‘Hole that sucked people in’: Teachers allege Christian school in Kansas City is ‘toxic’
Urban Christian Academy, a Kansas City private school, is closing this spring after it announced its support of the LGBTQ community and lost funding from religious donors.
Many parents and community members were saddened by the news, while others felt blindsided and disapproved of the school publicly affirming LGBTQ rights. But for several current and former teachers, the school’s closure is much more complicated.
The Star spoke with six employees, who alleged school leaders created an unhealthy and toxic environment over the past decade, causing ongoing staff turnover. They described, in interviews and in resignation letters, a tense workplace with unreasonably high expectations, where leaders were overly controlling, disregarded employees’ concerns and lacked transparency.
The teachers alleged:
▪ The private school lacked proper oversight and effective policies for voicing concerns. Teachers could report complaints to their direct supervisors, who were also the school’s top leaders, or go to the board of directors, which they say was inaccessible and often changing — recently dwindling down to only one outside board member.
▪ Leaders dictated what teachers felt were unreasonable and strangely specific requirements for how staff spoke, behaved and taught. Several teachers said they were reprimanded if they did not respond to leaders’ texts within five to 30 minutes, for example. One teacher said she was rebuked for saying “um” during lessons.
▪ One teacher alleged that she was fired from her job in part for violating a rule that she said barred her from “processing” school matters with fellow staff members, after she had dinner with a coworker and discussed work.
▪ Many employees, they said, were either fired or resigned after a year or two due to the difficult environment and disagreements with school leaders. At times, staff shortages led employees to raise concerns about student safety.
“It seemed that people were often manipulated into being what leadership wanted us to be as a staff,” former employee Alix Carruth said. “Or if you weren’t going to fit that model or fall in line, you were removed. We talked a really big game about relationships and what Jesus would want us to do in relationships, but the way staff was treated was a complete mismatch.”
School leaders denied many of the employees’ allegations. Kalie Callaway-George, executive director and co-founder, said in an email she is “grieved to hear that was anyone’s experience” of school leadership.
Leaders painted many of the concerns as typical for a tiny private school, with at its peak about 100 students and 15 employees.
“UCA is a small community and so relationships are at the heart of our organization. Conflict within an organization is inevitable. Within the walls of UCA we have had conflicts and they have played an integral part of our growth as individuals and as an organization,” Callaway-George said.
“We stand by the work that we have done at UCA and the ways we have partnered with families and staff alike. My door has always and will continue to be open for those who have been a part of this journey with us to openly share their concerns so we can move forward in closing this chapter of UCA with shared dignity and compassion.”
A couple of parents said they only had positive experiences with their children attending the school, saying that staff helped students’ confidence grow and also helped families financially, with groceries and other needs.
One long-time school volunteer, Janet Wagner, said she could give nothing but a “glowing report” of the school, saying that it was a welcoming place only aiming to do good in the community.
Two teachers said the situation at the school has only grown more strenuous over the past year, as the school has lost thousands of dollars after affirming LGBTQ rights. And as more employees have quit, forcing leaders to close its first, second and third grade classrooms this winter. That has left only six full-time employees to staff the school until it closes in late May.
“The most glaring problem to me is retaining staff. Since I started, I think I’ve counted 15 different people that have either resigned or been fired, and that’s over just two-and-a-half years,” said one teacher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “That’s not a coincidence. There has to be something going on institutionally causing people to leave.”
‘Wasn’t enough support’
For the past nine years, Urban Christian Academy in southeast Kansas City has steadily grown, adding a new grade each year, to most recently include an eighth grade class.
Teachers said they were drawn to work at the school for its start-up mentality, positive messaging and mission to offer a tuition-free, private education to low-income students. They described the school as a tight-knit community with a genuine goal of doing good.
But five former employees said it did not take long before they felt that they were joining an unhealthy environment.
One former teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said of her time at the school, which ended in 2020: “The vast majority of students are students of color, students in poverty. And that’s why we were all there. There was this goodness to it, loving the kids and the families. But it was almost like this hole that sucked people in and sucked your life away from you.“
Because of its small staff, teachers said they were asked to do most jobs in the building.
“We were the bus drivers, getting there before school hours to do that. And then we were also the people driving those kids home. And then we were also the janitorial staff, cleaning all the rooms after school,” said Rachel Edwards, who worked as a teaching fellow in 2017. “ ... We all knew we weren’t signing up to make a ton of money. But when you took my salary divided by the number of hours I worked, I was making well below minimum wage if you look at it that way.”
Carruth said the workload was especially unmanageable due to a lack of resources.
