Academie Lafayette

KC topics that don't fit anywhere else.
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chrizow
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Academie Lafayette

Post by chrizow »

Our daughter has been admitted to AL for Kindergarten. We do have at least 2 other options we are looking at (she goes to Sion now and we also are within the Hale Cook boundary) so I wanted to get feedback from current and past AL parents about their experiences with the school. (If you feel more comfortable giving feedback via private message, please do)

We have a decent idea about AL b/c of friends' kids who have gone there in the pretty distant past, and my wife actually worked there for a few years a while back, BUT the school has grown and maybe changed a lot so I would like to get any Ragger feedback I can about AL these days, including:

* General atmosphere inside the classrooms (chaotic? constructive?)
* Class sizes
* Teacher quality and attitude
* Admin quality and attitude
* Parent community and engagement
* Differences between Cherry st. (Hyde Park) and Oak st. (BKS) campuses
* Ability or willingness of the school to assist kids who might struggle academically
* Students' social life (in and out of school), activities, whatever.

Thanks!
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by brewcrew1000 »

The general atmosphere inside AL inside AL is very well structured from what I've seen. Kids aren't running wild and out of control.
Class sizes are great. 22-25 per class I believe.
Parent Engagement seems is great but tends to be more focused with the brookside families. For example most of the night out school fundraisers will be at places in Brookside or down south rather than Midtown. I think the people who own Bier Station and Betty Raes have kids at AL so maybe that's why it's more focused down that way. I feel like the Brookside families have the most power and pull and were one of the big reasons for the schools splitting even though u can end up at Cherry if u live in Brookside. I don't really see a quality difference in the schools, I think they are both fine.

Ability or willingness of the school to assist kids who might struggle academically?- I think this is the most interesting thing, I honestly think they try to force the kids that are performing poorly out of the school. I think when a student is put on a PiP they receive less funding or something, so if they are struggling it might take a long time to get help and by that point parents get frustrated and just leave

The school has a good social life, lots of activities to keep students active. Different clubs, sports, etc

One of our friends has kids at Crossroads and AL and she says Crossroads is the one having more turmoil recently with teachers leaving, etc.
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chrizow
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chrizow »

thanks, i appreciate that feedback!
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KCtoBrooklyn
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by KCtoBrooklyn »

I didn't realize they were offering elementary at the Brookside location now. So is it K-3 at either location, 4-5 in Brookside and 6-8(+) at the old Derrick Thomas? Anyone know if that is the plan indefinitely?

Is the High School starting next year? Citizens of the World is also putting their 6th grade class in that building. I'm not sure what their long term plans are, but it doesn't seem like there will be room for all of them as they add more grades.

I can't give you any first hand details, but I have a few friends with kids in AL and they love it. It seems like everyone I have ever heard from loves the school. I also have friends with a kid at Crossroads and they speak very highly of it (and they might be the most intelligent, successful people I know, so I really value their opinion). I did hear from one person who wasn't happy at Quality Hill and said it wasn't as good as Crossroads.

I'm supposed to hear today which pre-schools my kid has been chosen for. I think the big question will be Border Star. I'm guessing they get more applications than slots, but I haven't heard.
brewcrew1000 wrote: Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:43 pmI think the people who own Betty Raes have kids at AL so maybe that's why it's more focused down that way.
The Betty Rae's owners live in Hyde Park, close to the Cherry St campus, and their kids aren't school age yet.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by brewcrew1000 »

KCtoBrooklyn wrote: Fri Mar 08, 2019 12:56 pm I didn't realize they were offering elementary at the Brookside location now. So is it K-3 at either location, 4-5 in Brookside and 6-8(+) at the old Derrick Thomas? Anyone know if that is the plan indefinitely?

Is the High School starting next year? Citizens of the World is also putting their 6th grade class in that building. I'm not sure what their long term plans are, but it doesn't seem like there will be room for all of them as they add more grades.

I can't give you any first hand details, but I have a few friends with kids in AL and they love it. It seems like everyone I have ever heard from loves the school. I also have friends with a kid at Crossroads and they speak very highly of it (and they might be the most intelligent, successful people I know, so I really value their opinion). I did hear from one person who wasn't happy at Quality Hill and said it wasn't as good as Crossroads.

I'm supposed to hear today which pre-schools my kid has been chosen for. I think the big question will be Border Star. I'm guessing they get more applications than slots, but I haven't heard.
brewcrew1000 wrote: Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:43 pmI think the people who own Betty Raes have kids at AL so maybe that's why it's more focused down that way.
The Betty Rae's owners live in Hyde Park, close to the Cherry St campus, and their kids aren't school age yet.
Yeap, its K-3 at either location, if you live with in a mile of either of these schools then you go to your specific school, if you live outside the 1 mile then you can go to either school
4-5 is at Brookside and Middle school is at Derrick Thomas
I really don't know the long term plans, i think they might end up doing K-8 at each specific school as well then doing the High School at Derrick Thomas

I am pretty sure the high school is still a year or 2 away amd I'm pretty sure that will be at the Armour (Derrick Thomas location)

I am suprised Citizens needs to lease other buildings, i didn't know they were growing that quickly. I could see Citizens and AL doing some kind of joint High School but but there wouldn't be a ton of overlap since one school teaches in French unless AL just kills the Foreign Language part after 8th grade
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by rxlexi »

Thanks for starting this thread, Chrizow, will be following it closely.

