Tag: Wichita and Kansas schools
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Will George Fahnestock Vote For the Wichita School Bond Issue?
Wichita’s mysterious “Boondoggler” posted today that George Fahnestock, the businessman selected to lead the campaign for the proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita public schools, doesn’t live in the Wichita school district. The post is Fahnestock’s Motivation? A map of his house, along with school district boundaries, may be viewed here. Earlier this…
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Wichita’s Naysayers Are Saying Yes to Liberty
Wichita politicians, newspaper editorial writers, and sometimes just plain folks are fond of bashing those they call the “naysayers,” sometimes known as CAVE people. An example is from a recent Opinion Line Extra in the Wichita Eagle: An acquaintance in another city refers to the anti-everything people as “CAVE” people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything). I…
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Wichita School District: Where Do They Think the Funds Come From?
In a Wichita Eagle article City leaders cut short trip to talk about TIF, reporter Deb Gruver writes: “Susan Arensman, a spokeswoman for the school district, said the project would not affect schools.” The context is that the City of Wichita is considering the creation of a large tax increment financing (TIF) district in downtown…
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Bobby Rozzell’s Great Idea for Wichita Leaders
At the imaginatively-named Bobby Rozzell?s Blog the author has a suggestion for Wichita government. Here’s the idea: Some smart local leader is going to figure out that social media (blogging and such) has the potential for building relationships with a large number of citizens. A number that would be impossible if it was attempted physically.…
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Increasing the Wichita School Bond Issue: Why Was Courage Required?
Talking to news media during a break in the meeting of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, on Monday August 11, 2008, Connie Dietz referred to her surprise motion to increase the amount being asked for by $20 million, remarking “I knew what I wanted to do, and I guess I was trying to…
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Random thoughts from a Wichita school board meeting
I attended the meeting of the USD 259, the Wichita public school district, board on August 11, 2008. The proposed bond issue for 2008 was a big part of this meeting. There were many speakers from the audience at this meeting. Almost all were employees of USD 259 or parents of students. Most said so,…
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Reverend Kevass Harding’s Wichita TIF District: A Bad Deal in Several Ways
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council on August 12, 2008. There’s several reasons why this council should not approve this request for TIF financing. Material in today’s agenda packet doesn’t specify an amount, but past materials indicated that the project was $2.5 million short of the total needed for the project. Now…
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Questions Wichita Reverend Kevass Harding Will Not Answer
The Reverend Kevass Harding, a member of the board of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, is also a real estate developer (New life for Ken-Mar Shopping Center: Harding plans to revitalize 13th Street mall, March 14, 2008 Wichita Business Journal). The problem is that Harding plans to ask the taxpayers of the City…
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Wichita School Bond Issue Opponents: Driving What? And How?
In his Sunday Wichita Eagle column, Mark McCormick complains that the Wichita school bond issue opponents are a) cynical, b) short-sighted, c) myopic, d) forces pulling us backwards, e) frightening voters, f) spending too much at Starbucks, g) only saying “no,” h) hiding their true agenda to replace public schools with vouchers, i) not honest…
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Will Bob Lutz Follow Jeff Davis on the Wichita School Bond Issue?
When the USD 259 (Wichita, Kansas) school board voted on February 11, 2008 to hold a special bond issue election on May 6, board member Jeff Davis was the only dissenting vote. His reason, as reported in the Wichita Eagle, was that his district wasn’t given equal consideration. His district wasn’t getting its fair share.…
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Wichita School Bond Issue: What We Don’t Know
In a recent article I wondered Who Runs the Wichita School Bond Issue Campaign? Reporting in today’s Wichita Eagle (Technical ed at center of bond changes) makes me even more concerned about this. At Monday’s school board meeting, representatives of Citizens Alliance for Responsible Education (CARE) revealed their recommendations for the revision of a proposed…