The Kansas City Star endorses in the Hickman Mills school district | Opinion

The Hickman Mills C-1 School District has been stuck in a financial, managerial, and academic quagmire for some time. Still, with the return of a former superintendent, cuts to spending, and lots of voter support, it may be able to see its way through.

To save the district, we suggest that voters get behind the two ballot questions that are up for a vote on April 7.

The first is a proposed $20 million, no-tax-increase, general obligation bond issue. The second is a measure that would allow the district to change how it uses some tax dollars to pay salaries, support building improvements, and afford other operating expenses.

Returning Superintendent Dennis Carpenter, who came back to the district last year after being gone for eight years, says the bond issue will free up cash to pay off debt, improve school facilities and set the district on a course to stability. Shoring up district finances is crucial to allow district leaders and faculty to concentrate more on educating students and regaining the district’s full state accreditation.

The South Kansas City school district faces a $14 million budget shortfall that has forced recent job and program cuts. In January, the district’s school board voted to approve a broad series of cuts, resulting in the elimination of more than 70 jobs and dozens of district contracts and programs.

Carpenter said the district had been surviving too long by spending down its reserves, an unsustainable practice.

At the time of the board vote, Carpenter told news organizations that the cuts made then were necessary to stop the bleeding and warned that the district could shut down completely within two years without significant cuts similar to the ones approved

Partial accreditation

The Hickman Mills district, which has been partially accredited since 2012, has a K-12 enrollment of about 5,000 students and can ill afford to shutter and leave so many without a public school district in their area.

The Star reported earlier this month that the district was about $11 million in the red at the start of the school year, Carpenter said in January, part of the reason for that was alleged financial mismanagement by previous district leadership. That deficit grew to $14 million by 2026 due to abrupt changes to the Jackson County property tax system, which accounts for a large portion of the district’s revenue.

If voters approve the general obligation bonds issue, the district would first pay off a $13.5 million debt. Currently, the payments on that debt are coming out of the district’s operating fund. Doing that would free up operating fund money to be used to keep the district going.

But it’s voter approval on question No. 2 that would help sustain operations funding over time.

Carpenter said that after consulting with lawyers, the district learned it can cover its debt with 80 cents per one hundred dollars assessed valuation of real property.

Parents and school staff in the past have complained that district leaders had not been transparent about district problems. Details of the bond proposal and the tax-money spending plan are outlined on the district website.

Carpenter said the two questions are about putting the stop on the district “spending more than it is taking in.” He said it’s “about getting back to balance, getting our budget balanced, where it belongs.”

If question No. 1 does not pass — it needs 57% voter approval — the district will still be able to reduce the debt service levy by 30 cents. It will not, however, have the $20 million to pay off the $13.5 million debt coming out of the operating fund, nor will it have the money for deferred maintenance, ball field lighting and renovations, specifically for Warford Elementary.

Question No. 2 needs a 50% plus one voter approval to pass.

Trust in leadership?

There is a lot riding on the outcome of this school bond election for Hickman Mills, its students, faculty and staff. The two questions are key, Carpenter said, in seeing the district pursue “a sustainable destiny.”

Trust in district leadership is a big ask for Hickman Mills voters. Their former superintendent was fired amid allegations of mismanaged funds, including an unsanctioned trip to Ghana with district leaders and some students. Currently, the district is under a state audit investigation connected to those allegations and others.

“We have phenomenal young people in this district doing great things,” Carpenter said. “But they are only able to do those things when the district is funded appropriately and the district is a great steward of those funds.”

Approval of both ballot questions will give district leaders a chance to prove they can be trusted to steer this troubled district in the right direction and soon get the state to restore full accreditation.

In 2024 and 2025, the district, despite the infliction of having the highest student mobility rate of any other urban district in the Kansas City metro, reached test score levels for accreditation, but Missouri’s State Board of Education said it would hold out for another year of performance at those levels. The district is hoping for full accreditation this year. A show of support from voters couldn’t hurt.