On a related note, did anyone attend the KCMO school forum at the downtown library (want to say it was in December)? I didn't make it but it seemed like a nice way to put all of the academic options a KCMO parent has under one roof, with reps to answer basic questions etc.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by KCtoBrooklyn »

Citizens of the World has been adding a grade level every year. Their stated plan was to do that through High School. I believe they also said they would have 2 elementary locations (and maybe 2 middle schools), but I haven't heard of any movement on that front.

I believe they started K-3 and the original 3rd graders are entering 6th next year. If I were to guess, I would think their plan would be to be in their own middle school in two years, when that class is in 8th grade.

I was under the impression that the AL high school would not be French immersion and would be open to students outside of their system.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by lock+load »

AL middle school (6-8) is at Armour. When fully phased in both Cherry and Oak will be K-5. If you are outside the preference zone, the lottery assigns a location. You do not get to pick.

So far we are happy with AL kindergarten. Some aspects seem a bit disorganized at times, but I think the campus split has contributed to that.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by bobbyhawks »

AL's biggest concern right now, IMO, is still managing through the growth and scaling in a smart way without overburdening the staff. They have unique teacher issues considering they bring in mostly foreign teachers, but the teachers are pretty passionate about the IB curriculum and immersion style of teaching. There is no place in the city that I am aware of where kids get such great exposure to a diverse staff. Religious (Muslim, Christian, non-religious), geographical (Canada, Haiti, Africa, Europe), and other cultural differences (large-ish proportion of male staff) are little things that can have a big impact over time (I'd imagine). The level of critical thinking these kids will be equipped with when they enter high school can be impressive, but as with anything, parents knowing when to step in and when to let kids learn a lesson themselves (having faith in the system) is always a struggle. I'm biased since I know someone who works there, but I'm quite impressed with the direction of the school (now if we can just increase funding, pay teachers better, and roll some of the successes of these charters out to the rest of the district).
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by KCtoBrooklyn »

There was speculation in another thread that applications/demand for AL might be down (relative to their newly expanded capacity), but I did recently speak with someone who is currently number 50 on their waitlist, so it does appear they are still receiving considerably more applicants than available spaces.

As for my 3 year old's pre-K lottery results, we were waitlisted at Border Star (not a big surprise there), but also waitlisted at Primotivo Garcia and JA Rogers, which was a little more surprising. We did get into Holliday. I hadn't really heard much anecdotally about pre-K lotteries and acceptance rates, so I have no idea if this is typical or if the district is seeing an increase in pre-K enrollment.
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chrizow
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chrizow »

It's almost like there is a demand for Pre-K that is not being met by the district. I wish we could put it to a vote.
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chaglang
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chaglang »

Make sure you support the mill levy increase when the KCMSD asks for money for pre-K, as I understand are planning to.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by beautyfromashes »

chaglang wrote: Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:31 pm Make sure you support the mill levy increase when the KCMSD asks for money for pre-K, as I understand are planning to.
If KCMSD has enough money to tear down buildings instead of sell them to developers and let others (Southwest HS) be mothballed when others want to rent them, they don’t need my money. Quit wasting what you have first.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chaglang »

There’s something of a difference between a dedicated revenue stream for pre-k and the one-time gain from an asset sale. Everyone gets wound up about Southwest, but the district has sold 20 buildings and only has 5 left on the market. Fewer than that have been demolished. Nothing about that strikes me as profligate behavior.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chingon »

chaglang wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:41 am There’s something of a difference between a dedicated revenue stream for pre-k and the one-time gain from an asset sale. Everyone gets wound up about Southwest, but the district has sold 20 buildings and only has 5 left on the market. Fewer than that have been demolished. Nothing about that strikes me as profligate behavior.
The District’s shenanigans with SW high, especially Clinton Adams’s involvement with blocking any proposal for a second good high school in the District, are something worse than “profligate behavior” and approaching malfeasance.
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chrizow
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chrizow »

chingon wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 8:19 am The District’s shenanigans with SW high, especially Clinton Adams’s involvement with blocking any proposal for a second good high school in the District, are something worse than “profligate behavior” and approaching malfeasance.
Can you elaborate on this? I am curious. Also what is the status (if any) on the "Uniting at Southwest" movement - or is that related to what you're talking about?
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by beautyfromashes »

chrizow wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 8:57 am Can you elaborate on this? I am curious. Also what is the status (if any) on the "Uniting at Southwest" movement - or is that related to what you're talking about?
“Partnership” just died. The district strung Uniting at SW along just like they did Academie Lafayette when they tried to partner for a joint HS at the building. The letter from Uniting announcing the disconnect was scathing. I think the district is worried that it will pull people from Lincoln even though that school is more than full. This is about control, animosity over abandonment of the district by white families, racial inequality, and other issues that have held this city back for decades. No one seems to care that this is about educating children or will help revitalization of the city. Lots of baggage.
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chaglang
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chaglang »

But... even if they sold SW the proceeds wouldn't fund a district-wide pre-k program for very long. These seem like two separate issues.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

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chaglang wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:49 am But... even if they sold SW the proceeds wouldn't fund a district-wide pre-k program for very long. These seem like two separate issues.
Yes, but the point is it’s difficult to want to give money to them when they have a pattern of mismanagement and self promotion. I’m glad they’ve gotten back to accreditation. I just don’t think that very basic step deserves being rewarded with a pile of cash to be further mismanaged.
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Re: Academie Lafayette

Post by chaglang »

They've actually sold a few buildings to charter schools, including Lafayette. Not selling one specific building doesn't strike me as an indicator of a level of organizational mismanagement worthy of not supporting pre-K funding.
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