Sweeping plan for KC schools needs close community scrutiny

The best thing to emerge from a marathon Kansas City school board meeting Wednesday was a pushed-back timetable on a comprehensive master plan to close three schools, change attendance boundaries and stress stronger academic performance.

Originally, some top school officials hoped the board would approve the plan in January with changes beginning in the 2016-17 school year. But the board voted to delay its vote until March to give time for more community input. That also might delay any changes until the following school year, starting in mid-2017.

That delay also properly would give the board time to select a new superintendent. Whoever is selected to succeed Steve Green should have a say in the master plan, which he or she will have to carry out.

“Our intent is to get it right, not get it fast,” said Al Tunis, interim district superintendent, who with other district administrators presented the long-awaited plan to the board.

The push-back from the school board came over the proposed closing of Southwest Early College Campus and moving most of its 350 students into the African Centered Preparatory Academy, formerly Southeast High School. Board members didn’t think parents in the mostly white southwest part of the district would send their kids to the preparatory academy on the city’s mostly black East Side even though it would offer other themes alongside African-centered education.

Instead of gaining attendance and families under this plan, the district could lose them, which happens now as many white families with children in southwest corridor elementary schools send them to private schools for upper grades.

“My concern is we’re going to need another desegregation plan after we pass this plan,” board member Melissa Robinson said.

Marisol Montero and other board members were right to ask for a history behind the current boundaries so that information could be considered in the proposed changes. It would be needed at community meetings to gain buy-in from parents.

The other schools that would close are Crispus Attucks Elementary, 2400 Prospect Ave., and Satchel Paige Elementary, 3301 E. 75th St. The school closings and boundary changes would affect about 15 percent of the district enrollment, or 1,986 students.

Carrying out the master plan would open the door to a promising plan by Academie Lafayette to use Southwest as an International Baccalaureate high school. Talks about a joint agreement on that venture between the charter and district stalled earlier this year.

In addition, closing Attucks makes room for the Kansas City Neighborhood Academy. This charter elementary school would be part of Kansas City’s Urban Neighborhood Initiative, one of the “Big 5” ideas in the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 vision for prosperity.

The district’s comprehensive master plan has taken about two years to develop and includes some of the biggest changes since it closed nearly half of its schools in 2010 in response to years of declining enrollment and a need for cost savings.

Without question, some of the new proposals would greatly benefit the students and the community and save the district more money.

Changing school boundaries, which weren’t adjusted in the 2010 closings, would create a better attendance balance among the remaining 36 schools and better align elementary, middle and high schools with neighborhoods. Children ride school buses now if they live more than 1.5 miles from class. The walk boundary would be reduced to a half mile from schools with fixed stops of no more than two blocks apart, making conditions safer for students and the district more competitive with charter school transportation.

The plan calls for Benjamin Banneker to become the first of four under-performing elementary schools in a new year-round program intended to boost academic achievement. The other schools are King, Troost and Melcher. The plan would add a third middle school in the southern part of the district and reopen Lincoln Middle School.

In addition, the district would boost teacher training, school safety and enhance the academic climate. Communications with middle school parents would be increased along with added extracurricular activities.

The four remaining high schools would become more focused on college and careers. The African Centered Preparatory Academy would become the district’s first theme-oriented school with three college and career pathways — one African-centered education, a second in college prep and a third in STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math.

The master plan promises a lot of needed changes in the district as it struggles to gain full state accreditation. But the board is right to mull over the proposals, wait until a new superintendent is chosen and seek input from the community.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Sweeping plan for KC schools needs close community scrutiny."