Kansas City charter school must address safety issues before it can reopen: commission
After being forced to close this month, Hogan Preparatory Academy must prove it is addressing safety concerns before students can return to campus, a state commission has ordered.
The Missouri Charter Public School Commission instructed Hogan Prep to close its high school for two weeks due to concerns over security and a lack of staff. In a Nov. 11 letter, the commission, which sponsors Hogan Prep, ordered the charter system to submit a safety plan for each of its campuses in response to “multiple recent incidents affecting the safety of students and staff at each” school.
Hogan Prep submitted that safety plan last week, and the commission said in a Nov. 19 letter that it met its criteria. But the charter system must demonstrate that it is implementing the security improvements before the commission will allow it to reopen.
“We have provided feedback to the board and leadership to help them do that. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully,” the most recent letter said.
Hogan Prep officials did not immediately return The Star’s request for comment on Tuesday morning.
Several parents have said that there have been a series of fights and disturbances at Hogan Prep, which they say has not had adequate staff to address them. Officials have not said what incidents prompted the order to temporarily close the high school. But the Kansas City Police Department shared with The Star a report listing eight calls of service at the high school, at 1331 E. Meyer Blvd., since Sept. 8. Two of the calls were for reported threats, while the others were listed as disturbances.
Four of those calls were made this month, on the week the Missouri Charter Public School Commission was visiting to monitor the school.
Parent Renee Willis-Broadus told The Star that her child has witnessed multiple fights at the high school, as well as outsiders getting into the school without permission.
“As a parent of a freshman you want them to be safe. You send them to school safe so you expect the same in return. Hogan has too many doors that do not have alarms on it and I’ve seen first hand how easy it was to let somebody in,” she said.
Willis-Broadus said she was grateful the school temporarily closed, adding that she felt, “Lucky Hogan is taking all the parent concern into action. They have listened.”
The charter commission wrote in the Nov. 11 letter that, “Unfortunately, these incidents are not a recent aberration. Instead, they are indicative of an environment that has resulted in high rates of student suspension, and which has been consistently understaffed. These trends have affected the school staff: many of them are considering resigning or not renewing employment contracts because of the concerns for their safety.”
Officials have so far declined to provide details of Hogan Prep’s safety plan, with the charter commission stating that, “Disclosing these records would impair Hogan’s ability to protect the safety of students, staff and property.”
The commission ordered the high school to close, allowing students only to attend virtual school until Nov. 28. The commission said that students at the elementary school, at 2803 E. 51st St., may continue attending school in person, but students at the middle school, at 6409 Agnes Ave., can only attend classes on campus if the school adds two additional security guards, a letter sent to the system says.
Hogan Prep Superintendent Jayson Strickland said in a statement last week that the charter system has taken immediate steps, including adding extra security at the middle school and “identifying additional personnel for the high school. We’ve also altered procedures during the school day to emphasize safety.”
“We are absolutely committed to making all the necessary changes in our procedures and staffing to ensure that students can learn, teachers are effective, and parents know that their students are in a safe and healthy place,” the statement said.
In addition to requiring a safety plan, the commission has ordered Hogan Prep to provide another plan “to address the combination of an unsafe environment, limited capacity and high attrition among the staff, and ongoing challenges in student achievement.”
The plan for this semester must be presented before high school students can return to campus, the letter says. And the plan for the second semester must be submitted by Jan. 9, “and must include the board’s assessment of leadership and plans to allocate resources in support of the plan.”
“If these actions are not completed in a timely manner, the Commission may take additional action, up to and including closure of the school,” the letter states, adding that state law allows for “termination prior to the end of the school year if ‘continued operation of the school presents (a) clear and immediate threat to the health and safety of the children.’”
This fall, Hogan Prep opened a new, larger high school building.
Hogan was founded in 1942 as a Catholic high school, named for John Joseph Hogan, the first bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City. It converted to a public charter school during the 1999-2000 school year, and has a history of serving families in the highest poverty ZIP codes of Kansas City, according to the commission.
Hogan Prep’s charter contract was renewed last year, through June 2026, “despite several years of low performance during the previous term.” Between 2015 and 2019, the commission reports, Hogan had “serious financial, academic, and operational problems, including lack of oversight by the governing board.”
In 2019, the charter system was overhauled, with Strickland as its new leader. Officials identified several areas for improvement, including student achievement, steady leadership, financial oversight, culture and teacher quality.
The commission decided last year that the charter system had made progress and was on track to achieve academic performance expectations and operate a fiscally sound system. The commission’s most recently available annual report of the system, done in the 2020-21 school year, showed that Hogan met expectations across the board, although academic performance was not included because testing was stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2021, the commission sent a letter to Hogan Prep saying it would conduct additional monitoring and apply specific consequences if the school failed to meet academic expectations over the next year. The commission set expectations for higher student test scores, saying that if Hogan failed to meet the targets, it would “take further action such as moving to close one or more of the school sites.”
