The plan prepared by the consultants was reviewed by a citizens committee representing the various constituencies in the district. The superintendent amalgamated all of the suggestions and proposed a facilities plan that would not only right size the district, but would also provide the opportunity to: create a universal Pre-K program; change the present K-5 schools to K-8 over 2 years; create two new Signature High Schools; close schools that only hold administrative personnel; and return to a neighborhood school system. This plan was then presented to the school board, civic and community groups. Below are the details of the resolution proposed by the superintendent.
The superintendent of schools asks the Board of Directors to:
All PreK classes currently in the district will be expanded to full day.
As done in the past, all Pre-K will not receive transportation services except for children with special needs.
The program will be phased in as funds become available and as PreK-8 facilities are made ready for the arrival and education of these young children.
Partial funding will come from savings realized by the elimination of transportation programs now required to bus elementary-age children out of their neighborhoods to schools at some considerable distance from their homes.
Because the return to the neighborhood school concept will take place over a period of three years in an orderly transition, economic savings from the elimination of cross-district busing programs will not accrue over the course of one year. These savings will be realized gradually. This means dollars freed to fund universal, full-day pre-kindergarten programming will be made available to the school district on a gradual basis as well.
Initial emphasis for universal, full-day PreK will be placed on serving the needs of families whose names are on a waiting list of individuals who wish to see their children enrolled in a district-sponsored PreK program. Every effort will be made to reduce, if not altogether eliminate, this waiting list by the start of academic year 2007-2008, or soon thereafter.
Students who are currently enrolled in 5th grade will not attend 6th grade at middle schools next year. Instead, those students will, in 2007-2008, remain in the elementary school they attended in 2006-2007. Those students will continue attending that school through their 8th grade year.
In academic year 2008-2009, neighborhood schools would be fully embraced. This means students who would enroll in grade 4 or lower that year would no longer be bused out of their neighborhoods and would be transitioned instead to their neighborhood schools located in their own communities. These are the students who are currently enrolled in kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades in this academic year (2006-2007).
Elementary school students who are currently enrolled in the Kansas City, Missouri School District in grades PreK through 4 who wish to avoid being bused to schools outside their neighborhoods may elect to attend their designated neighborhood school as early as academic year 2007-2008. Notification will be issued to students in early May to be returned by May 15 indicating whether or not the student will elect to transition to their designated neighborhood school in August 2007.
Hartman will become a PreK to 6th grade school and by school year 2009 will become a PreK to 8th grade school
Any students who enroll as new patrons of the Kansas City, Missouri School District from academic year 2007 on would be enrolled in the neighborhood schools that would be assigned to their residence address.
Middle school students enrolled as 6th graders this year (2006-2007) would continue to attend their middle school in grades 7 and 8 (academic years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009).
In year 2007-2008, middle schools would educate only those students enrolled in grades 7 and 8; in academic year 2008-2009, middle schools would educate only students enrolled in grade 8.
The Kansas City Middle School of the Arts, feeding Paseo Academy High School, will remain in operation and available to students who are eligible to participate in that program.
Lincoln Middle School, feeding Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, will remain in operation and available to students who are eligible to participate in that program.
Some middle school buildings removed from service in July 2009 would be considered for potential relocation of pre-kindergarten through 8th grade programming by the fall of 2009. All other middle schools would be closed.
Certain administrative facilities currently occupying former school buildings also would be closed. These are Marlboro, Thatcher and Southeast Annex. The closed buildings would be included in a strategic plan designed to develop school district real estate to serve its best and highest purpose for the improvement and development of the community.
ACE students now attending Chick and Ladd elementary schools and J.H. Clarke ACE Middle School at Meservey would transition at the start of 2007-2008 to the ACE K-12 campus.
Applications for students to attend the ACE program from anywhere in the district would be made available to students this spring. A marketing campaign is now underway to recruit students to attend the program. Students who meet eligibility requirements will be permitted to attend the program.
Chick and Ladd elementary schools and J.H. Clarke ACE Middle School at Meservey would be taken out of service as school facilities at the end of this academic year (2006-2007). The superintendent asks the board, however, for permission to reopen any or all of these schools if smaller than anticipated numbers of students from these neighborhoods enroll in the ACE program and choose, instead, to remain in their neighborhood attending a neighborhood school. The superintendent will conduct an analysis of data based on enrollment patterns and--if necessary--will come to the board by the end of May should it be required to recommend the retention of any of these schools for the education of children in nearby neighborhoods.
The boundary lines defining neighborhood schools will be drawn and presented to the board of education.
The presentation of these boundary lines will permit families with kindergartners entering school in August 2007 to know this spring the schools their children will be attending. These boundary lines will also permit families to make choices if some wish voluntarily to start the transition to neighborhood schools in academic year 2007-2008.
All applicable board policies will be adhered to.
All of the recommendations listed above are dependent upon the necessary funds to be defined and allocated before finalizing the 2007-2008 school year budgets.