After community outcry, Kansas City district now proposes closing far fewer schools

After months of heated debate with parents and alumni fighting to save their schools, Kansas City Public Schools will likely reel back a proposal to shutter 10 buildings, and instead keep Central High School open next fall.

Under a new plan, the district recommends closing only two schools — for now.

Officials on Wednesday presented new recommendations for overhauling the school system, backtracking after a previous proposal would have closed Central — which generated some of the most heated controversy — along with James, Longfellow and Troost elementary schools by next school year. By 2030, Northeast High School and several other elementary schools would have closed.

But after a series of tense community meetings and neighborhood petitions, district leaders on Wednesday said they are now considering keeping Central and James open, while closing Longfellow and Troost elementary schools at the end of this school year. And the district will stall a decision on potential future school closures.

“We are overjoyed that the parent community was heard,” said Tricia McGhee, a parent advocate with Revolución Educativa, a Latino-led education advocacy organization. She added that parents at James Elementary and schools across the district rallied together to effectively voice their concerns.

“If I was younger, I would jump up in the air. I’m so excited,” said Teola Powell, a 1966 Central grad. “I’ve been fighting hard for this.”

Instead of the school board voting on a multi-year school closure plan this winter as originally discussed, district officials instead will wait before considering more closures beyond next school year. Interim Superintendent Jennifer Collier said the district hopes to grow enrollment in the meantime, so that more schools can stay open.

The school board is expected to vote on the new recommendations at its Jan. 25 meeting.

“We want to give some space and time for schools to be able to make the kind of improvements that we’re looking for around enrollment, around academics, around increasing attendance, before we would even potentially come back with any other recommendations,” Collier said. “And the hope is that we will see such an improvement that we wouldn’t need to have as many (school closure) recommendations as we initially brought forward.”

Collier said the district is evaluating schools based on academic performance, enrollment, population trends, impact on at-risk students, facility conditions and operational costs, such as transportation and utilities. She emphasized that the district must build trust with Kansas City families to continue improving the system.

Officials said they will continue engaging the community and see if the district can successfully pass a bond initiative to help fund facility improvements.

“Admittedly, more work will be needed,” said Jesse Lange, senior planner for KCPS. “We’ll still have tough decisions to make as a community, but we also want to allow space for the community to be part of these conversations and the process moving forward.”

District leaders say bond money is needed to see through the long-term restructuring plan and address building maintenance needs. That became a sticking point with board members and families, since voters have not passed a district bond proposal since 1967. Many nearby suburban districts, meanwhile, have successful bond elections every several years to fund projects.

“Fifty-five years is long enough,” Collier said. “Our children deserve more. They deserve better buildings. Our staff deserve better buildings.”

Some worried that Kansas City residents would not support a bond if the school board approved closing 10 schools. The district plans to bring forward a bond proposal in spring of next year.

For the past few months, community members have packed district engagement meetings to make emotional pleas, begging for their neighborhood schools to stay open.

Parents and alumni worry the school closures would cause families to flee the district if the alternative is busing students to schools miles away. Neighborhood associations were concerned the original plan would have dealt a blow to their efforts to revitalize, if families do not have a neighborhood school enticing them to move in or stay there.

Many Central graduates questioned why their school was recommended for closure, when in the early ’90s the building was reconstructed with a one-acre field house, theater, swimming pool and more modern classrooms.

Fewer than 500 students are enrolled at Central, which has a capacity of 1,140, and officials say enrollment is projected to continue declining over the next decade. Central also has about $14.4 million in deferred maintenance costs.

And parents had safety concerns if their children are sent to rival schools in unfamiliar neighborhoods. Central students would have transitioned to Southeast High School under the original plan.

“The real story is there are a lot of neighborhood block-based beefs,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star last month. He said people are right to worry about sending students to neighborhoods across town.

Collier said that closing a secondary school by next fall would have been too fast, leaving too many questions unanswered for families.

“The safety and the well-being of our students is one of the highest priorities. And there is a great deal that will need to be addressed and considered if we were to move forward with a secondary school closure,” Collier said Wednesday. “It is imperative that if we do this, we do it well.”

The district is looking at facility changes to avoid an expected $25 million revenue shortfall by 2025.

After decades of dwindling enrollment, leaders have said the district is stretched too thin, with too many outdated schools under capacity, leading to high costs of maintenance and operations. In those schools, students are often missing out on full-time music or art teachers, science labs and extracurriculars.

Money saved from closing schools, officials say, would fund several academic improvements, such as expanding curriculum and extracurriculars, modernizing classrooms, implementing career-readiness programs, adding world language classes, plus ensuring all of the high schools once again have bands and football teams.

Even with only two schools closing next fall, officials said Wednesday that the district would still immediately implement some academic improvements, such as expanding instrumental music and foreign language opportunities, plus adding more math and reading support.

Collier said that while student achievement has improved at Longfellow Elementary, the building’s condition is the worst in the district. The school, for example, temporarily closed this fall after a carbon monoxide leak sent several students to the hospital. The school has low enrollment, with 235 students, and $6.5 million in deferred maintenance costs.

If it’s approved for closure, Lange said, officials will need to determine whether to keep the building or sell it to be repurposed.

Troost Elementary also is under-capacity, with 250 students. The school has dwindling enrollment, officials said, and $4.3 million in deferred maintenance costs. Officials are recommending keeping the building for future district use.

Meanwhile, some community members continue to urge officials to delay a vote on a school overhaul until the district hires its next superintendent.

KCPS is searching nationwide for its next leader, a job held by Collier since former Superintendent Mark Bedell resigned this past summer. District officials expect the search to wrap up next month.

The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Board of Education Building, 2901 Troost Ave.

The Star’s Anna Spoerre contributed reporting.