“(Leaders) were passionate about kids being taught well. But there wasn’t enough support,” Carruth said. “Having those high expectations makes sense if there’s a support team on staff to help teachers get there. But you don’t have a special education team, you don’t have interventionists, you don’t have the resources that a normal school would have to help your teachers teach at that level.”
Rachel Berg, the school’s director of curriculum, said in an email that leaders have always valued taking care of teachers, including by “going to a four-day teaching week to give teachers time to plan, budgeting for staff joy (coffee deliveries and individualized birthday gifts), and keeping class sizes intentionally small.”
Several teachers also voiced concerns about student achievement, alleging that they watched some students fall behind throughout the school year without intervention.
Berg said the school has always prioritized “academic excellence,” and said when the budget has allowed for it, a full-time academic interventionist has been on staff.
Staff members alleged the school does not have strong enough oversight.
“It did not feel safe to bring up concerns, to report emotional abuse, or to advocate for yourself,” Carruth said. “The power dynamic, lack of an HR staff/department, and the enmeshment of leadership with few — if any — emotional and relational boundaries made it nearly impossible to do so. An environment of psychological safety did not exist for those of us not in the director circle.”
Callaway-George contended the school did have clear “organizational systems in place to make space for staff concerns. And if staff feel like our leadership team did not adequately address the issues, they are invited to bring their concerns to our Board of Directors.”
The six employees who spoke with The Star said it was not clear to them while they worked at the school who served on the board of directors, and all were shocked to learn that most members had left by last year.
Callaway-George said that board members left for various reasons, including related to the change to affirm LGBTQ rights. When two members remained, she said the school invited four new people to join and help oversee the school’s closure.
A few former board members either declined or did not return The Star’s request for interview.
‘Really difficult place’
While growing increasingly burnt out from the workload, teachers said they also received “crushing” criticism and feedback from school leaders on a daily basis.
“Out-of-the-blue stuff would happen where you said something wrong or you did something wrong. And then there would be a massive problem,” one former teacher, who left the school in 2020, said. “You would then be built back up. And then you would crash. Then be built back up and crash. It was this roller coaster.
“Nobody’s opinion was heard or mattered. So it was just like a really difficult place to work.”
Edwards argued school leaders were “unwilling to adjust any expectation that they had,” for how employees communicated, behaved and taught. Teachers said that included rules for immediately responding to texts regardless of the circumstances and using certain language when dealing with conflicts and apologizing.
They said leaders were overbearing and constantly micromanaging.
“I’m getting feedback and expecting to internalize and process it, and then getting more tomorrow. It felt very harsh and very intense,” Edwards said.
Another former employee, who worked at the school for three years, said: “I was torn down mentally and emotionally from the beginning and it got worse during my last year. The confusing part to me this whole time was I actually got academic results that were worthy of accolades, which was rare at this school, yet they continued to dismiss that. ... Being an educator is already more than a full-time job and it’s tragic how they mistreated so many good people.”
Berg disagreed with the characterization of leaders’ feedback.
“A key piece of UCA feedback culture is balanced feedback — both strengths and areas of growth. I’ve witnessed and participated in feedback conversations that were rooted in growth mindset and asset based,” she said. “I’ve also seen school leadership go out of their way to notice and celebrate individual and collective teacher success. A school culture that is high accountability isn’t for every educator. I do feel very confident that feedback conversations are coming from a genuine desire to help educators be their best for the students they serve.”
Carruth, who worked at the school from 2016 to 2018, said some employees were given improvement plans, which she called a “behavior contract,” outlining rules for how to socially interact with coworkers. She alleged that officials told her if she broke it — which in part prohibited her from processing work matters with colleagues — she would be fired.
She alleged she was later fired, in part because officials said she had violated that clause, which she believes is related to having dinner with a coworker where they talked about work one night that spring. Two other employees said they were aware of some staff having to agree to improvement plans.
Callaway-George denied the allegation, saying, “Having someone sign a contract not to address issues they have at UCA with the staff members involved would be against our values.”
“We believe in the value of productive conflict, we absolutely want and encourage staff to bring concerns to us and to each other. We believe that these types of dialogues allow opportunities for us to explore and grow,” Callaway-George said. “For HR and ethical reasons, we won’t disclose any information about past or current employees. I can speak in broad terms that UCA utilizes improvement plans in situations where student safety or academic excellence are compromised.”
One of the employees who spoke with The Star said that he had not personally experienced mistreatment from school leaders, such as the control, micromanaging and crushing feedback that others alleged.
“People talked about being mistreated. I’ve heard those stories. I believe them 100%. But my experience was that I kind of got left alone and got to teach. I wasn’t subjected to any mistreatment personally,” the teacher said.
All six of the employees said they witnessed a constant revolving door of staff, saying that most quit their jobs or were fired after a year or two.
