It does seem to have to pose an issue in that KCPS completely mismanaged this building resulting in yet another vacant crater downtown while at the same time advocating against any subsidies to help develop this and other vacant craters throughout KC into buildings. It's an example of how they have explicitly caused vacant land while at the same time hindering development of it.
Serious question and not to pick on someone or dox someone, but since she is on a lobbyist group board, I'm just confused how can Kathleen Pointer be a "Policy Strategist" for a publicly funded school district while at the same time be on the board of a union/lobbyiest group working on the exact same policy she is supposed to be working on for KCPS? I can't find a job description, but her "Policy strategy" seems to entail advocating against development subsidies on behalf of KCPS. See here:
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/saving-s ... subsidies/
KCT advocates explicitly against development subsidies. Is she advocating for the KCPS as part of KCT, or is she advocating personally? Can she even separate her personal lobbying and that of her employer - the subject of her work and that of KCT seem to overlap significantly/completely?
I'd just be a little nervous if corporate employees were throwing around the KCPS name and affiliation as KCPS employees for the benefit of a lobbyist/union group. It seems to draw the implication that KCPS are explicitly supporting KCTenants.
Look, it may be completely OK what shes doing. You'd have to look at the KCPS code of conduct/employement agreement and hopefully the employee has vetted this outside activity with their legal for approval. Afik there's no explicit prohibition of school districts doing lobbyist activities per see.
It's just a little concerning with the overlap between her job duties, KCT's stated goals and especially how her bio on KCT website explicitly draws about as close of a tie to KCPS as they can to make it to almost blur the line between her advocating on her own behalf and on behalf of KSPS.
I'd, at a minimum, advise her to remove employer references on her KCT bio. What if a similarly situated KCPS employee joined a group like Northland Strong or the Recall Quinton Lucas group and explicitly threw the KCPS name around on those groups to make it seem like KCPS was in favor of recalling Lucas or certain political candidates? I don't think a lot of school parents would be pleased with that.
Kathleen Pointer (she/her) is the Board Outreach Lead for KC Tenants. Her first KC Tenants event was the public launch on City Hall steps when she accompanied Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell as he spoke about the chaos evictions inflict on the lives of many KCPS students. On behalf of the School District, Kathleen advocated alongside KC Tenants to pass a Tenant Bill of Rights. Kathleen is the senior public policy strategist and City Hall liaison for Kansas City Public Schools. She focuses on local and statewide initiatives impacting KCPS families, including a particular focus on equity in education, housing, and economic development. In her former life, Kathleen was a journalist.
