KCK bond aims to rebuild schools, keep taxes steady. Will voters support second try?
Byanca Toribio cast her vote at the Argentine Community Center in Kansas City, Kansas, thinking of her son.
Her 7-year-old has autism and a developmental delay. Grant Elementary offers special education services unavailable in the Catholic school where her other three children attend.
She says public school teachers are overwhelmed by growing class sizes and feels her son and other students like him are at risk of falling “through the cracks.”
“I’m planning on voting yes, especially because of him,” said Toribio, 32.
Her sister, Natalie Hernandez, 25, feels the same and wants a better experience for kids throughout the school district she graduated from.
“I want to help in any way that I can. If that’s my vote, then definitely.”
The sisters were among those casting early votes over the weekend on a $180 million bond initiative that would finance new school buildings in a district where officials say the needs are great and long overdue.
On the Nov. 5 ballot for residents living within the boundaries of the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools district is a capital plan that would rebuild two middle schools, consolidate two elementary schools as one and put an addition on the Sumner Academy of Arts and Science.
It is a step district leaders say will enhance student opportunity in the district, one of the largest in the state, where some students learn in new buildings while others get by in crumbling facilities.
The ask comes six months after voters widely rejected a more expansive effort that came with a $420 million price tag — more than twice the amount of the current proposal — and would have increased property tax bills for district residents. During a single-issue special election in May, that initiative failed by a margin of 58% to 42%, with less than 9% of voters casting a ballot.
The vote is also happening at a time when local government leaders face heightened scrutiny and pressure over property tax bills. In Wyandotte County, both the Unified Government Board of Commission and the Kansas City, Kansas Community College, placed caps on property tax collections this year, bucking the advice of top staffers and triggering budget cuts.
For residents living within the bounds of KCKPS, some of that added pressure comes from diminished state support to pay for capital projects, like facility improvements. Should the upcoming bond pass, state tax dollars will pay for roughly 31% of the tab, a decline from the last round of school upgrades in 2016, when the state’s share was about half.
The failure to get voter approval in May sent school administrators back to the drawing board. And the newest plan is designed to keep property tax rates flat next year, a point prominently displayed on promotional campaign signs encouraging residents to vote on the “zero tax increase” bond.
The district is home to some of the state’s oldest school buildings. As populations outgrew the spaces within them, many students today attend class in mobile trailers, including at Sumner and Central Middle School.
During an interview with The Star last week, Superintendent Anna Stubblefield said the challenges the district faces remain — and the need is greater than the resources available. Officials learned in May that voters understood those needs but wanted an option that would not increase taxes, she said.
‘Chip away at it’
Estimated costs have already risen considerably over the past six months, driven by heightened material and labor prices along with inflation. Stubblefield said new buildings were even cheaper eight years ago, when a majority of the projects could have been completed for less than is being spent now.
Part of the pitch for the longer list of projects in the spring was to avoid a piecemeal approach, creating greater equity within the school system and saving money at the same time.
But they adjusted to lower the cost in the short term.
“Now the approach is to chip away at it,” Stubblefield said. “In the long run, it costs you more, but you also have to respond to what the voters are saying.”
As voters head to the polls a second time this year, the superintendent says some opposition remains, though that is quieter now. Still, she is not completely certain the updated plan will be accepted.
“My hope would be that the community sees that this is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” she said.
“It’ll be very disappointing if it doesn’t pass,” she added. “And actually, I don’t know if disappointing is the right word. It will, to me, speak volumes to the students and families in this community,” if the bond fails despite the promise to keep taxes flat and as an opportunity exists to make buildings safer and better.
The $180 million plan would rebuild Central and Argentine middle schools. Silver City and Noble Prentis elementary schools would be razed, and its students would attend a single, new building. And an addition would be built on the historic and prestigious Sumner Academy to phase out the need to hold classes in mobile trailer units.
Diana Reyes, 40, whose daughters were educated in Kansas City, Kansas, public schools, including her youngest, still a freshman at Wyandotte High School, said she attended Central Middle and hasn’t seen anything done there since then.
“Kids deserve to go to school in a nice environment that is conducive for learning and not (be) worried about any old pipes or mold on walls or cracks. I know, like, the railings are kind of a hazard, too. About to fall off if they’re just even leaning on them,” said Reyes, who came out to vote in favor of the plan with her 18-year-old daughter Julissa.
“I went to school there, and I’m 40 years old. And they haven’t done anything since then.”
Critics remain
At less than half the initial cost, many other projects the district says are needed will not be included.
Those major changes have not appeased all the critics.
Over the past few weeks, campaign signs calling on residents to strike down the initiative have been planted near voting sites and school buildings across the district.
One opponent leading a charge against the initiative is Pamela Penn-Hicks, a longtime resident and local organizer who frequently brings skepticism and questions about government spending to city, county and school board meetings.
Along with tax pressures in Kansas City, Kansas, where a large share of the district’s households live under the federal poverty line, critics of the bond initiatives have raised concerns about academic achievement.
“We are not improving fast enough,” Penn-Hicks said. “Too many children are walking across the graduation stage without being able to read and do arithmetic well enough to matriculate to college.”
A few voters who spoke to The Star while casting early ballots in the Argentine neighborhood on Saturday said they planned to vote no, including one woman who declined to share her name said she has no confidence in the district’s administration.
‘A safe environment to learn in’
But most of the residents interviewed after hitting the polls that day said they viewed the measure favorably.
“I’m a teacher, so I’m for it. Anything that’s good for the kids,” said Celia Merino, 59, who teaches fifth grade at John F. Kennedy Elementary School.
“I feel like these kids that live in this district deserve to have state-of-the-art schools like in other districts. And I’m pretty sure that Argentine looks probably the same as when I went there,” Merino said.
Jacob Westveer, 25, of the Rosedale neighborhood, is a fourth-grade teacher at Eugene Ware Elementary. His school was slated for a rebuild through the more expansive initiative that failed in May, which he said was “disappointing.”
“It’ll be interesting to see if it’s different this time,” he said.
Westveer has witnessed firsthand some of the problems at Eugene Ware and says “the environment itself is a huge impact.” When the air-conditioning went out last year, his 20-student classroom grew uncomfortably hot in the afternoon.
“Those kids aren’t ready to learn when it’s 80 degrees,” Westveer said.
Like several voters who spoke to The Star, Kim Carter, 58, went to the ballot box not knowing about the bond question. But she instinctively voted yes.
“I always vote yes for a school bond. I was brought up that way. But I just feel like today, schools lack so many resources that they need, and they need teachers who are paid well and supported, and they need a safe environment to learn in.”
Other Kansas City, Kansans, who live outside the district and will not participate in the ballot question voiced support — a few based on their own experiences.
Husband and wife William and Lameca Jolly, 46 and 44, respectively, live in the neighboring Turner school district but attended Argentine Middle as kids. Back then the building’s classrooms were hot, they recalled, with open windows and fans serving as the only form of air conditioning.
On Saturday, the pair brought their 21-year-old son, Justin, a University of Kansas student, out to vote. If the question had been on their ballot, the Jollys said they’d have supported it.
“Kids would do better in their education if they had nicer classrooms, I would think,” William Jolly said.
“Where they can come in and feel comfortable,” Lameca Jolly added.
