Fewer schools, better programs? KC district makes case for closing up to 12 buildings
Kansas City Public Schools may close and consolidate as many as seven to 12 schools with low enrollment, so that the district can spend more money on updating classrooms, expanding programs and ensuring all students have access to the same opportunities.
Officials are evaluating how best to address inefficiencies and inequities caused by an overstock of outdated school buildings operating under capacity, as part of a long-term restructuring plan to improve offerings across the district. It will be a major overhaul of the Kansas City school system that officials say is stretched too thin.
Superintendent Mark Bedell has said that students in some under-enrolled schools are missing out on having full-time music or art teachers, as well as certain services, extracurriculars or even a football team. And while some schools have modern upgrades, others are outdated, with high school science classrooms that do not have sinks to use during lab experiments, for example.
Officials recently wrapped up a series of community meetings where they laid out their case: Close more buildings, as many as a dozen, and gain more improvements. Close fewer buildings and lose out on some or most of those advantages. And they’re continuing to ask for feedback over the summer.
“We believe that this plan, focused around a beautiful academic vision, is the plan that would allow for us to really dismantle and redesign this system to better serve our community,” Bedell said at a recent community meeting.
It’s work that administrators will continue as Bedell leaves his job on Aug. 5. Bedell announced this month that he is resigning to go serve as superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools, based in Annapolis, Maryland. Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Collier will serve as interim superintendent for the coming school year.
Collier said that after Bedell leaves, the district needs continued support from the community — something that officials have emphasized is critical to developing its long-term plan, Blueprint 2030, aimed at revamping facilities while improving academics and district offerings.
The district has been presenting three scenarios for restructuring the system, and where the money saved by consolidating schools would be spent. Officials will recommend a specific plan to the school board in the fall.
“We have an opportunity to remove this antiquated, rigid, outdated model of how we conduct schooling,” Bedell said. “And we have an opportunity to become much more flexible, much more agile. To take a different look at the school day. To take a different look at the school calendar. To look at different programs that we think would better serve our students in this community.“
What KCPS hopes to gain
KCPS laid out several goals officials hope to achieve by restructuring.
They include:
▪ Expanding curriculum, services and other opportunities to all schools
▪ Adding foreign language, instrumental music and science labs into elementary schools
▪ Increasing elective courses in middle and high schools
▪ Offering project-based learning at all schools
▪ Improving staff development, such as increasing professional training, raising teacher salaries and building a “grow your own” teacher pipeline
▪ Offering equitable programs and services at all schools, such as world language and fine arts courses
▪ Expanding non-traditional school options for students who need them, such as evening classes
In KCPS’ first proposed scenario, all of those improvements could be achieved as long as the district closes and consolidates as many as a dozen schools. That would mean closing nine or 10 elementary schools and two or three high schools. Another middle school would be added, so that sixth grade could move into middle school buildings districtwide.
The district would operate 25 schools, down from the 37 now open, saving an estimated $37.5 million.
The district also plans to invest $140 million in creating “future-ready spaces,” essentially updating and modernizing schools and classrooms. District spokeswoman Elle Moxley said that includes creating spaces for student collaboration and project-based learning, modernizing science labs and other classrooms, as well as updating technology and eliminating Wi-Fi dead zones.
The price tag for modernizing outdated school buildings is higher in two other scenarios, in which the district would keep more schools open but be required to update and maintain them.
In the second scenario, the district would close up to 10 schools, including six or eight elementary schools and two high schools. The district estimates it would save $32 million, but about half of the proposed program changes would be reduced or eliminated, and the district would need to choose which improvements to prioritize.
And in the last scenario, the district would keep more schools open, shuttering as many as seven total. But all of the program changes would either be reduced or eliminated.
The district has not yet named which schools might be considered for closure or consolidation.
All of the scenarios would also include reducing inefficiencies and cutting costs in the district’s central office, said senior planner Jesse Lange.
Because the last two scenarios would mean sacrificing some of the district improvements, officials are asking community members to submit their top priorities.
A survey asks residents to consider what changes they care the most about, including: expanding virtual and night school options, providing permanent substitutes in all schools, increasing social-emotional supports, adding math and reading interventionists, increasing staff who engage with parents, raising teacher salaries and more.
At a few community meetings this spring, parents and other residents had mixed views on the plans, but many said they favored the scenarios that close more than seven schools so that the district can afford more improvements. Some said only seven closures would result in too few improvements.
But some KCPS alumni also have acknowledged the difficulty of closing schools that they have emotional ties to, especially their old high schools.
District officials are emphasizing that they cannot take such steps without input from families and other taxpayers — something that they have said was largely missing 10 years ago, when KCPS underwent a historic “right-sizing” plan that closed almost half of the Kansas City schools.
