By Tessa Belcher
Northeast News
July 6, 2011

“If we expect excellence from our students, we cannot tolerate inadequate leadership in our offices or mediocre teaching in our classrooms,” Kansas City, Missouri School District Superintendent Dr. John Covington firmly told the audience that filled the seats of the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts.

Transformation was the focus of the June 30 State of the Schools Address and the amount of transformation that has already occurred and will occur within the Kansas City, Missouri School District is vast.

“Transformation Phase II by no means signifies the end of a journey; it is merely the next step on Kansas City’s path to becoming a world class school district,” said Covington.

KCMSD has come a long way in the mere two years Covington has been superintendent.

To show the strides KCMSD is taking, Covington told a story about the Broad Superintendent’s Academy warning him against Kansas City saying, “they expressed even their unwillingness to fly through Kansas City’s air space when taking a flight from coast to coast.”

Today, however, “the Broad Superintendents’ Academy is now not only flying through our airspace, but will be landing at our airport on July 20, staying for three-and-a-half days in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, and their 10th superintendent’s cohort will be having class in our city using the Kansas City, Missouri Public Schools as an example as what ought – and can – be done to transform urban public education,” Covington said.

Five specific focuses underline Transformation Phase II. These include creating a system of student centered learning, preparing college and career ready students, building leadership and teacher capacity, transforming the KCMSD environment and cultivating communication.

Covington shared the four traits representing what it means to be an excellent KCMSD student: scholarship, leadership, character and service. These are reflections of the Pylons on top of Bartle Hall and a trophy was presented, which will be given each year to the school that shows the greatest level of growth.

“We are doing some extraordinary things in an ordinary place to drastically improve educational quality in the Kansas City Public Schools,” Covington said toward the end of his speech.

He then asked the question many have found on their mind. “Can any good thing come out of Kansas City Public Schools?”

With KCMSD’s Transformation Plan in full force and change that has already positively affected the school district along with the new additions to come, Covington said he challenges everyone to, “Come and see!”

For more on Phase II of the Transformation Plan, visit http://www2.kcmsd.net/Lists/News1/Attachments/1694/Strategic-Plan-Phase-2.pdf.