Anyone who cares about KC's future should see this:

http://12thandmain.blogspot.com/2008/07 ... -woes.html

The contract renewal is "old news".  Was reported when it happened.

Other items would be picked up by the teacher's union so maybe it is the one behind the times.


What was really bothersome though was the time wasted on the school transfers with Independence.  Hey, it was going to happen so get it done and get onto the items that have more importance - like educating the kids.

The blame rests on the voters who keep electing crappy board members in turn hire/fire superintendents habitually which in turns leaves the administration in anarchy.  Or maybe the real blame rests on the people who don't vote...

I think the structure of the school board lends itself to the kind of in-fighting and politicking you see.

Break up the school district into three districts, and tell the locals to get over it.

Sounds like you have been buying into the TV news portrayal - would you have rather the KCMOSD just roll over and take the low-ball offer from Indep.?  Would shortchanging their remaining students to the tune of $16 mil really have been "in the interest of the kids"?

C'mon Lenexa, this is the KCMo school district.  WTF do kids have to do with anything?

It's pretty well crumbling anyway.  I heard a report last week that the total fall enrollment will probably only be 15,000 kids with the move to Independence and increased charter enrollment. 

That's just it - here is a case where they took a stand in the interest of their constituent students and they have been reamed for it in the press.  The Indep. SD has been creaming them in the PR war.  KCMOSD residents should be fired up and backing the district in their refusal to take the low-ball offer, but the entire thing has been portrayed as just 'pointless' delay. 

I agree.  The judge ordered KCMOSD to just give 12 schools over to Independence with no compensation. That's ridiculous!

Nah - he didn't say no compensation.  He said that they had to go ahead and make the transfer and the compensation will be determined later.  He made Indeap put the $16 mil discrepency in escrow prior to the transfer. 

My understand was that he said because the schools were given to KC when Independence was annexed into the district that they should be given at no cost back to Independence because of the reverse annex. 

Kinda funny that KCSD whats money for schools they didn't pay for, didn't maintain and didn't even use for their primary purpose, giving children a quality education. Plus they received BILLIONS in desegregation money that they completely wasted.

KCMO SD is a embarrassment to our city. I cannot understand why anyone would have an ounce of sympathy for their administration or staff. They are more culpable than the Enron/Tyco executives because they not only wasted billions of dollars they also waisted the future of thousands of children. Shame on them.

as someone who actually went to the kansas city missouri school district, old west and then paseo, what amazes me is how had they simply let the kansas city magnet schools of choice go on, a lot of these problems would not even exisit. some of those schools, paseo academy, lincoln, southeast, were fast becoming national role models for their career and life prep they were doing for students. paseo academy for the fine and performing arts was fast becoming a star producer, sending many students to star search, etc.

they really fucked this up when they gave up on the magnet system so quickly. when paseo moved to my neighborhood for 3 years, 1936 summit, it was something else. my old school was in disrepair and falling apart, and in came paseo while their school was getting built. and a school synonomous for turning out crack heads, crack whores, teen pregnancies, delinqents, criminals, and scum in general, all of the sudden had one of the highest inner city graduation rates in the country. and became one of the few major metro inner city schools in the country with that many white kids enrolled, BY CHOICE.

no, when they pulled the plug on the magnet system all of 6 years in after investing over 1B in it, they really screwed up. BIG TIME.

Watch out! Jesse will cut your balls off!

What would have?

ummm, they had an excellent school board at that time. walter marks was a little shady, sure, but the school board at that time was still a good one. and they had good educators all over the district. and managed to bring in excellent teachers, faciliatators, administrators, etc.

walter marks as a superintendent was not even that bad either. made some good moves. just a lazy mother fucker is all.

I don't think its school board members - after all they've rotated members in and out and no combination has seemed to work. Its a herculean task, and I think the structure of the board itself lends itself to power struggles between the board and superintendent, and power struggles among board members as each member sets out to protect their turf, their neighborhood.

I can't believe that all of these people are just incompetent. That points to the institution, the structure, that is flawed, and I think its something that needs to be seriously overhauled.

Not the point.  The KCMOSD played games with Independence SD concerning the door locks, building access, and so on.  Both could fight it out all they want to in the courts but no matter what KCMOSD was not going to keep the buildings so give up the buildings and devote KCMOSD staff time to educating its students and maintaining the buildings it retains.