Kansas City, Mo. – Kansas City Missouri school district officials presented a final school closing proposal to the board and the public at a packed meeting at school district headquarters last night. The superintendent's final plan would close 26 school buildings, merging most middle and high schools, and move early childhood centers into elementary schools.
Students from Northeast Elementary joined dozens of parents, teachers and community members to make final appeals to spare some buildings, particularly Lincoln Middle School, Faxon Montessori, and the Afrikan Centered schools, which are slated to merge into one building
Superintendent John Covington said that shutting down schools is not only about improving the district's finances.
"It's about respecting the right of each and every child to have the kind of education that they need," Covington said. "And the only way we're going to be able to do that is to seriously consider the economy of scale."
Covington's final proposal also involves "reconstituting" five low-performing schools, including Central High School, which would mean all the teachers in those schools would need to re-apply for their jobs. The school board will vote on the proposal at its regular meeting next Wednesday, March 20, 2010.
