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Well the school board approved the plan. 5-4 vote tonight.
Huh? First of all, KCMO makes up all of it's own limits. It has to, as a law of physics.
If you meant to say metro area, well, KCMO is in fact the largest single town within the Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical area representing almost 25% of it, at almost 500,000. KCKS is only about 150k and the various suburbs comprising 15 counties make up the rest.
However I don't think everyone is assuming that the headline of this post meant that this decision was affecting all of the metro area or either the state of kansas or missouri. It seems pretty clear not only from the title, but also from the body of the OP and the link, that this is specifically the city of Kansas City Missouri only.
Right, but what he was trying to say is that the KCMO School District covers a smaller part of KCMO and that part is the Downtown area plus the central city and east side. The east side of KCMO is one of the most violent and crime riden urban areas in the country with a lot of poverty and blight.
The rest of KCMO is covered by other urban distircts as well as suburban districts. So there is probably 120,000 students in KCMO, but only 17,000 of them attend KCMO public schools.
Right, but what he was trying to say is that the KCMO School District covers a smaller part of KCMO and that part is the Downtown area plus the central city and east side. The east side of KCMO is one of the most violent and crime riden urban areas in the country with a lot of poverty and blight.
Yep, and the city itself is served by other public districts as well, although they're not necessarily viewed by the public as much better than KCMO School District.
In order for this to require half of schools closing suddenly at once points to the fact that the members of this board are thoroughly incompetent people.
There's really not a whole lot that's been sudden about the problems with KCMO public school district. The issues also speak to far more than one board's level of competence.
If the class sizes are 12 or fewer with dozens of empty classrooms then some of the schools need to close. Such a waste of money. Also with so few kids in each class why are the test scores so low?
If the class sizes are 12 or fewer with dozens of empty classrooms then some of the schools need to close. Such a waste of money. Also with so few kids in each class why are the test scores so low?
Because people wrongly assume that it is the fault of the school when students don't perform. I agree, with a class size of 12 or less the students would normally excel but when you factor in low income, drug use, bad family situations there are a whole lot of problems to overcome before education becomes a priority.
I also laugh when people assume a new building makes for great education. In our old town, rural MN town so no inner city issues by any means, there was a big "fight" in town because all the "rich" kids got to go to the "good" school. They built a new school on the edge of town and houses started being built around the new school-same thing that happens everywhere. Well, generally people that build new houses tend to have more disposable income I guess. The funny thing was end to end the town was a mile long and about the same wide. It wasn't a big town and there really wasn't this huge economic divide. So, what the district ended up doing was creating schools by grade so K, 5-6 were in the "good" school, 1-2 were in another school and 3-4 were in the third school. This way EVERYONE rode a bus. It was just silly.
Kodaka, take a look at a map of the KCMO School District, and compare it to the City of Kansas Missouri... not the whole metro area... the city limits itself.
You will notice that only the center of KCMO city lies in the KCMO school district.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kodaka
Well the school board approved the plan. 5-4 vote tonight.
Huh? First of all, KCMO makes up all of it's own limits. It has to, as a law of physics.
If you meant to say metro area, well, KCMO is in fact the largest single town within the Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical area representing almost 25% of it, at almost 500,000. KCKS is only about 150k and the various suburbs comprising 15 counties make up the rest.
However I don't think everyone is assuming that the headline of this post meant that this decision was affecting all of the metro area or either the state of kansas or missouri. It seems pretty clear not only from the title, but also from the body of the OP and the link, that this is specifically the city of Kansas City Missouri only.
A lot of one-town or otherwise geographically small school districts do that - it's not surprising to me that this was the solution - that way there is no "bad side of the tracks" schools.
Quote:
So, what the district ended up doing was creating schools by grade so K, 5-6 were in the "good" school, 1-2 were in another school and 3-4 were in the third school. This way EVERYONE rode a bus. It was just silly.
Looks like Detroit is set to follow suit. Doesn't look like their closures will be as extensive, but a key difference is that they will be closing them over a period of two years rather than all at once. Some parents are of course upset at this, and I see their point: if their kid is in one of the targeted schools, they will likely be transferred to another school for next year, then another school the year after that, with possibly a change mid-year. That creates a chaotic and disjointed education plan, and is very stressful on a students' social skills development too.
But I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the beginning. Detroit and Kansas City aren't the only mid-sized cities with shrinking populations, that need to finally acknowledge that fact.
But I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the beginning. Detroit and Kansas City aren't the only mid-sized cities with shrinking populations, that need to finally acknowledge that fact.
All of Detroit has had a shrinking population trend, but remember that this particular district discussed, the Kansas City School District, only covers a small central portion of Kansas City. Even if there is population growth in central Knasas City, people coming in are not putting kids in the Kansas City School District.
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