Signs along Lexington Avenue. | Photo by Dorri Partain *The Northeast News does not endorse nor support any candidates or ballot initiatives pictured in these signs*
Signs along Lexington Avenue. | Photo by Dorri Partain *The Northeast News does not endorse nor support any candidates or ballot initiatives pictured in these signs*

Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

1967 — The year Martin Luther King delivered his “Beyond Vietnam” speech amidst the Vietnam War, the Kansas City Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 1967 — the U.S.’s first super bowl — and the same year the last school bond was passed for Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS). 

Since then, KCPS school bonds have appeared — and been unsuccessful — on school board election ballots 19 different times, with the last inclusion in 1987, KCPS Public Relations Coordinator Shain Bergen shared in an interview. 

This year, a KCPS school bond measure will appear on April 8 Jackson County election ballots for the first time in 38 years and will read as follows: 

THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF KANSAS CITY 

Question:

To promote public education, student and teacher safety, and academic performance, shall The School District of Kansas City 33 (d/b/a Kansas City Public Schools) issue its general obligation bonds in the amount of $470,000,000 for constructing, repairing, improving, and equipping new and aging public school buildings including safety and security measures, heating and cooling systems, roofs, plumbing, and other deferred maintenance? 

If this question is approved, the District will levy a debt service property tax in an estimated amount of $0.6100 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation of real and personal property, with $50,000,000 of the total $470,000,000 amount of general obligation bonds allocated for nine participating public charter schools. 

Bergen shared that other Missouri school districts traditionally will pass a bond every three to seven years, which works to aid educational institutions in its building’s construction or various renovations. However, as KCPS has not had a bond pass in nearly six decades, he said its 33 schools and 38 buildings lack dedicated capital funding, which has led the District to instead divert funding from its operating budget to finance repairs and renovations. 

The average age of KCPS school buildings is 63 years — with James Elementary sitting at 114 years old, Northeast High School 110 years old and East High School 101 years old, among others.

Not only has KCPS gone without a school bond in 58 years, the option of one has not appeared on a ballot in 38 years. Bergen said this is mainly because the Missouri Board of Education has revoked KCPS’s accreditation twice — once in 2000, which marked the first nation-wide District accreditation loss, and again in 2011.  

Accreditation affirms that an institution or district has met its State qualifications and requirements and acknowledges that it has achieved its threshold of academic quality, according to the Department of Education. 

While KCPS was provisionally accredited in August 2014, it wasn’t until Jan. 11, 2022, the Missouri State Board of Education reinstated the District’s full accreditation for its academic growth, improved instructional systems and District-wide leadership stability, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

“The issue was KCPS was underachieving and not in a good place; We’re fighting the ghosts of yesteryear,” Bergen said in an interview. “When people think of KCPS, they think we don’t have accreditation and we’re losing students.” 

However, Bergen shared that in the three years since the State Education Board reaccredited the District, KCPS has received accreditation each year since. 

He said not only has the District’s enrollment rate gone up, but it has additionally seen increases in its Academic Progress Rate (APR), with this year being one of the largest single-year rises in Missouri, going from 66% last year to 73% this year. 

In addition to APR increases, Bergen shared that the graduation rate among KCPS has increased from the mid-70s in 2021 to 87% this year, with projections upwards of 90% for 2026. 

“We want to show people this progress; there are brilliant minds within KCPS, they need someone to unleash them and support them,” Bergen said in an interview.

With bond funding of $470,000,000 on the ballot, current deferred maintenance costs for KCPS sit at over $1 billion. However, KCPS feels that with this bond, it could aid the District in its 10 year plan, which includes the creation of a third middle school out of the building that was formerly known as Southwest High School — a structure that has sat vacant since 2016. 

Along with this new edition, funds would additionally be allocated toward repairing infrastructure and HVAC systems as well as installing security upgrades, allowing at least $5 million for each school — and at least $30 million for most high schools.  

This bond additionally includes nine Kansas City Charter Schools, of which would receive $50 million for repairs and assistance. 

“We’ve (KCPS) had zero new construction in 30 years,” Bergen shared in an interview. “Despite this, students are still achieving; If they can do all of this in a crumbling facility, imagine what they could do if they had proper facilities.” 

While construction across the District would be staggered in phases, Bergen said phase one — including infrastructure repairs from floor cracks to ceiling holes — could begin in a matter of months. 

“The time is now, the need is now; the children’s future is in our hands,” Bergen said in an interview.

For additional information on the KCPS 2025 school bond, visit: https://www.kcpsbond.org/ ; To view a sample ballot for the April 8 election, visit: https://www.kceb.org/.