To the Editor:

I grew up in Northeast. Like others in my era, I left and made my career outside of Kansas City. As I grew up, I realized what a miracle my education was at Northeast High School and UMKC.

People like me were educated because others, including President Johnson, Mayor Davis and others, made programs available that kept us in school. I’ve stayed involved with the Northeast Alumni Association, which is the most active one in the U.S., and I have visited the school many times. The neighborhood has changed in the languages spoken (26 or more), but it remains the best hope for kids to follow me to good jobs and easier living.

Now the district [proposes] to close NEHS. What will happen? A classic building 100 years old will eventually fall to the ground, but so will a neighborhood if there isn’t a school to educate its kids. You can bus them, but the problems remain. Closing NEHS may seem like the answer to financial problems, but long-term problems will happen. I challenge the mayor to listen to the community, in any of the 26 languages spoken, and help save the community and the school. Northeast deserves it.

Dean Hughson

Fountain Hills, Ariz., NEHS class of 1969

To the Editor:

Well I guess the district just can’t figure some things out. Northeast is the only part of the district that has integrated. What do we get for doing what we were supposed to do? Punished, by closing Northeast High School — the most ethnically diverse high school in the entire city.

It seems like they are trying to undo what Northeast has done on our own — integrate. Where are they going to send our kids? Northeast is like a small town, and the high school is one of the anchors. 

This would be devastating to all of Northeast. The neighborhood will rot from the inside out, starting from the empty building emanating outward. NEHS is one of the few high schools that has a solid neighborhood surrounding it, and now the district wants to assist in the demise of that neighborhood.

We have to stop this.

Michelle S. Hensley-DiSanto

Historic Northeast