Contact and Tips
Yahoo Upcoming KC Events- Oct 18, 2008: Dialin' For Barack at Sarah Bivins' Home
- Oct 26, 2008: MO Undecided Outreach- Mid-Town Blues 4 Barack Saturday Neighborhood Canvass at Sw Corner Of The Westport Sunfresh Market Parking Lot
- Oct 25, 2008: MO Undecided Outreach- Mid-Town Blues 4 Barack Saturday Neighborhood Canvass at Sw Corner Of The Westport Sunfresh Market Parking Lot
- Oct 19, 2008: MO Undecided Outreach - Mid-Town Blues 4 Barack Sunday Neighborhood Canvass at Sw Corner Of The Westport Sunfresh Market Parking Lot
- Oct 18, 2008: MO Undecided Outreach- Mid-Town Blues 4 Barack Saturday Neighborhood Canvass at SW Trafficway & Mill St. Meet at the SW Corner of the Sunfresh Parking lot
- Oct 11, 2008: MO Undecided Outreach South Kansas City Phonebank at South Kansas City
- Nov 9, 2008: Eagles Kansas City at Sprint Center
- Nov 21, 2008: Tech N9ne at Uptown Theater
- Oct 19, 2008: R2T4 "Eight is Enough" Sunday MO Undecided Voter Outreach Canvass at Ward Parkway Shopping Center
- Oct 18, 2008: R2T4 "Eight is Enough" Saturday Phone Bank at Sarah's House
Oct
20
Sprawl builds new high schools
October 20, 2005 |
While schools close in the urban core and inner-ring suburban districts like Shawnee Mission and Hickman Mills struggle to gracefully manage declining enrollments, the outer suburbs continue building new schools to accomodate transient suburbanites.
In 2004 Lee’s Summit opened their third school, LS West, and is already making plans for their fourth in 2009! The year before it was Olathe Northwest, that city’s fourth high school. Recent years saw a second high school in the Northland’s Park Hill district, and a fourth at Blue Valley in southern Johnson County. In the future, North Kansas City is preparing to add a fourth high school, followed by a second in Liberty and a third in Independence. Blue Valley high schools will again be at capacity with five years of opening their newest high school. Blue Springs will also be looking at a third high school in the future. In 15 years time the Missouri-side Suburban Conference will have grown from 12 to 28 schools.
Meanwhile, urban and inner-ring suburban districts are faced with some sticky situations. Hickman Mills faced a parent revolt when it considered merging its two high schools. The KCMO district continues operate far more schools than it needs for a shrunken enrollment, largely because of the political consequences of closing schools. And if you think these schools are contentious, just wait until Shawnee Mission’s enrollment declines to the point where they are faced with closing one of their gold-plated high schools. Good times!
Comments
12 Comments so far
Why is this a big deal?
This is a big deal because it means the school situation in KCMO (and others) is not exclusive to the urban core. It can — and will — happen to the inner ring suburbs unless sprawl slows/stops now.
Closing schools is a very complicated issue. It rips the heart out of a neighborhood, which is why neighborhood schools have constituencies that fight closures with such ferocity, in KCMO, in Shawnee Mission, and in sparsely populated communities in western Kansas.
We can’t ever forget that there are children living in the communities being left behind by macro forces such as suburban sprawl and rural depopulation. Those kids deserve an education every bit as good as those in the shiny new schools on the suburban edge.
Another good reason to shore up urban and inner-ring suburban schools and districts: when the housing bubble pops and gasoline passes the $4-a-gallon level, those smaller homes in more affordable, closer-to-work neighborhoods are going to start looking a lot more attractive.
So, Dave. How do you suggest stopping suburban sprawl? Why should places like Lee’s Summit be penalized for having four much needed schools? They pay for it out there. If inner ring/urban schools want shiny new schools, they need taxes that equal those of Lee’s Summit and Blue Valley.
This could also have something to do with people living in those districts and using addresses for other districts so their kids don’t have to go to those schools. I know for a fact of three families that live in the KCMO school district yet use a family members address to send their children to Raytown schools.
ME, I don’t think Dave is blaming the problem on sprawl; the education system is directly leading to sprawl. It’s one of the tragedies of the KCMO school district.
I don’t know how to fix those schools, but if we want to stop people from moving to Blue Springs and Olathe and places like that, we’ll fix the KCMO school distrct.
The KCMO school district is run by a very corrupt and misguided school board who cares more about staying in power and winning elections than creating good schools.
They recently fired the superintendent before he even had a chance to accomplish much of anything. I can’t say the situation here in KCK is much better, however I will say that the KCK school district has gotten creative in trying to make changes, and of all the suburban districts, it faces the most similar demographics and issues to the KCMO district.
However unlike the KCMO district, rather than having a widely publicized national hunt for a superintendent, we hired a well qualified individual from within who has worked in the Kansas City Kansas school district for years.
I attended schools in the Southwest Cluster. Most of those schools are still here. When you go inside those schools in comparision to the schools in the suburbs one can see and feel why many use false addresses to send their child to schools further out. You can feel the parent participation throughout the school. Teachers who look and Act like they want to be where they are and know why.
Upgades and new methods and technology gleaming back at us from hard woking tax dollars.
We need to recruit from within and locally people who understand and have experience first hand KCMO school history and have a honest desire to fix the system.
We need to let the participants of White flight know that are urban core is safe, smart, advance and can and will educate their children as well as the others in our community better than the Pembroke Hill’s and Northland schools.
The parents, the community, and the kids need to help, stay envolve, and treat this situation like it is life and death.
There are competent compassionate people ot there that can turn this district around. The political hangups need to be put into the garbage can and we truely get serious add some elbow grease and fix the system.
As a past employee of the KCMO School District in HR (2005), I have seen with my own eyes and have heard with my own ears some of the inner workings of the deceit that goes on. I just hope that the “NEW” Supt. can get to the bottom of it. But paying him a whopping $250,000 is ridiculous.
my comment is why is kcmo district or my be it is the linc program is trying to close 12-15 sites (childcare)when alot of middle class working familys depend on the programs and now i read in the paper that kcmo is trying to bring up the same debate that we had last year with independence school district about them taking over the schools in independence and in suger creek.my concern is for our children but it sounds like kcmo is just beening cheap suckers and just want to get the most money for the schools they don’t want and to hell with our children welfare. or for the single-working familys that have to roll with the punts and keep going somehow there are all ready about 15 familys that need help for the hoildays but all the kcmo school district is concerned about is what programs they can close in the middle of the school year to save money because it probaly the same schools the are want to turn over to independence and has anyone think about if indep. gets the schools will our children be below average because kcmo standards are lower then indep. any ideas please send to jennreiley@yahoo.com
my comment is why is kcmo district or my be it is the linc program is trying to close 12-15 sites (childcare)when alot of middle class working familys depend on the programs and now i read in the paper that kcmo is trying to bring up the same debate that we had last year with independence school district about them taking over the schools in independence and in suger creek.my concern is for our children but it sounds like kcmo is just beening cheap suckers and just want to get the most money for the schools they don’t want and to hell with our children welfare. or for the single-working familys that have to roll with the punts and keep going somehow there are all ready about 15 familys that need help for the hoildays but all the kcmo school district is concerned about is what programs they can close in the middle of the school year to save money because it probaly the same schools the are want to turn over to independence and has anyone think about if indep. gets the schools will our children be below average because kcmo standards are lower then indep. any ideas please send to jennreiley@yahoo.com
Thank You