually solve the problem I went to to, Memphis.

And they have they even largely solve the problem.

Other cities have solved the problem.

San Antonio is another great example with their their haven of hope.

There are solutions, and it's complicated.

It's it's difficult.

But right now, and I know the city is doing the best they can, but we're not there yet, because every single day I drive downtown to go to work, I have to pass a second in Topeka, and it's just chaos down there.

Our city needs to solve that problem.

And, we're doing the best, but we're not there yet.

And I know that, the city council doing the, you know, with the resources they have, I think they did a great job so far with just a lot of work, a lot of work to go still.

George Lawson, any thoughts?

Well, interesting reaction on social media to the council discussion.

And they're bringing up the the development that's going on across the street from Open Door and issues with operations and operational costs and, and that's, that's going to have to all be sorted out.

The question for me is, is it really realistic, responsible, reasonable, possible for the city to require every single agency that provides homeless services to go into second light?

Now, the city did a big step, in purchasing Park Elementary, turning that into a homeless shelter, getting that started.

It takes time to put these things together, and it could be self-defeating to force an agency in there.

And then if they don't have the cost to handle it, does that mean cutbacks in services later or even closing down?

And then you've got one less agency.

And this is something that that has to be thought doesn't take time.

So for me it's about being coordinated.

One of the things I really appreciate about the Wichita Collective impact regarding literacy and focusing on 67214 is everyone's working towards the same vision.

And one of the things that I've learned being part of the Bloomberg Harvard mayors is we need to really focus on outcomes.

Output is simply how many people you serve.

Outcome is what you're really doing to drive change and make impact.

And I believe that our city's focus and the impact we want is to actually achieve functional, zero homelessness.

And I really believe that nonprofits, we have very giving community members here, and we have a lot of different resources when it comes to homelessness.

We have shelters for children, we have shelters for families, we have shelters for domestic violence victims.

We have a men's only shelter there.

There are and including veterans as well.

There's another two of them.

And so this city has focused a lot on the, challenge of homelessness.

And when I've talked to other mayors, what they've told me as wow, I didn't realize you have so many different services.

So that is the key.

If everyone has one representative from each of these organizations or, or some more collaboration at one location, that's how we're going to better solve this community wide challenge, or else we're really spreading ourselves so thin that are we really making an impact?

Yeah.

And one last question.

And George brought this up here.

Chase Coke is, is, developing the work near as he wants to do a big music festival.

There have been many questions brought up about you specifically and your relationship to the Cokes, that maybe you're just trying to shift the visible homeless population away.

So chase Coke can have a cleaner area.

Address it.

I get the question almost daily about Second and Topeka, just like Commissioner Howell just talked to you about.

We see encampments being cleaned up by, our police officers or having the citations, not citations, but the warnings.

And then the next day, they're back there again.

So it is an issue that is beyond just now.

It has been going on for years.

It's not a current issue.

Second, in Topeka, if you drive through there right now over the weekend, that is not indicative of a healthy community.

And that is not the way that I want to help promote this city.

This is a very giving city with lots of resources, lots of nonprofits.

And if we show that this is acceptable in our community, I don't believe that that sends the right signal for the citizens of Wichita or for the rest of our community.

All right.

Good discussion.

Thank you for your response.

The Wichita City Council also unanimously approving the installation of the city's first safe haven baby box.

The device will be set up outside Fire Station number nine on North Edge, just north of Kellogg.

The box giving parents in crisis a way to safely and anonymously surrender an unharmed infant who is 60 days old or younger without fear of prosecution.

Ascension medical Group is stepping up to cover the $16,000 installation cost, as well as the ongoing lease and alarm fees.

This will be the fourth baby box in the state, joining others already set up in Hutchinson, Salina and Garden City.

So, mayor, since this was a city council topic this week, I'll let you address this one for sure.

Well, I think, it showed how much our council values life.

It was A70 vote.

We value life and we value the young newborns and those that may be, faced with the challenge.

And they want to know, how can I safely give someone else the opportunity to raise this child?

And so this baby box has been a conversation for multiple years.

We were trying to figure out, how can you put it at a location where immediately a human can immediately go, and rescue that baby?

And so, it's taken two years, but the fire department is the best location.

You can even do that right now.

If someone needs to surrender a child, they can do that at any of our fire stations.

But this will be an anonymous opportunity for individuals.

And I hope that, people will know that this opportunities available in Wichita, for folks that maybe are in the Andover Goddard Derby, this will be located at Kellogg and Edgemoor.

So it is very much a very easily accessible location.

And I'm so grateful that the Wichita Fire Department, Wichita Police Department, but also our community partners, and that is Via Christi and Wesley.

Both of them have said that when this alarm goes off, whatever whomever is closest, they'll be able to get this child to get checked out at one of the hospitals.

