I was in NE Wichita thursday and friday accompanying a HS bowling team to to the state tournament. Saw what appears to be a new high school under construction at North Rock Road and Highway 254--north side of of the surburb of Bel Aire.

Any one have any info on this new school---when to open, what is the expected opening enrollment and classification, what is the designed full enrollment and classification. Any new HS will cause some changes in the classifications for several schools in all sports.

Contrarian--Bill Mason

I've heard that it will be a 5A or possibly 4A high school, but I can't remember what the exact projection is for enrollment.

According to this article there could be up to 800 students in the new school and it could expand to 1,200.

The whole range of 800 to 1200 puts and keeps them in 5A for all sports. Would expect the same range to put them in 5A football.

From this year's enrollment numbers appears Winfield most likely (2011-12 smallest 5A school with 720 enrollment) would be forced down to 4A.

It now looks as thou the BOE for USD 259 has decided to move what is now Northeast Magnet to the new building instead of opening a new High School. This is only a small item on their plate because of budget cuts.

Appears to be an awfully big facility for less than 600 students if they transfer NE Magnet. Looking at the NE Magnet web page it does not appear that they participate in high school sports. From what I read in the above mentioned news article the facility will have 2 gyms, a wrestling room, a football and track stadium---everything to support a sports program. $31 million seems like a lot of oney for a half full building. IMO, I would think that a magnet school that draws kids from all over the district would be located near the center of the district land area (i.e., downtown Wichita) to minimize a bunch of costs--especially transportation to the boondocks north of Bel Aire.

JMO. Contrarian----Bill Mason

It is what it is!

From what I understand from my mom (a USD259 employee) is that the school is taking the place of NE magnet, but parents from Bel Aire have an option to enroll their kids at the new school or keep their kids enrolled at Heights due to the overcrowding at Heights. I had thought they were not going to have sports, but I have heard otherwise that the school will have sports.

Unless it has changed, NE Magnet students could participate in sports at the HS which they would have attended if they hadn't selected to attend NE Magnet.