Shana Balton expects a bigger say before endorsing Wichita Public Schools’ big buildings plan. “The board needs to be willing to meet the community,” she said, “so that board members can understand how we are feeling.” Balton, a teacher at Pleasant Valley Middle School, learned more about the long-range, $2.1 billion plan for school district […]
wichita
Posted inLocal Government
Wichita Mayor Lily Wu supports nondiscrimination ordinance, but faces skepticism
Chris Pumpelly, founder of Proud of Wichita, said the LGBTQ+ community needs convincing that the mayor elected less than a year ago has their back.
Posted inHealth
A ‘temporary pause’ at Trust Women, Wichita’s biggest abortion provider, adds to the load of other clinics
Correction: This story originally stated the wrong year Trust Women was founded. It was founded in 2009 and the clinic opened in 2013. In the three weeks since internal conflicts abruptly paused services at Wichita’s largest abortion provider, the two other places in the city providing abortion have scrambled to pick up the slack. One […]
Posted inEducation
Teachers’ union appears on board with Wichita district’s plan to spend big, close schools
The union for 4,000 district teachers and other workers looks inclined to favor Wichita Public Schools’ $2.1 billion plan to remake several schools and buildings. Voters will likely decide this fall if Wichita Public Schools can borrow $450 million to fix up old schools, build some new ones and close 11 buildings. The school board […]
Posted inLocal Government
Why 35,000 Sedgwick County residents will be paying more for internet next month
Jamie Nix regularly sees people turning to the internet to help them answer the most critical questions in their lives. “I’ve had people come to the library with a brand new medical diagnosis,” said Nix, Wichita’s director of libraries. “They are just wanting to use the computer to learn more about what it is.” A […]
Posted inLocal Government
Wichita ransomware attack shuts down multiple services. What comes next?
Wichita finds itself tossed back in time for a couple of weeks by a cyberattack on City Hall that’s upended basic ways of doing business online. So now residents need to head to Walmart or Dillons to pay their water bills. Parents who want to enroll their kids in swimming lessons must go to a […]
Posted inEnvironment
Hearing more about tornado dangers in Wichita? Here’s why
Violent tornadoes touching down chewing up ground for dozens of miles. Baseball-sized hail. Wind gusts of up to 80 mph. The weather forecast for Monday night in Wichita looked dire. People braced for the worst. Wichita Public Schools canceled after-school activities. Other districts let out early. Dillons grocery store in College Hill posted a sign […]
Posted inLocal Government
Wichita’s bus riders want better service, but money is short
Samantha Richardson just started her new job at Pratt Industries in Park City. The only problem? Her 12-mile commute without a car. So she takes the bus. It gets close and it’s cheaper than Uber or Lyft. But Wichita’s bus network can feel anemic. Its flaws sometimes force Richardson to choose between putting in some […]
Posted inEconomics, Health, Housing
Kansas is injecting $205 million into a biomedical campus. How it changes downtown Wichita
It is closing in on a weekday lunch hour with few signs of life on an April morning at the southeast corner of Broadway Avenue and East William Street. On the corner, a parking lot. To the west, the distinctive Depression-era Petroleum Building sits empty. To the south and east, toward the Intrust Bank Arena, […]
Posted inHealth
‘It’s a community problem’: How harm reduction cushions Wichita’s fentanyl crisis
With armfuls of pamphlets, fentanyl test strips and naloxone, Morgan Jennings shows up around Wichita on a mission: trying to stop opioid overdoses. For Jennings, every opportunity to distribute naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, is a chance to honor the people in her life affected by substance use disorder. She lost her father […]