In Sedgwick County, COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing — in July, new daily cases averaged about 62 per day. By mid-August, that number more than doubled to nearly 140. That’s beginning to impact the Sedgwick County Detention Facility. After months of nearly no cases, the number of positive cases shot up after just two weeks in […]
Wichita
Posted inEducation
First-year teachers are Kansas’ future — if schools can keep them
For all the challenges she faced in getting to her first day as a teacher, Kora Snavely could feel any nerves or anxiety melt away when her 20 students filtered into her classroom for the first day of second grade at Meadowlark Elementary in Andover. Snavely, who graduated college in May, wanted to lead her […]
Posted inLocal Government
The number of seniors is growing. Can Sedgwick County keep up?
Diane Pope, 72, first ventured into Linwood Senior Center six years ago. Her husband had died years earlier, and Pope felt “just lonely, lonely, lonely.” As a shy and introverted person, she was skeptical whether she could find community there. But after stopping by Linwood for the first time, a staff member chased her down […]
Posted inEducation
Where the money comes from to teach Kansas students
How do you budget for a classroom when you don’t know how many students will even be in it? That’s a challenge Kansas school districts face as they attempt to estimate how many students will return to their school buildings this fall. The Wichita Public Schools’ budget uses more of a high-range guess at how […]
Posted inDIY Democracy, Watchdog
How to be a Wichita whistleblower: What to do when things go wrong
No one knows a city’s secrets, patterns or stories as intimately as its residents. As a Wichitan, what can you do if your gut tells you something’s wrong? Are you protected from sharing potentially sensitive information? How do you even start checking things out? We’ve crafted a short guide on how you can be a […]
Posted inWatchdog
15 years after Wichita unveiled a plan to end homelessness, progress stagnates
Donnie has a roof over his head. He’s still homeless. His left hand was nearly severed during an accident. Now, when Donnie lifts his hand and rotates his wrist, one can follow the length of a thick, white scar. “I’m limited in working,” said Donnie, who requested to be identified by his first name only. […]
Posted inLocal Government
What a long-awaited expansion to the community crisis center would mean for Sedgwick County
For all 22 years of his life, Vicente Granados knew exactly what he wanted to be: a bullfighter. Even in grade school, he dressed up as a rodeo clown for the wax museum assignment, said his sister Esther Granados. That’s how she remembers him best — the passionate bullfighter, the committed brother nicknamed “Boy.” […]
Posted inEducation
How the science of reading could revolutionize literacy for Wichita’s struggling students
Andi Giesen remembers sitting in first grade with a book in front of her and crying because she didn’t know how to read it. “Now, my teacher was probably saying, ‘Andi, you can do this,’ but what I remember is that I was crying about it,” said Giesen, now an assistant superintendent at Wichita Public […]
Posted inLocal Government
How should the city spend its federal COVID recovery dollars? Wichitans weigh in
Prior to the pandemic, Faith Martin saw affordable housing largely discussed in the context of homelessness or the limited availability of Section 8 vouchers. Recently, though, she’s seen the issue balloon. Her friends who are long-term tenants had to move after a rent increase. As an advisory board member for her City Council district, she […]
Posted inWatchdog
3,000 people are on Wichita’s Gang List. Some listed don’t know they’re on it.
Update: A federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a gang list maintained by the Wichita Police Department will continue, though a judge dismissed three of its seven counts. The lawsuit, filed by Progeny, Kansas Appleseed and the ACLU in April 2021 on behalf of four Black men in Wichita, alleges that the gang list targets […]