Two KCK campuses caught fire this school year; another had a gas leak. Why?
Public school students in Kansas City, Kansas, have recently had a number of days out of the classroom due to safety-related incidents at their campuses.
This school year alone, at least three such circumstances — including a fire at Wyandotte High School, a fire at Arrowhead Middle School and a gas leak at Washington High School — led to district leadership temporarily cancelling classes.
The combined enrollment at the three campuses is about 3,500 students, according to 2024-25 state data.
The incidents this school year were unfortunate, random incidents, and not related to larger infrastructure issues that Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools is trying to address with bond funding, district spokespeople said.
KCKPS voters in 2024 approved a $180 million bond issue to address crumbling infrastructure in many of the district’s historic buildings, some as old as 100 years. They passed that bond after rejecting the district’s proposed $420 million bond that would’ve included additional district campuses needing improvements.
None of the three campuses affected during the 2025-26 school year by the fires and the gas leak were included in either of those plans. And KCKPS said the buildings don’t have any larger structural concerns that are being addressed at other schools.
That said, new and old buildings alike require constant upkeep and maintenance, according to the district.
Wyandotte High School students had two days off last week as officials addressed smoke damage caused by a small fire that caught in a campus stairwell. Students attended classes online for the remainder of that week and the week after.
It takes a while to clean up damage from campus fires, even if they are small, a district spokesperson told The Star. Mainly, district staff and crews that assist with cleanup prioritize removing remaining hazardous particles and get the air quality back up to meet safety standards.
“In both cases (Wyandotte & Arrowhead) there wasn’t a lot of structural damage– it was more soot and smoke from the fires that spread throughout the buildings,“ said Markl Johnson, district spokesperson.
KCKPS as of Thursday said it did not know what caused the Wyandotte High fire.
In August, toward the start of the school year, Arrowhead Middle School cancelled classes — and students and staff temporarily relocated to Kansas City, Kansas, Community College — after a fire broke out in the boiler room.
That fire came less than a year after a separate fire that happened in a classroom in November 2024. HVAC system failures caused that 2024 fire, according to the district.
The smoke from the August fire filled the building and left soot on nearly every surface in the school, according to KCKPS.
“We don’t want anyone to come in contact with that, especially if it were a chemical burn which some fires are,” Johnson said.
The gas leak at Washington High School, which happened the following month, resulted in the district sending students home for a day, and regular campus activities resumed the next day.
The leak happened after an underground, city-owned gas line near the campus began to deteriorate, according to the district’s Operations Department.
The repairs to each of the buildings affected will be paid for through the district’s insurance policy and with funds from its $53 million Maintenance and Operations budget.
Ultimately, the incidents at the campuses this school year are unfortunate, and KCKPS could use some good luck, said Edwin Birch, another district spokesperson. The school district wants its students to not have to miss out on classroom time.
Star reporters Robert Cronkleton and Caroline Zimmerman and Nathan Pilling contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 10:14 AM.
