Board of Education passed the 25-26 budget with 87% directly supporting students

At its September 2025 meeting, the Wichita Public Schools Board of Education passed its 25-26 budget. This budget is based upon input from school-based staff and focuses on strategies that best serve our 46,000 students. 

A few investments we want to highlight are:

• Additional funds for core services at 10 schools.
• Additional behavior supports for six schools.
• Expanded ESOL services at each school rather than transporting students to specific schools.
• Unified Pre-K at four schools.
• Investment in community schools strategies at Washington, Colvin, Anderson, Adams, Dodge and Stanley.
• Funding of small group instruction paras at Creative Minds, Riverside, Hyde, Heights, and Brooks.
• Support for newcomer programs at 13 schools.
• Utilization of Everyday Labs, a program designed to improve attendance, for 45 schools.
• Additional funds provided for school counselors, social workers and psychologists.

This budget invests in teacher and staff recruitment and retention, addresses mental health needs of students, supports parental involvement and helps overcome attendance issues.

School funding can be complex. Here’s what you need to know:

• The BOE approves a budget which gives staff the authority to spend up to that amount but does not require staff to spend the entire amount. At the end of FY25, the board transferred $17.4m in unrestricted funds into its capital outlay fund to support critical facility needs. These unrestricted funds were budgeted in FY25 but were not spent.
• Approximately 87 percent of this budget goes directly into the classroom. The other 13 percent pays for facilities maintenance (7.7%), business support services (HR, finance, technology – 3.9%), general administration (1.1%) and other support services (0.1%).
• Nearly 80 percent of funding received by WPS is restricted and must be used for its specific purpose. If restricted funds are not spent, those funds roll over into the next fiscal year for the same specific purpose. Staff has some flexibility with the approximated 20 percent of funds that are unrestricted. An example of this is when the board transferred $17.4m into capital outlay at the end of FY25.
• The mill rate levied for Wichita Public Schools is the lowest in 15 years.

Watch the BOE presentation