Reorganization of KC School District would involve closing half of buildings (30 of 60 buildings)

[proud2BlibKansan]

Kansas City Superintendent John Covington on Saturday unveiled a sweeping plan to close half the district’s schools, redistribute grade levels and sell the downtown central office.

Covington presented his proposal to the school board in advance of a series of public forums this week on what would be the largest swath of closures in district history — as well as a major reorganization.

“Folks, it’s going to hurt,” Covington told an overflow audience at the offices of the district’s law firm. “It’s going to be painful, but if we work together, we’re going to get through it.”

Covington wants to be able to complete the public debate and present a final plan for a vote by the board at its Feb. 24 meeting.

The board and the community have a lot to digest over the next 10 days.

Under the proposal:

•29 to 31 of the district’s 60 schools would close, including Westport High and possibly Northeast High. This would eliminate as many as 285 teaching positions.

•Some programs would be kept intact but move to new locations or consolidate, such as the Lincoln College Preparatory campus and the African-centered education campus.

•The district’s secondary schools would serve grades seven through 12, creating a combination of middle school and high school grades that is used at Southwest Early College Campus and the African-centered program.

•Several elementary schools would serve pre-kindergarten through second grades, and companion elementary schools would serve grades three through six. All early childhood programs would be provided in elementary schools; the early childhood centers would close.

•The district would renew efforts to sell its administration building, which is less than half used. The city has previously offered to buy the property at 1211 McGee St., next to the Sprint Center.

more . . . http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1746970.html

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

1. Time to tax the rich!!!

The way I'm reading this is the poor are gonna suffer. What will happen if this doesn't work and what is stopping Covington from cutting even more down the road?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. There isn't much choice

The district is looking at a $50 million deficit. Unless we find a new way to finance schools - and I could definitely support taxing the rich - cuts are a given.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We can thank the charters

10 years ago there were 35,000 kids in this district. This year there are 17,000.

[Catshrink]

4. Where are the other 17,000?

Is the decline due to fewer kids in the district or are they going somewhere else, i.e., charters or private schools? Our district is looking at similar measures but we're much smaller. This will take at least a year to accomplish, they say.

[noamnety]

6. Looks like some are at charters

and some are disappeared elsewhere. (not sure if that means moving to private schools, moving out of the district, or their drop out rate has increased.)

From the posts here, it sounds like they lost 18,000 students from their district in the last decade. In that same decade, enrollment in charters in Kansas City increased by a little less than 4,000 students, based on the chart on page 8 here: http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/charterschools/documents/factsaboutcharterschools.pdf

So most weren't actually lost to charters, they've gone someplace else it seems.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Mainly in the charters

[noamnety]

10. 4000 is not most of 18000

Charter enrollment increased by 4000 students in the last decade in Kansas City.
You stated that the Kansas City Public School District enrollment deceased by 18,000 in that time.

Where are the other 14000 students?

Even if we include all the charter students in the city instead of just the increase, 8000 is still not most of 18000.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Well if you got those figures from the charters I wouldn't trust them

They have a reputation for fudging numbers. No one is really sure what their enrollment figures are.

[noamnety]

17. The numbers are from the state. (linked above)

"This presentation is based on a report prepared by the staff of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and provided to the State Board of Education in August 2009."

I doubt the charters are under-representing their numbers - they would get less per pupil funding if they underreported.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. LOL they play number games all the time

My favorite is the charter that claimed to graduate 100% of their seniors. There were 3 in the class. But the state thought there were 20. They routinely claim kids are enrolled when they are no longer there.

Kids borrow addresses or lie about their address to go to neighboring districts. That's a big issue here.

[noamnety]

22. I'm sorry but it doesn't make any sense

to believe a school isn't going to report every last one of their students to the state to get the funding for them. If anything, schools overinflate their numbers on count day like you said - but if they did that, that means even less that 8000 kids total are really enrolled in charters and they have an even smaller impact on your enrollment than you think.

