Parents proposed upgrades for Lee’s Summit Elementary. Instead, district wants to close it
Lee’s Summit Elementary Parent-Teacher Association president Valerie Salazar was part of a 15-person group of parents and staff charged with reviewing the school her two sons attend, looking for ways to make improvements.
Salazar said Associate Superintendent of Operational Services Dr. Steve Shelton told the group the process was focused on renovations and repairs, instead of consolidations and closures.
“Dream big,” Shelton told the committee, according to Salazar.
The group was part of a year-long Comprehensive Facilities Master Planning (CFMP) process that reviewed facilities in the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District, with work groups at several schools preparing for the district’s 2025 bond election, a $225 million bond proposal to upgrade its school facilities.
Lee’s Summit Elementary parents believed their children and their school were thriving, but knew improvements were needed. The work group recommended upgrades to infrastructure and classrooms that would increase classroom space and remedy building problems.
What they received back from school officials was a proposal to eliminate the school and consolidate its students and staff with Westview Elementary, another elementary school less than two miles east of the district’s namesake school.
Salazar and other parents said they learned of the consolidation plans only after district officials informed school faculty and staff on Nov. 1. After being made to feel like an integral part of a district process they believed was transparent, Salazar feels parents were betrayed, after being told school closure wasn’t a decision under consideration.
“This was complete shock,” Salazar said about the proposal. “That was the first time our Lee’s Summit Elementary community actually have even heard of this proposal.”
According to district data, both schools have been the lowest-attended elementary schools in the district for the past five years. District officials cite the dwindling attendance as the leading cause for the proposal to renovate Westview to accomodate students from Lee’s Summit Elementary, as part of the bond proposal.
“We have a unique situation here where we have two attendance areas that are declining in enrollment,” Shelton said.
“If it declines much more, we’re going to have to send those students to other buildings. This gives us an opportunity to take one neighboring attendance area and merge it, combine it with another attendance area that’s also declining, and put them in that state-of-the-art, future-ready, learning building so they can get that high-quality education that we that we want for them.”
CFMP building work groups met monthly from September to January. In the same timeframe, a district-level committee met monthly and toured several schools, including Lee’s Summit Elementary, and formed their conclusions to present to the Citizens’ Advisory Committee, or CAC, in February.
Parents of the building group, like Mike McGrew, thought the school was next in line to receive renovations from the upcoming bond.
“We were making suggestions with our background. At no point was closure or substantial relocation ever discussed,” McGrew said.
In an interview with The Star, Shelton apologized to parents for any miscommunication in coming to this recommendation.
The consolidation proposal is still in the early stages. The CAC has to approve the recommendations before it is sent to the Lee’s Summit school board for final approval, according to district officials.
District officials said they made the proposal to avoid the future closure of the school and laying off staff. But until the proposal is approved, parents said they’re determined to fight for the school they say has a family atmosphere that helps their children receive a quality education.
‘We need more time’
Parents of Lee’s Summit Elementary students say their children love the school and have had a great rapport with their teachers, calling the community tight-knit.
“My youngest daughter went in there [in] kindergarten, half the teachers knew her name,” McGrew said. McGrew was with Salazar as a member of the CFMP work group for the school. “They really do care.”
Parents also point out the significance of the school as a Title I school, which means they receive federal funding to assist students from low-income families. Nearly 62% of Lee’s Summit Elementary students are on free or reduced lunch, according to district data. Nearly 50% of Westview students are on free or reduced lunch.
A consolidated Westview would see 56% of its population on free or reduced lunch.
“We’re [a] very diverse, social-economic neighborhood,” Salazar said. Lee’s Summit Elementary students primarily live in downtown Lee’s Summit, she noted. “We’re really proud of that. As a family, that’s why we live in downtown Lee’s Summit.”
After the proposal was made public, parents have attended district meetings and made several public comments while questioning officials about how and why they came to this proposal.
“This is being shared as the recommendation, not one of options,” Salazar said. “We need more time. A decision cannot be made in this amount of timeframe.”
Shelton sympathized with parents who felt the district wasn’t forthcoming with their plans.
“I can understand why they would feel that way,” Shelton said. “For any miscommunication that may have occurred, I’m sorry. Our intent is never, never to do that.”
The district hoped enrollment numbers would increase, but said it wouldn’t necessarily guarantee renovations. However, enrollment continued to fall, and the district believes combining attendance with Westview is now the best way to move forward, he said.