Callaway-George said the school has averaged a 25% teacher turnover rate from year to year.
Berg argued that the school’s small staff “magnifies the effect of teacher turnover.
“I think there are many reasons people chose to leave — some personal and some professional. ... When I read about the current state of teacher retention nationwide, it feels like UCA mirrors the current trends in education.”
Following the loss of funding, and two employees leaving at winter break, the school was forced to close its elementary classrooms. Now the rest of the school will close after the semester ends in late May, leaving parents to find new schools for their children.
Slated to close
Callaway-George said Urban Christian Academy has always had an “inclusive theology.” But last winter, it went public with its support of the LGBTQ community for the first time.
It updated its website and mission statement to affirm LGBTQ rights — which she said led to a deluge of religious donors pulling support.
“I think our community members felt safe within our walls, but we wanted them to feel publicly protected as well. Eventually, it felt like our silence was contributing to the hurt and pain our queer community members were experiencing,” Callaway-George said in an email.
Many individual donors and eight churches that supported the school, she said, withdrew financial contributions, “citing a disagreement of values” on LGBTQ issues. In the following six months, Callaway-George said, the school lost 42% of its funding. By the end of 2022, the school lost 80%.
And now, officials say the school is forced to close this spring.
“It’s a really heartbreaking place to be as both an educator and a parent,” said Berg, whose own children attend the school. “UCA is a really special and rare place. I am deeply grateful my own children have had such a safe and nurturing school family to grow up in and the void UCA leaves will definitely be felt profoundly in our family.”
Callaway-George claimed the public affirmation of LGBTQ rights was the sole reason for the rapid loss in funding. The school was primarily bolstered by religious donors, although it has also received grants from various organizations. The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, for example, provided the school with grants from donor-advised funds for many years, including this school year, spokeswoman Leanne Breiby said.
Teachers who spoke with The Star said they are supportive of the school affirming LGBTQ rights. But they felt that the school’s struggle to retain staff left it unstable for years.
“I think they took a stance on something that is super divisive in the church context hoping it would pan out and (LGBTQ) affirming churches would fill in the gap. And I think that’s not how it went down. If that money goes away, you don’t really have a choice but to close. I can empathize with that,” Carruth said.
“But my issue is, this hasn’t been a well-oiled machine that’s been working for almost 10 years. Your inability to retain staff has nothing to do with funding. You’re not letting people go because you can’t pay them. People are quitting.”
School leaders, Callaway-George said, have reached out to churches that openly support the LGBTQ community, but none offered financial assistance.
“I never knew in my wildest dreams they would face the ramifications they did, having 80% of their funding stripped,” said Rev. Duke Tufty of Unity Temple on the Plaza. “It’s sad. They’re doing so much for the youth in our community.”
Tufty said his congregation has considered fundraising for the school, but has been unable to as, “churches are hurting.
“Most have not recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, where there was a huge exodus to streaming. Before COVID, we were at 90% of people in the seats and 10% streaming online. And that has reversed,” he said. “It’s good we were still able to keep them interested. But people streaming don’t give like people who are there when the offering is taken.”
A few teachers said they were not informed that the school planned to publicly affirm LGBTQ rights. And they felt kept in the dark despite feeling as if the decision would likely result in lost funding, since much of it came from religious donors who do not support same-sex marriage or LGBTQ clergy.
“I’m just sad that decisions were made that are going to close the school without consulting families first and asking them what they would like, and also being honest about the situation, which is that funding was going to be lost,” one teacher said. “There’s no way they didn’t know that.”
Parent Jamesia Manning said her son attended first grade last school year, and said his teacher left in the middle of the year. Manning said she was not told the school would change its stance on LGBTQ rights until she started receiving emails after the fact.
“That kind of blindsided all of us. You didn’t run it by us. You didn’t say anything. It was kind of just done without notifying parents about it,” she said. “So my husband and I decided to just go with another school that was a little bit more upfront in their communication regarding when things change. And their vision changing to be LGBTQ supportive took us by surprise as well. We want to make the decision of what our kids are exposed to and not necessarily the school doing it.”
Other parents said the change didn’t come as a surprise.
Da’Lesa Goodspeed, whose fourth grade son has attended the school since kindergarten, said of the school: “They were so welcoming and loving and wanted to show love through the Christian way, that I knew they were accepting of it. It wasn’t a shocker for me.”
Even for teachers who left, they said it is painful to watch the closure of Urban Christian Academy — a school they say was founded on an authentic mission of helping some of Kansas City’s most vulnerable students.
“It’s never been a perfect place, and no one has ever said that. But it’s heartbreaking to myself and so many others that it’s closing and the kids are losing this place,” one teacher said.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
