The KCMO School District

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FangKC
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by FangKC »

The school board also sucks in their decision-making over vacant school properties. They take much too long selling the buildings, while they sit and rot. They don't do enough to secure the vacant properties, or patrol them. Because of this, three school buildings have been destroyed by fire, or severely damaged, that could have been repurposed.

Horace Mann Elementary School at 39th Street and Garfield Avenue, which was the scene of several arson fires before it was finally destroyed by fire. The building sat for years and suffered several arson fires before being sold to a developer, and then another fire took the building out permanently. Had the building been sold years before, it probably could have been converted into senior apartments before the final arson destroyed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTZAIRFq1N8

Manchester school building at Winchester and Truman Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axNGtC246gI

Thacher Elementary School on Independence Avenue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tgp1998l6Y

They often go against neighborhood wishes. The Board voted to demolish Thacher--even after the neighborhood has consistently expressed its' wish that the building not be demolished, and sold for redevelopment. The Board only gave the neighborhood three months to come up with a plan for it, which included finding a buyer/developer with a proposed reuse plan. This is after the building had already sat empty for five years with inaction by the school district, and during that time it suffered fire damage because the building wasn't secured. Why the big rush? Why doesn't the Board allow the neighborhood more time to preserve a historic building that the community is working to preserve?

The Old Northeast is one of the only neighborhoods in Kansas City that doesn't have its' own community center. This is one of the desires of the community, and Thacher is an obvious candidate for that.

Now the neighborhood is going to take the school district to court to attempt to block demolition.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/b ... -over.html

I'm really surprised that Switzer/West Junior High hasn't already been destroyed by fire--because it too has sat for years waiting for the school district to finally approve a sale.

Now the neighborhood has learned that the school district is studying demolishing James Elementary, which is also in the Old Northeast. This is a perfectly good, and well-maintained, building.

http://kcpublicschools.org/domain/275

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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

kucer wrote:Isn't the district about to become fully accredited? Acting like they haven't made any progress under the new leadership is a bit disingenuous.
Such a high standard to hold the education of our children to. &&&
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chaglang
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by chaglang »

Sorry, what's the big deal? It sounds like AL is going to proceed with opening their own high school, so there is still a net gain in high school options in KC. The AL/KCKPS partnership always sounded like a strange idea and was probably doomed to fail. At least it failed before they enrolled any students.
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by pstokely »

flyingember wrote:The best thing that could happen to downtown with schools is to split off and join the NKC district. Districts already cross county borders so no worries there. NKC HS is 10 minutes from downtown.

Van Horn and it's feeders moved to Independence schools so there's a precedent already.
what is the population of school age kids in downtown?
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chaglang
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by chaglang »

Other districts have made it pretty clear that they prefer any option other than taking KCPS students. Short of a court order, nobody is going anywhere.
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Eon Blue
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by Eon Blue »

pstokely wrote:
flyingember wrote:The best thing that could happen to downtown with schools is to split off and join the NKC district. Districts already cross county borders so no worries there. NKC HS is 10 minutes from downtown.

Van Horn and it's feeders moved to Independence schools so there's a precedent already.
what is the population of school age kids in downtown?
I can't quote numbers, but I'm fairly sure that Crossroads Academy is full with a waiting list. They recently expanded into an additional building and I believe they are discussing further expansion options for farther down the road. The student body is a mix of kids living in the greater downtown area and others from within the KCPS boundaries. They have strong backing from downtown boosters in all corners.
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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

chaglang wrote:Sorry, what's the big deal? It sounds like AL is going to proceed with opening their own high school, so there is still a net gain in high school options in KC. The AL/KCKPS partnership always sounded like a strange idea and was probably doomed to fail. At least it failed before they enrolled any students.
The problem is that you have many buildings that are being underused and a AL high school that wants one. If a deal for one of the buildings doesn't get done then AL will have to likely build a new building. This increases the costs to the school, if it's even financially possible. It delays opening of the high school which causes families to leave the city. It also causes empty buildings to sit and kills activity in the neighborhoods.
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chrizow
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by chrizow »

AL will push forward with a plan for a high school, but it's back to the drawing board. The board said that it is interested in doing so, whether it's through partnering with KCPS, another charter school, or another organization - in other words, it has no plan presently.

AL, like all charter schools, receives some state funding but no funding for buildings (to build, renovate, rent, buy, whatever). They have to raise funds for building expenses. This is why the vacant or underused KCPS buildings are so appealing--AL can rent or buy the bldgs, perform relatively limited renovations, and move in. I seriously doubt AL has the fundraising capabilities to acquire a plot of land and build a new school from whole cloth.

The SW/AL plan seemed a little awkward, but it is a shame that KCPS cannot figure this out. There is 0 reason to sit on so many vacant and underused buildings when there are schools out there who can use them and serve kids in the District.
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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

chrizow wrote:There is 0 reason to sit on so many vacant and underused buildings when there are schools out there who can use them and serve kids in the District.
The reason is they see these other superior schools as competition to the schools they run instead of doing what is best for the city and the families that live here.
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kucer
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by kucer »

beautyfromashes wrote:
chaglang wrote:Sorry, what's the big deal? It sounds like AL is going to proceed with opening their own high school, so there is still a net gain in high school options in KC. The AL/KCKPS partnership always sounded like a strange idea and was probably doomed to fail. At least it failed before they enrolled any students.
The problem is that you have many buildings that are being underused and a AL high school that wants one. If a deal for one of the buildings doesn't get done then AL will have to likely build a new building. This increases the costs to the school, if it's even financially possible. It delays opening of the high school which causes families to leave the city. It also causes empty buildings to sit and kills activity in the neighborhoods.
by beautyfromashes » Fri Jun 20, 2014 4:26 pm