George, you've covered these stories in the past.

Before, I was surprised to hear that Wichita didn't have one of these already.

You would think there would be one here or several others in Kansas and several other states.

It's not as widespread across the country as it should be, but, Illinois has had over 160 infants safely surrendered since they started their program.

I haven't heard any numbers from other locations in Kansas, but certainly a worthwhile program.

And it is saving lives.

Yeah.

Jim, help!

I yeah, I think I want to say thank you to the legislature because, the, the fact that you can surrender a baby.

Yeah.

Whether it be anonymously or how are you going to do that is a is a state law.

And they did a good job passing that one.

But mayor who's right you can do this today without the baby box.

But it is embarrassing and difficult for someone to walk up to someone else and hand them their baby.

It's just a hard step to take with that confrontation between two people, by having the baby box that allows them to do that in a way that's just between themselves, and they surrender that baby walk away, and that baby is going to be just totally fine.

So is is definitely a good thing for our partner representative.

This this all started with a state law that was passed just a few years ago.

That's correct.

And, yeah, I'm surprised we don't have anything here.

Which Wichita?

Me this is first time here.

And I'm like, oh wow, I thought we already have it.

But, you know, kudos to the city council for actually passing this, the same time.

I'm glad that, you know, we actually everyone, you know, we all, are doing what we can, you know, to help, the newborns at the same time, let us continue in that effort, whether it's services that they need or anything else, to what we can to actually help that effort.

All right.

It's been an ongoing discussion.

And now Sedgwick County leaders are making a major push to bring a new law school to Wichita.

Commissioners say the move is desperately needed to fix a growing shortage of attorneys in central and western Kansas.

Right now, Ku and Washburn are the only two law schools in the state.

District attorney Mark Bennett warns that fewer graduates are choosing to move west of Topeka, which he calls a significant threat to the local justice system.

County leaders say both universities have shown interest in a Wichita expansion, and they plan to pitch the idea to the city council at a joint meeting in late June.

Commissioner, how well, you know, this is, it's a recognition that we actually have a very odd state that there's a couple of places where, we train our doctors or dentists, and, and now we talk about attorneys, Sedgwick County and the city of Wichita especially.

We are coming up to do a lot of the same things you might see up in Johnson County or other parts of our state.

And, right now, I can tell you, trying to, to, hire attorneys who are willing to work in Wichita or even, again, west of Wichita right now is is nearly impossible.

We're having a really hard time finding attorneys who are willing to work for the normal wages we have here.

They're just they just have so many too many other options.

They're just too much in demand.

And so the district attorney especially has really raised this issue for a number of years.

And so the city and the county I think we talked about coming together.

So the joint message and make an appeal to the Board of Regents.

Casey, you'll probably be involved in at some point.

We need to put pressure on our state leaders to, to just allow this to happen and let the schools invest.

I think you'll find there's plenty of students on to want to participate.

Yeah, and, mayor, this would it seems like this would go along well with the culinary school, the medical school that we've added downtown.

This would be a much welcome addition.

Well, tomorrow we get to participate in a commencement for the new school.

That is really special.

Now, you also see the development with the Biomedical campus $300 million investment Future Dental School that you would really like to have right next door.

Naturally, law school seems to make sense.

This is something we heard over the last two years when we've had our on.

This is something new, really a consistent cadence.

See where we as a city and a county come together to talk about issues and challenges together.

We have a challenge of bringing talent into our community.

And when it comes to law, talent, the D.A.

has said he needs more individuals that want to get into the profession and then come and work, whether in Wichita or in western Kansas.

And so what a great opportunity that Wichita could have in hosting a law school.

I've heard it from young people that want to continue staying in Wichita, but they're like, there's no law school here.

And so I think that this is a signal.

In addition, on Tuesday, we voted along with on Wednesday, the county voted for a wellness center thanks to the Wichita Crime Commission.

You're seeing this collaboration.

This wellness center also includes our prosecutors in the DA's office, because we know holistically, all first responders from the phone call to the actual, answering of the call, everyone's affected.

It's representative, all of them.

How can the state help in this?

Well, I do also want to remind we did a couple years ago, we actually did have a law school here, but it wasn't accredited.

Right?

Correct.

It was downtown.

It was downtown Wichita.

But, I'm glad that, you know, the discussion is, is is going up between the, you know, both local and state, but as if it's for us to push it forward.

This push it forward is time that we should have a law school.

And here in Wichita for to retain talent here.

20s George, anything else?

Well, we saw this with the medical community, the need for doctors in western Kansas.

And now next logical step, law school.

And let's get some attorneys trained and get them into Western Kansas because the needs there.

All right.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to the mayor Jim Howell KC Harbor Sam and George Lawson for being here.

And thanks also to cake and CSN for sharing their video with us.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

Have a great weekend.

Oh.