The land on which Lee’s Summit Elementary sits has been part of the district since the early 1900s, with the current school opening in 1955. However, Westview is a bigger school with more classrooms that opened in 1956.
Shelton said the proposed Westview renovations are capable of adding even more space to the school. The school covers 45,000 square feet; renovations could add 27,000 square feet including a new cafeteria, new library, and larger transportation areas costing $28.7 million to renovate to accommodate the incoming students.
“It’s really going to be an incredible facility for these families,” Shelton said.
Salazar said students are succeeding at Lee’s Summit Elementary, and that should be a key factor in the district’s decisions. It would cost $18 million to renovate the school, according to district officials.
“They’re selling this bright, new, shiny building, like a Taj Mahal,” Salazar said. “But is that really tied to student outcomes? They don’t have data to show that.”
Factors in falling enrollment
The falling enrollment at both elementary schools is an issue that’s been snowballing for years. The district’s yearly demographic report included studies on birth rates and housing development, which are both considered contributing factors to sliding enrollment by the report and district officials.
Jackson County’s birthrate dropped 23% between 2006 and 2020, according to the report by consulting firm Applied Economics LLC. Kindergarten enrollment fell almost 15% between 2011-12 and 2023-24, the report said.
“The latest drop in the birthrate could have a significant impact on the size of incoming kindergarten classes through at least 2025/26,” the report said.
The report also said housing inventory in the district increased significantly over the past decade, but has slowed in the last two years. Westview’s attendance area, which is right next to Lee Summit’s attendance area, will see an increase in multi-family units that aren’t expected to generate many students.
Chad Dumas, senior vice president of brokerage at ReeceNichols Real Estate, said people buy homes in the district for the school district, but downtown Lee’s Summit has few opportunities for home builders.
“There are not a lot of children living in the newer apartments that are being built,” Dumas said.
Shelton said housing prices may also be a factor with people waiting to move to the district when their children are middle and high school-aged.
Lee’s Summit Elementary’s enrollment is projected to fall to as few as 200 or less students in the next five years, according to the report.
‘Keep us’
According to officials, Lee’s Summit identified $560 million worth of needed improvements to district buildings, but only $311 million is available to address those needs.
$225 million could come from the bond proposal that would be on a general election ballot in April.
The consolidation of Lee’s Summit Elementary and Westview is one of several projects that could be addressed with bond funds, district leaders said. Nine schools, including Lee’s Summit and Westview, had building work groups of parents and staff that sent recommendations to the district-level CFMP committee and CAC.
It’s not yet known how many of those recommendations — if any — will be adopted by school officials.
Currently, the district has projects planned at Greenwood Elementary, Hazel Grove Elementary and Missouri Innovation Campus/Summit Tech Academy, according to Shelton and the CFMP executive summary. Each of the three schools had building work groups.
The CAC finalized the bond proposal on Tuesday, which included recommending the closure of Lee’s Summit Elementary and renovating Westview to accommodate incoming students from the school’s attendance area.
Among other CAC recommendations are new schools for Hazel Grove and Greenwood, renovations at Pleasant Lea Middle and the Miller Park Center, and soccer/band fields for all three local high schools. Baseball and softball fields were recommended for Lee’s Summit North High School and Lee’s Summit West High School, along with a hangar for Summit Technology Academy’s Aerospace Academy.
The CAC will present its recommendations to the school board on Dec. 5. The board will vote on using bond funds on Dec. 19, with the bond set for an April 8 ballot. The board could also adjust the CAC’s recommendations or reject them altogether.
If consolidation is approved, design would start immediately on Westview’s renovation, with the district planning to reassign teachers and staff to Westview and other sites to avoid job loss. The district would also ask the community if a new name for the school is warranted. A committee would be formed to decide how Lee’s Summit Elementary would be repurposed. Possible options include becoming a preschool building or secondary hospitality program.
A renovated Westview would be open in fall 2027 or 2028.
If consolidation isn’t included in the bond proposal, the school could be closed in the future or staff would be reduced at the school. District officials said they would rather consolidate to avoid those problems.
“We love our community, and we understand this is hard. We understand this is even painful, and we don’t like having to be in the position to do this,” Shelton said. “It’s a tough situation, but we’re trying to make something really positive come out of it.”
But Lee’s Summit parents plan to fight for their beloved school until the end.
“It’s just a monumental decision that’s going to impact so many lives of a population that is underrepresented and under-resourced and underserved,” Salazar said. “Keep us. Let us see where our enrollment grows.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
