The KCMO School District

[KCtoBrooklyn]

Headline in April 2017 - 3 AL students assaulted outside of AL/SW school, SW students are suspects. If this kind of stuff does happen, wonder if people would start pulling kids out of AL.

There will be no separate SW school or SW students, just one school run by AL. Way to engage in some good old racial fear mongering!

[beautyfromashes]

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.

[KCtoBrooklyn]

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.

I feel like you may be overstating it. I imagine a large majority of the non-AL students that will attend will come from some of the other top schools in the district, like Border Star, Foreign Language Academy, Crossroads Academy, Hale Cook, etc. - and it may even attract some students from the Catholic schools. I don't think the divide will be drastic enough to consider the AL students as being in a whole separate school.

[chaglang]

It's disappointing that they aren't going to be putting this in Midtown, but I think it's a really interesting development. It's going to be a huge challenge for all parties. AL is going to have to prove that they can be as successful with KCPS students as the ones that have have been cherry picked into their current school. And the KCPS is going to prove that they can step back and not try to micromanage this. If both those things happen, it'll be a big sign of progress for both parties.

There really isn't very much downside to this. SW is not performing well. AL has a very strong brand, and I suspect that people will attribute any problems at the school to the KCPS, not AL. If the relationship goes sour, AL could always pull out and start an all-AL high school. I don't think their brand would be damaged much, if at all. And remember that very few AL kids go on to Lincoln, so even if AL parents start pulling their kids out of the hs, it's basically the situation we have right now.

But if it pans out, KC has a public alternative to Lincoln and the we may have a model for solving some issues at other high schools. At the very least, a successful SW should bury the charter/KCPS animosity.

The other big caveat is that this school would skim off the better students from other KCPS high schools, and doesn't do much to help them.

[pash]

.

[chaglang]

It won't be immersion. IIRC, it's International Baccalaureate with an emphasis on foreign languages. That was their plan for Westport, so it sounds like the KCSD simply attached itself to the idea.

[chaglang]

According to the KCPS website, the saga of the West/Switzer/Switzer Annex buildings is finally over:

KCPS School Board approved the sale of West-Switzer and Switzer Annex to Foutch Brothers, LLC. for reuse as a mixed-used development at the School Board meeting on June 25, 2014. KCPS received two proposals for the purchase of the West-Switzer and Switzer Annex sites in the fall of 2013. After completing an assessment of the qualifications of the proposal teams and their development proposals, and factoring in community feedback gained through two rounds of proposal presentations, KCPS Administration recommended the sale of both sites to Foutch Brothers, LLC.

Foutch Brothers proposal: http://kcpublicschools.org/cms/lib6/MO0 ... others.pdf

From the presentation:
87 Market Rate Apartments - (2) studio, (36) 1 bdrm, (49) 2 bdrms
Price Points range from $1.18/sf to $1.50/sf (400 to 1,000 sf)
40,000+ sf for Cultural Arts group
No Demolition of Buildings
150 +/- Off Street Parking Spaces
Schedule: Acquisition and Design: 1Q2014 – 3Q2014; Construction: 3Q2014 – 3Q2015
Financing: $16mm
Firepits, Outdoor Seating and Community Social Areas, Rock Cliff Waterfall

[kucer]

Temporary provisional accreditation restored today.

http://fox4kc.com/2014/08/06/kcmo-schoo ... editation/

[KCtoBrooklyn]

http://midtownkcpost.com/midtown-gettin ... r-schools/

Thanks to a parent-led community effort, Midtown will be getting two new elementary schools as soon as 2016.

The Midtown Community School Initiative said today the Citizens of the World Charter Schools, a national public charter school network, will open the two elementary schools and eventually add a middle and high school.

I am pleasantly surprised to hear they will be opening two elementary schools, but I wonder if they will be able to get enough students and the proper facilities, especially when it comes to the high school now that Westport appears to be heading toward a repurposing without a school component.

[chaglang]

Temporary provisional accreditation restored today.

http://fox4kc.com/2014/08/06/kcmo-schoo ... editation/

In case anyone wonders about the credibility of the Missouri State Board of Ed under Commissioner Nicastro, there was an interesting piece on dailyKos on how the Normandy School District magically regained its accreditation:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/1 ... n-s-School

Funding the transfer students was costing the district more than it cost to educate students within the district. Part of that was transportation, but most of it was the simple fact that other districts spent far more on their students than the poverty-stricken Normandy district.

