On Saturday, new school district Superintendent John Covington announced that the KCMO school district was planning on closing many of the city's public schools. The final number may be as high as half of the city's school buildings -- 30 total schools.
First of all, let's make no mistake -- consolidation is absolutely necessary. The school district has dropped in the number of students dramatically over the past decade. In 1999-2000, the KCMO school district housed 35,712 students. This year, the district is educating only 17,275 students.
The declines have been driven by a number of factors -- including the movement of families to other parts of the city that have better quality schools, as well as an increase in the number of charter schools available in the city.
The decrease in number of students for the school district has led to many of the school buildings being only half, or less than half, full. The half-empty buildings drives up the costs for the district because they have to be cleaned, maintained, and heated -- and also lead to disciplinary issues because it is easy for students to find trouble in unused wings and floors of school buildings.
Closing some school buildings is absolutely the responsible thing to do...but it does come at a cost.
Schools are a major part of neighborhoods. Families prefer to live in neighborhoods where they can be close to schools. Also, neighborhoods take pride in their schools and can often lead to the bringing of neighborhoods together.
Meanwhile, many neighborhoods throughout the city badly suffer from old, abandoned school buildings causing blight and safety issues in the neighborhoods -- creating often entire city blocks of a large, abandoned, dilapidated building and the surrounding grounds. Closed and abandoned school buildings are very bad for local neighborhoods.
So the situation is a catch 22 for the city, and the school district. There is certainly no easy solution. However, if the school district wants to handle the consolidation successfully, and with city support, it will have to balance the very difficult challenge.
The number one priority MUST be improving the schools -- and the education received by the students there. The single biggest problem facing Kansas City, MO right now is the schools. Many of the city's other problems like crime & poverty, stem directly from our traditionally poor education system. Other many of our other problems stem from the unwillingness of middle-class families to live in the city because of the poor schools -- which weakens the tax base, and the demand for housing in the city -- which lowers property values and tax revenues.
So the schools MUST be #1.
However, the district needs to work with the city on the best ways to handle closed school buildings. While some should be kept in the short term with the hope that the district can grow again and move back into the buildings, most will need at least short term solutions to keep them used. The district and the city should work together to see which abandoned schools would make good community centers/park space, which could be leased (or sold) to Charter schools, and which ones could be leased (or sold) as office space or loft space.
But simply leaving the buildings to decay in the neighborhoods cannot be an option. Because the 2nd most important thing our city needs is fewer abandoned, blighted buildings that lead to safety issues in neighborhoods.
I believe the consolidation can be done -- and in fact must be done -- well for the betterment of the city.
For more info on the school consolidation, you can get all the info about each school here.
Update:
Have an opinion about the schools? Here is a list of how to let the schoolboard know your thoughts. They are actually providing a variety of ways of letting them know your thoughts and will be posting them for everyone to read at www.kcu4ea.org/kcmsdforums/ So contact them and be part of the converstation:
VIA TEXT MESSAGE:
Instructions
- send your comments in a text message to: 95495
- start your message with KCMSDFORUMS
- you will receive an auto text message to confirm we got your text.
- you may sign your name or be anonymous
Example
- to: 95495
- message: kcmsdforums i believe in the kcmsd [or whatever your message is]
VIA TWITTER:
Instructions
- If you have a twitter account, tweet your comments and use the hashtag #kcmsdforums
- comments using this hashtag will be posted at www.kcu4ea.org/kcmsdforums/ along with the text message comments received.
Example
- tweet: i believe in the kcmsd [or whatever your message is] #kcmsdforums
VIA DISTRICT FORUMS:
Date / Locations
- Tuesday, Feb. 16 – Northeast Elementary School, 4904 Independence Ave.
(6:30 to 8:30 p.m.)
(Askew, East, Fairview, Garfield, Gladstone, James, McCoy, Northeast Elementary, Northeast HS, Pitcher, Rogers, Scarritt, Trailwoods, West Rock Creek, Whittier, Woodland)
- Wednesday, Feb. 17 – M.L. King Elementary School, 4201 –A Indiana
(6:30 to 8:30 p.m.)
(Carver, Central HS, Central Middle, Delano, Faxon Montessori, Franklin, King, Ladd, Melcher, Moore, Richardson, TAPC, Weeks)
- Thursday, Feb. 18 – Paseo Academy, 4747 Flora
(6:30 to 8:30 p.m.)
(ACE, Ace 6th Grade, ACE Lower, Banneker, Holliday, KCMSA, Knotts, Paige, Paseo, Pinkerton, Troost)
- Friday, Feb. 19 – Foreign Language Academy, 3450 Warwick
(6:30 to 8:30 p.m.)
(Attucks, Border Star, Douglas, Foreign Language Academy, Garcia, Hartman, Lincoln College Prep, Lincoln Middle, Longan, Longfellow, Manual, Phillips, Southwest, Swinney, Westport, Westport Middle, Wheatley)
- Saturday, Feb. 20 – J. A. Rogers, 6400 E. 23rd. Street
(10:30 to 12:00 p.m.)
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