Bedell said in a previous interview that what hurt the district during the previous closures was that, “there were areas in the community where we left holes. And that allowed for charter schools to flourish. … So you’ve got to be very intentional around what stays and what goes. And people need to have context as to why that makes the most sense.”
At community meetings this spring, district officials asked residents to weigh each scenario and consider the trade-offs. Bedell said that the district is continuing to evaluate its options, as well as the feedback it receives.
“Maybe it’s not scenario one, two or three. Maybe it’s a fourth scenario, that after we engaged everybody we’ve come to an agreement that this is the best scenario for this school district,” Bedell said.
The district will present a more specific restructuring plan to the school board this coming fall. And officials said that some of the academic changes could be put in the works as soon as next school year, while changes to school configuration would be done in phases, starting as early as fall 2023.
“We already talked about some of the academic vision things that we can already start doing,” Bedell said. “Some of these things we will beta test. … Maybe we’re looking at four-day weeks in a school or two. Or maybe we’re looking at 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at a high school that wants to pilot it. Maybe there’s several schools that want to engage in project-based learning early on.”
District officials acknowledge that major changes, especially closing neighborhood schools, can be difficult. But Bedell said the district must “do things differently” if it wants to be sustainable.
“We cannot be back here having this conversation again in five years. It’s just not fair. It’s not fair to this community,” Bedell said. “ … We have schools right now in our district that are under 200 kids. We have schools in our district that are high schools that are under 500 in enrollment. And that’s pretty much been the case since I got here. We didn’t go as far enough as we needed to go before, so we’re here again.”
Resources for classrooms
The work is moving forward as the district revels in a major accomplishment earlier this year: regaining full state accreditation for the first time in two decades. During Bedell’s six-year tenure — the longest of any KCPS superintendent in 50 years — the district improved academic performance and graduation rates to attain the once elusive goal.
District leaders are hoping to build off of that momentum, continue to improve academic achievement, attract more families to the district and gain community support for its restructuring plan.
“For the community, when we see our school district is accredited, it really says we are competing with other school districts in Missouri. We are a player. And we are an option for all families,” Moxley said. “Having full accreditation tells the community we’ve made significant strides and that we’re changing the narrative and producing really good things in KCPS.”
Over the past couple of decades, as more families fled to suburban districts and as charter schools grew, KCPS enrollment fell by half. Now at roughly 14,000 students, enrollment has leveled off more in recent years.
But district officials say students are shortchanged in under-enrolled schools.
“At the elementary level, we have music teachers and art teachers having to rotate to two different schools because we don’t have enough students to justify having a full-time equivalent position there. It’s unacceptable,” Bedell said. “We’re not able to offer foreign language acquisition for our kids across all of our elementary schools, we only can do it in signature schools.”
KCPS is operating more schools than districts with similar enrollment, officials said. The Independence district, also with about 14,000 students, has 27 schools, for example.
Bedell also said that the district spends a higher percentage of its budget on operational costs — such as transportation, food services and security — than neighboring districts do. Officials say that Blue Springs spends more than 12% of its budget on operational costs; Lee’s Summit spends 14.6%; Grandview spends 18.4%; while KCPS spends 27.7%.
That means, Bedell said, less money is going directly into classrooms. The district dedicates about 23.4% of its expenditures on K-12 instruction, lower than many of its peers.
“It’s just unacceptable,” Bedell said. “Ultimately, you want the vast majority of your resources going right into classrooms.”
As it continues to spend a significant chunk of its budget on maintaining aging buildings, the district is considering proposing a bond issue, which would help fund the cost to modernize and repair outdated schools. Lange said that voters have not passed a district bond proposal since 1967, unlike neighboring districts — many of which have bond elections every several years to fund projects.
Under Bedell’s leadership, officials say that they have rebuilt community trust and relationships, as KCPS proves it can meet state standards and sustain improvements. Now, Collier will lead those efforts as interim superintendent once Bedell resigns this summer.
At a recent press conference, Collier said that the district’s restructuring plan is “all about enhancing our student experiences and their outcomes.”
“We definitely want to provide the type of facilities that our students deserve. When we go to some of our counterparts across the state, we walk into those facilities and our students wonder why they can’t have those types of facilities and opportunities,” Collier said. “And I think having up-to-date, modernized facilities will help to enhance that learning experience.
“But the most critical piece is changing what we’re doing in our schools, so that we are better positioning our students for the future.”
The community can view the district’s plans and provide feedback by visiting kcpublicschools.org/about/blueprint-2030.
This story was originally published June 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