The state board of education took over the district's finances, but rather than providing a new stream of revenue, they figured out a simple way to reduce costs:

On Friday afternoon, the board met in a hastily called meeting to change the Normandy’s accreditation status -- or at least how that accreditation is described. Normandy now has “accreditation as a state oversight district,” the revised June minutes now read.

Get that? The state board, which had taken away the accreditation, now argued that Normandy was accredited, magically, without having the district actually meet any of the standards they had set. How did that happen?

“The Missouri State Board of Education, pursuant to its statutory authority to waive its rules, including those regulating accreditation, has accredited the Normandy Schools Collaborative and thus its schools,” the state’s motion to the court says. “Because of that accreditation, the Plaintiffs are not entitled to relief. … ”

The school is now accredited because the board has the right to ignore the law the board claimed it was enforcing in the first place, and parents now have no right to transfer their kids to another district ... because the school is accredited.

[loftguy]

Temporary provisional accreditation restored today.

http://fox4kc.com/2014/08/06/kcmo-schoo ... editation/

In case anyone wonders about the credibility of the Missouri State Board of Ed under Commissioner Nicastro, there was an interesting piece on dailyKos on how the Normandy School District magically regained its accreditation:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/1 ... n-s-School

Funding the transfer students was costing the district more than it cost to educate students within the district. Part of that was transportation, but most of it was the simple fact that other districts spent far more on their students than the poverty-stricken Normandy district.

The state board of education took over the district's finances, but rather than providing a new stream of revenue, they figured out a simple way to reduce costs:

On Friday afternoon, the board met in a hastily called meeting to change the Normandy’s accreditation status -- or at least how that accreditation is described. Normandy now has “accreditation as a state oversight district,” the revised June minutes now read.

Get that? The state board, which had taken away the accreditation, now argued that Normandy was accredited, magically, without having the district actually meet any of the standards they had set. How did that happen?

“The Missouri State Board of Education, pursuant to its statutory authority to waive its rules, including those regulating accreditation, has accredited the Normandy Schools Collaborative and thus its schools,” the state’s motion to the court says. “Because of that accreditation, the Plaintiffs are not entitled to relief. … ”

The school is now accredited because the board has the right to ignore the law the board claimed it was enforcing in the first place, and parents now have no right to transfer their kids to another district ... because the school is accredited.

Normandy School District includes the town of Ferguson. This is another layer of our abject failure to meet basic quality of life expectations to many of our communities.

We have massive issues to cure. In this area, the Missouri State Board of Education is not part of the solution.

[tacitus]

Looks like discussions are on hold between Academie Lafayette and KCPS:

March 10, 2015, Kansas City, MO: The Académie Lafayette Board of Directors and Kansas City Public
Schools (KCPS) have agreed to step back from the negotiations regarding the proposed partnership for a
high school at the Southwest Early College Campus (SWECC).

"This was a long and difficult decision," said Chad Phillips, President of the Académie Lafayette Board of
Directors. "We truly appreciate the deliberate and inclusive manner in which KCPS is going about the
serious process of weighing the needs of present and future generations of Kansas City children. We are
in the same position. We must carefully consider what is in the best interests of our current and future
students and their families."

Jon Hile, President of the KCPS Board of Directors, echoed the sentiment, stating, "This has been a long
but productive process. The Board of Directors will reflect on the progress made and decide on a suitable
way forward."

During the discussions KCPS has been engaged in developing its Master Plan. The Master Plan has
raised questions on the efficient use of both facilities and funds by KCPS. Until the Master Plan is fully
completed and approved it is difficult for KCPS to make definitive decisions about a particular school.
As the process has gone forward, the future of the current SWECC students has been foremost in the
minds of KCPS and Academie Lafayette. The Parties have agreed to table the negotiation process as
KCPS continues to explore opportunities and options for current SWECC students.

KCPS and Académie Lafayette welcome resuming the negotiations once the KCPS Master Plan has
been completed and other important issues are resolved.

Académie Lafayette intends to continue seeking a location for an International Baccalaureate High school
facility throughout the Kansas City area, while KCPS continues to explore a number of options that have

[flyingember]

too many words that don't contribute to the piece. one would think that educators would know how to write to the point

[grovester]

It was written that way for a reason.

[flyingember]

It was written that way for a reason.

thus my point

[pash]

.

[kboish]

More evidence to dissolve or break up this district.

[beautyfromashes]

I think this just shows that the school board is set up to represent their own interests instead of the children in the city or the city in general. The board will continue to make decisions that cause negative consequences because it keeps their position in place. They should be taken over by the city with members appointed by the mayor or council.

[flyingember]

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.

[kucer]

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.