Northeast News
April 9, 2014

This angry ‘lil canine isn’t the smartest cur in the neighborhood but one thing we do know is that this whole repurposing initiative at the Kansas City Public Schools office isn’t all its cracked up to be.

The name of the committee should have simply been called the KCPS Demolition Committee given some of the actions that have taken place recently. Fact is, the easy thing for the KCPS to do would be to simple raze the vacant buildings under its “management” and be done with it.

Case in point, Thacher Elementary School. The district’s repurposing committee never intended to sell the building for redevelopment. The fact that after much prodding and questioning, the district stated they had not secured a separate appraisal for Thacher and Northeast Middle School. Had they been serious about selling Thacher, the properties would have been subdivided with an appraised value put on each structure.

The district’s solution? Knock it down. Same with Westport. The district really had no intention of selling the hulking, century-old high school to a developer for repurposing. Its solution, knock it down. These new revelations beg the question; is the KCPS being a good neighbor?

This doggie says in a pigs eye! Fact: the Kansas City, Mo., School District has been a darn poor neighbor, not just with the buildings that it has “mothballed,” but even with its occupied structures, used daily as a house of learning. This lil pooch is done buyin’ the bilge water the re-purposing folks are peddling. Time for the district to step up, start shootin’ straight and be a good neighbor.