WICHITA, Kansas — The Wichita school board has extended Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld’s contract through 2028, adding bonuses and boosting the district’s contribution to his retirement account.
The contract also includes a new agreement that the concept for an experimental microschool launched last fall is Bielefeld’s intellectual property.
Bielefeld, who is starting his third year leading the state’s largest school district, now makes a base salary of $324,450 a year — up from $300,000 annually when he was hired in March 2023.
Bielefeld will begin receiving a “longevity bonus” in June 2026. The first bonus will be $6,000. In June 2027, the bonus will double to $12,000. If he remains with the district, his June 2030 bonus would be $18,000, and would then increase by $6,000 every three years.
The district’s annual contribution to Bielefeld’s retirement account will increase by nearly 43% under the new contract. His original contract mandated a $25,000-a-year contribution; the new contract requires a contribution equal to 11% of his base salary, or $35,689. That percentage will increase by 1% per year, according to the contract.
Bielefeld also receives a $1,000-a-month car allowance and $515 a month for other expenses associated with his role as superintendent, bringing his total financial package to nearly $385,000 a year.
Under the contract, his salary is automatically increased by the same percentage as any base salary increase for Wichita teachers. If teachers get a lump-sum bonus, he will get an equivalent bonus.
At its meeting last week, the Wichita Board of Education unanimously approved the new three-year contract with Bielefeld. It was part of the board’s consent agenda, a portion of the meeting where measures that are considered routine are grouped together and passed on a single vote without discussion.
Board president Diane Albert said in an interview that the new contract is appropriate for the superintendent of a large urban district.
“We want to be a district that values the staff members that make a great difference in student achievement, just like we want to be the top-paying for first-year teachers in the state,” Albert said. “I also believe … the market should dictate some of these numbers.”
Albert said the board added longevity bonuses to entice Bielefeld to stay in Wichita. According to a recent report by the Council of Great City Schools, the average tenure of an urban school superintendent is between four and five years.
“We have unique and challenging situations, and so leadership stability is going to be crucial for us to really focus on and improve … student outcomes,” Albert said. “We want to see Kelly be the superintendent of USD 259 for the foreseeable future, and so we also want to reward that.”
Bielefeld’s tenure
Bielefeld, 47, was named superintendent in March 2023 and took over the post in July of that year. He previously served as Wichita’s executive director of college and career readiness.
During his tenure, the district has closed six schools because of declining enrollment, aging buildings and a budget deficit.
Board members approved a new facility master plan and then proposed a $450 million bond issue to finance its first phase, which voters narrowly rejected in February.
The district settled with the U.S. Department of Justice after a three-year investigation found that Wichita schools had discriminated against students based on race and had inappropriately secluded and restrained students with disabilities. Under the settlement agreement, Wichita schools developed a new student code of conduct and other policies.
Bielefeld helped develop the district’s first Future Ready Center focused on manufacturing and aviation near North High School. Two more Future Ready Centers at the WSU Tech campus in south Wichita help students train for jobs in health care and technology.
Last year, Wichita schools reported a record-high graduation rate of 84.3% — a 5.1% increase from the previous year. The graduation rate has risen more than 10 percentage points since 2018.
In June, district leaders said some student records at Southeast High School were changed — possibly to meet graduation requirements — and the school’s principal was replaced. Bielefeld said the district is conducting a full investigation and will not tolerate “any kind of unethical behavior.”
Intellectual property
A new section added to Bielefeld’s contract says that after he leaves the superintendent role, the district “shall assert no claim of ownership or other proprietary interest” in the Creative Minds microschool.
The K-6 school, housed at the Learning Lab space inside Union Station and styled as a modern one-room schoolhouse, opened last year with about 15 students and will expand to 30 this fall.
The contract lets Wichita continue to operate the microschool royalty-free after Bielefeld’s departure, but gives him the right to market or possibly sell the “vertical classroom” concept to other districts or organizations.
Albert, the board president, said the new clause is intended to recognize and reward innovative ideas.
“We want to create an environment where creative solutions are encouraged,” she said. “This is the kind of a professional contract that people would expect when they create something unique and valuable, that they can retain the rights to that.”
Intellectual property clauses are becoming more common in contracts for K-12 superintendents. They are designed to define ownership rights related to materials or concepts created during a leader’s course of employment.
Earlier this year, the Lawrence school board approved a contract with its new superintendent, Jeanice Swift, that includes retention bonuses and an intellectual property clause. That contract gives the district rights to “any concept, idea or invention” created by the superintendent within the scope of her employment.
Wichita is the largest school district in Kansas, with about 46,500 students. The district is the third-largest employer in the Wichita area, with more than 5,500 full-time employees. Its annual budget is close to $1 billion.
Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service.
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