New Kansas City school leader offers $10,000 of his own money to motivate students
Just five months after being named the new superintendent of Hickman Mills schools, Yaw Obeng is making a generous offer of cash — his own money — to “motivate and inspire” students.
Obeng, who arrived this summer, announced Tuesday that he is donating $10,000 to encourage good grades and community engagement.
The money will launch a scholarship program Obeng dubbed Above and Beyond. Throughout this school year, Obeng will identify students who are excelling academically, engaged in community service, modeling good character and showing leadership. They will receive gifts and monetary awards.
The district will announce the first two recipients on Thursday. Each will receive a $500 check. Community donations to keep the effort going can be made to the Hickman Mills Educational Foundation, www.hickmanmills.org/Page/90.
Obeng came to the South Kansas City school district from the Burlington Public Schools in Vermont, where he had been superintendent for five years.
In Hickman Mills, he inherited a district plagued by declining enrollment and years of struggles to gain full state accreditation. Over the last few years the district has seen revenues drop dramatically, forcing the closure of two schools last year.
But Obeng said when he arrived that he looked forward to the challenge and that it would not be his first time taking the reins of a troubled district.
When he arrived in Burlington, the district was financially troubled, facing state takeover, battling racial tensions and trying to close an achievement gap. In a letter to Burlington school parents on his departure, Obeng claimed he was leaving district finances “stronger than they have been in more than a decade.”
When he came to Hickman Mills, Obeng, who is originally from Toronto, replaced Yolanda Cargile, a graduate of the district, who took a job leading the neighboring Center School District.
