Kansas City school slated to close as charter revoked for poor academic performance

A state commission on Wednesday made the rare decision to revoke a Kansas City school’s charter in the middle of its contract, effectively closing it after this school year.

Amid passionate pleas from parents to keep Genesis School open, the Missouri Charter Public School Commission voted 6-1 to nullify its charter on June 30, due to years of poor performance. Member Antoine Lee of Kansas City was the lone “no” vote.

Genesis, though, can now appeal the decision to the state board of education.

If the board agrees with the recommendation to revoke the charter, the commission will begin the process of closing Genesis, including notifying parents of options for transitioning students to a new school, such as one within Kansas City Public Schools or a different charter school.

Robbyn Wahby, executive director of the state charter commission, previously said she recommended revoking the charter after years of “broken promises” and “devastating” academic results.

“We didn’t break a promise to anybody,” Genesis Executive Director Kevin Foster told The Star. “Our promise is to the families that we serve, that is who our commitment is to.”

Foster said that Genesis’ board has yet to decide whether to appeal the decision, although he expects the school to do so.

The school, at 3800 E. 44th St., operates in the Thornberry Unit of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City and serves roughly 200 students. Genesis has served families on Kansas City’s East Side for 47 years, since 1999 as a charter school. It is now one of the state’s oldest charter schools.

During a public hearing last month, dozens of parents, students, teachers and community members packed a standing-room-only conference room at Lucile H. Bluford Public Library to urge the state commission to keep the school open.

For the past 15 years, the school has failed to meet academic performance standards, according to the state commission. During that time, Genesis’ test scores have regularly lagged behind the state average and Kansas City Public Schools.

The commission has the authority to revoke a school’s charter during its term if there is clear evidence of under-performance in three of the last four school years.

Only 13% of Genesis students are reading and performing math at grade level, Wahby said, compared to 21% of KCPS’ most vulnerable students.

The commission said that in the 2015-2016 school year, the charter school saw 27% of K-5 students scoring at proficient or advanced levels in English. Five years later, that fell to 2.6%. The students’ math scores dropped from 24% to 8%.

“We could not find a single time from 2007 to 2022 when Genesis performed better than KCPS in either English or math. Not a single year for 15 years,” Wahby said during last month’s hearing.

The commission said the school has not adequately prepared students “for success in high school or beyond.”

But Foster argued that the commission’s assessment is unfair. He argued that since 2020, the school’s state assessment scores have improved, despite the pandemic, and that its students are seeing academic growth throughout the year. Foster said that the charter’s test scores were lower than expected in both 2018 and 2019, which he attributed to a new state achievement test.

The school saw students grow academically in 2021. He argued the school needs the time to prove it can continue improving.

“I believe that any fair assessment of the data since (our charter has been) renewed in 2020 would validate the work we do and allow us to continue,” Foster said Wednesday.

Genesis teacher Madilynn Kettle said last month that test scores do not reflect her students’ growth in the classroom.

“I teach fourth grade, and my goal is for all of my students to end the year on grade level and be successful in fifth grade. Unfortunately, that’s just not realistic,” she said. “I’ve had students enter my room not knowing the sounds letters make and struggling to read. Those same students left my classroom able to read and catching up to those on grade level.”

Genesis was placed on academic probation when its charter was renewed in 2015 by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, its first sponsor. The school was later sponsored by the University of Missouri in Columbia, which lost its authority to sponsor Genesis and two other charter schools.

In 2020, the state agreed to renew Genesis’ five-year charter, but put it on academic probation once again. The next year, the state school board voted to make the Missouri Charter Public School Commission the school’s sponsor.

“Two sponsors, two probations, multiple warnings of academic performance,” Wahby said last month. “We are the third sponsor. The third time not meeting standards is enough.”

Foster argued that the state commission has not given the school enough time to prove it is meeting standards under its new contract approved last July, along with an intervention plan laying out standards and performance goals for the next few years.

“Genesis has not violated the contract and there is no new academic data available since the contract was signed. At a minimum the Commission entered into the contract in bad faith. The Charter school system can’t operate if contracts between schools and sponsors are not upheld,” Foster said in a statement.

He also feels the school has not had enough notice to fight the commission’s recommendation to revoke its charter, leaving “staff and families in the lurch with three months left in the school year.”

After evaluating the school, Wahby said the commission notified the school of its findings last spring and required it to submit the intervention plan.

“They knew the stakes were high. They knew they had the money and they had to do something faster and better,” she said. “They knew that most students in their care were below grade level, some very below grade level.”

Foster said the school will work with families to notify them of their options for possibly enrolling students elsewhere next year.

“If our board does choose to continue to fight this, which I think they will, and if we’re successful, our families will choose us,” Foster said. “They’re going to make a choice. But they already have that choice every day. And they choose us.”