There will be two schools. You have a very strong academically challenging school and a subpar school sending students into this new HS. While the kids coming from KCMPS might get in by showing good grades, it's just not the same. AL kids will be in the advanced classes and the other kids will have a hard time keeping up. Not a good plan.
Okay, but you never thought this plan was a good plan in the first place.
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chaglang
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by chaglang »

beautyfromashes wrote:
chaglang wrote:Sorry, what's the big deal? It sounds like AL is going to proceed with opening their own high school, so there is still a net gain in high school options in KC. The AL/KCKPS partnership always sounded like a strange idea and was probably doomed to fail. At least it failed before they enrolled any students.
The problem is that you have many buildings that are being underused and a AL high school that wants one. If a deal for one of the buildings doesn't get done then AL will have to likely build a new building. This increases the costs to the school, if it's even financially possible. It delays opening of the high school which causes families to leave the city. It also causes empty buildings to sit and kills activity in the neighborhoods.
I'm still not seeing it. We haven't had an AL high school before, and now the sky is falling because it's delayed? Come on. I'd love to see the KCPS move MUCH faster in repurposing vacant buildings, but the net impact of AL on the district's surplus buildings is essentially zero. As is AL's impact on keeping people from moving to the burbs.

Do we know why the deal fell through? It's habit to blame the district for everything, but I am skeptical that AL was essentially blameless in this not working out. If the district thought that their students were going to get a bad deal, they are ethically obligated not to go through with it.

Maybe they can work something out with Steve Foutch on Westport. The district signed off on that once already.
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grovester
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by grovester »

Both parties went out of their way to be diplomatic and not burn any bridges.
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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

kucer wrote:
beautyfromashes wrote:
by beautyfromashes » Fri Jun 20, 2014 4:26 pm

There will be two schools. You have a very strong academically challenging school and a subpar school sending students into this new HS. While the kids coming from KCMPS might get in by showing good grades, it's just not the same. AL kids will be in the advanced classes and the other kids will have a hard time keeping up. Not a good plan.
Okay, but you never thought this plan was a good plan in the first place.
No, I never thought it was for the exact reason this didn't work out. I never thought that KCMSD would relinquish control of the admission process or standards for getting into the school. It sounds like that was the sticking point. AL wanted a test and rigorous standard for non-AL students to get in and the KCMSD wanted referrals from teachers to count for an admissions standard. This one was doomed to fail as KCMSD is obligated to their schools and see, rightfully, AL as competition. They killed them taking Westport HS and now SWHS. AL should find an alternative outside of KCMSD. It's just a shame that they will likely have to repurpose a non-school building or build a new one when there are buildings designed to be schools that are not being used.

Would love to see a Crossroads Academy/AL joint High school. Time to move on.
Last edited by beautyfromashes on Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

chaglang wrote:[...but the net impact of AL on the district's surplus buildings is essentially zero. As is AL's impact on keeping people from moving to the burbs.
Not true. I have at least five families that I know that have moved to Kansas because they didn't get picked in the AL lottery system. They couldn't afford private school and KCMSD was a non-choice.
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by chaglang »

beautyfromashes wrote:
chaglang wrote:[...but the net impact of AL on the district's surplus buildings is essentially zero. As is AL's impact on keeping people from moving to the burbs.
Not true. I have at least five families that I know that have moved to Kansas because they didn't get picked in the AL lottery system. They couldn't afford private school and KCMSD was a non-choice.
What's that got to do with the AL/KCPS partnership at Southwest falling through?

Regarding competition, isn't AL elementary in a building that the KCPS sold them? Admittedly I have no inside info on this but I don't see a lot of evidence that the KCPS is out to thwart AL. I also don't remembering them killing a Westport deal- my understanding is that it was preempted by the Southwest deal.
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flyingember
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by flyingember »

chaglang wrote:
beautyfromashes wrote:
chaglang wrote:[...but the net impact of AL on the district's surplus buildings is essentially zero. As is AL's impact on keeping people from moving to the burbs.
Not true. I have at least five families that I know that have moved to Kansas because they didn't get picked in the AL lottery system. They couldn't afford private school and KCMSD was a non-choice.
What's that got to do with the AL/KCPS partnership at Southwest falling through?
gaining more space could potentially grow the ability to take more students. it's not impossible a large building like SW HS could take over the middle school grades too and they could turn their current two buildings could be used for K-5 only.
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chaglang
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by chaglang »

Maybe. Or maybe not.

Does anyone have any actual information about why the deal fell through?
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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

chaglang wrote:Maybe. Or maybe not.

Does anyone have any actual information about why the deal fell through?
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/ar ... 12353.html
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kucer
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by kucer »

flyingember wrote:
gaining more space could potentially grow the ability to take more students. it's not impossible a large building like SW HS could take over the middle school grades too and they could turn their current two buildings could be used for K-5 only.
No way would or should KCPS hand over the SW HS facility to AL without some kind of agreeable partnership for all involved.

Sorry, but a big reason the parents of AL are going hysterical on FB and such is because they are afraid of the location of the perfectly fine IB program already available to their kids in the district. The demographics of the existing IB program gets their sphincters really tight too. They don't HAVE to move or go private. Lincoln is a very fine option. Very few AL grads go there, but the few I know have done extremely well there and enjoyed it. Just sayin'...
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beautyfromashes
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Re: The KCMO School District

Post by beautyfromashes »

Lincoln is a great school, but it's a lottery to get in. It's not big enough to handle 500 more students that AL would provide.
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