I just can't grasp that anyone would think the charters in KC may have enrolled somewhere between 9,000-18,000 students in the last decade, but only reported 4,000 of them because they didn't want the funding for the rest.

If kids are lying about their addresses to go to neighboring districts, that tells me that the public education in your area isn't equitable from one neighborhood to the next. That's the problem Kansas City needs to be addressing. And I suspect that's where your real problem is - that and drop outs. I've read that like most major cities the schools there are considered drop out factories with rates sometimes soaring above 40%.

[mzteris]

28. are you sure about that?

Isn't that the school where kids must have a case with the Mental Health facility to go? and that students move in and out of the facility on a regular basis?

[noamnety]

5. If you only have half as many students as before

then it might make sense to cut to half the buildings.

Personally, I'm a big proponent of the smaller schools. But it sounds like you average 285 students per building right now, and financially that is very difficult to support, especially if you are having to pay for heat and utilities (and mortgages) on buildings that are half empty.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. The supt wants mega schools cause they are cheaper to run

But I wish we could afford smaller ones. They are definitely better.

[Name removed]

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[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. That is not what the numbers suggest

Charter schools may have picked up about a quarter of the difference. The remainder alone would drive this kind of cuts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. So where are they?

Sounds like you might know.

[LWolf]

11. I'm so sorry.

What has the community response been so far?

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Shock. Disbelief.

It's pretty devastating. About half the school board is up for election in April. So it will be interesting to see if they go along with the supt's plan. He wants a vote of approval in 10 days which doesn't give them much time.

[LWolf]

16. Why is the Superintendent driving the school board?

Shouldn't it be the other way around? The board doesn't have to approve things on a rushed time line.

I spent Friday in a committee working on "proficiency learning," which is another whole topic. I don't know how supportive I am, but I wanted to be on the ground floor, with input on whatever system is adopted.

Our group's facilitator is a board member, and a former educator. I taught his grandkids. He gave us time to bring up our concerns about the whole issue and process. I pointed out that our superintendent just announced a surprise resignation, and that we had just started the process of searching out a new supe; how could we know what kind of agenda a new supe would move in with, and whether or not our work would be supported? The last superintendent change, 4 years ago, dumped all of the work our secondary literacy committee had done and started all over, for example.

He said, "the superintendent is going to take direction from the board. The new superintendent will be with us, or he or she won't be hired. That's one reason why our work today, and for the rest of this spring, is so important. We want the new system in place and ready to debut next year when the new supe steps aboard."

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. The board sets policy

They are big on that now. They got in trouble for doing too much meddling in the day to day operations. So now they are determined to set policy - period. They also have known for several years that schools needed to be closed so they directed the supt to come up with a plan. He did the math and figured if you lose half your kids you should close half your schools. It's hard to argue with.

[LWolf]

23. Perhaps some data

from the small schools movement would help?

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Been there. Done that.

Cost too much so they dropped the program.

[LWolf]

27. It's hard to advocate for

costly solutions, no matter how good, when our budgets are imploding. :(

[tonysam]

15. Just so you know, John Covington is Eli Broad.

He graduated from the superintendent "academy" in 2008.

[mzteris]

18. Did Eli

stand you up for Prom or something???

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. He's also having his favorite principals trained

The district is broke but he wants $800K to send more principals for Broad training.

[tonysam]

24. Oh, man, the district is going to go in the crapper.

Eli Broad thinks MBAs should be running schools. He's an idiot.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Well in many ways it already is in the crapper

They've been trying to get it out of the crapper for as long as I can remember.

[donco6]

29. Holy cow.

I thought we were in trouble. But we're just a blip compared to this. Sorry to hear.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. It's a mess

This is the 4th year in a row we have faced a school closing. Our neighbors are wonderful and very supportive of our school. They have been able to talk the board out of closing us every time. But the building is nearly 100 years old and in bad shape.

Here's the super and he describes the problem well: http://www.kctv5.com/video/22583303/index.html

And a piece in the local paper: http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1753577.html

[Name removed]

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