Elizabeth Orosco
Northeast News

Kansas City Public School Board members met Thursday to discuss upcoming events, the 2019 enrollment marketing campaign, and overall goals regarding the District’s community engagement efforts.

This is a committee of the board that is focused on the functions and roles and responsibilities around communications and community engagement as it relates to the Board’s governance work.

The first item discussed was an event taking place Monday, November 26th. This will be an open dialogue between the board, the community, and Dr. Mark Bedell, Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent regarding the recent decision the Kansas City School Board made to reach out to charter schools currently sponsored by UMKC and invite them to consider coming under KCPS sponsorship.

Although there are charter schools in the city currently sponsored by UMKC, the university will end that process next summer, so those charter schools will be in need of new sponsors.

Pattie Mansur, board member at-large, said this is a chance for transparency between the Kansas City Public Schools and the community.

“We wanted to have conversations that would include time for community questions because we want to answer questions that families and community stakeholders might have,” she said. “We would like to bring the board up to speed, set the context for how the administration assessed capacity and readiness to do this, and for the board to talk about how it sits within our roles and responsibilities. This decision that was made may have caught some people off guard and they might not have full information.”

Jennifer Wolfsie, board member since 2016, said that while the public will be invited to this event, this will not be a public poll, but a chance to ask questions.

“This is a public dialogue meeting; there will not be any voting. This is a way for the board and the admin to publicly have a dialogue about this particular topic that everyone is invited to.”

Mansur said this is an opportunity to navigate the community on the thought process behind the decision, and what led them to take this step.

“The public hasn’t really heard from us regarding this decision, and hasn’t had a chance to hear the conversation around why the admin brought this request forward to us, what were the considerations that were undertaken, and why we ultimately agreed to say this was the right step and how we came to that decision. This is a chance for questions, and in that questioning, we will gain understanding on community perspective and community concerns, and it will help us shape any future dialogue in this realm.”

The board members also discussed School Board School, a public event for anyone interested in becoming a member of the school board or who has questions on what is required to be a school board member.

School Board School will be held Saturday December 8, 2018 from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm and Thursday, December 13, 2018 from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Board of Education building (2901 E. Troost, Kansas City MO).

The focus of School Board School is to help individuals who are interested in running for school board or want to know more about the school board get a basic understanding of how to run for school board, the roles and responsibilities, policies, what the public education landscape looks like in Kansas City and Missouri, and what the rules and regulations are for becoming a school board member.

There will also be two campaign strategists speaking at the event, giving participants guidelines on how to run their own campaign.

Filing for school board begins December 18, 2018 and ends January 15, 2019. All seven seats for the Kansas City Public Schools School Board will be up for election on April 2, 2019. Five seats are sub-district and two seats are at-large.
The board also touched on the 2019 enrollment marketing campaign and what tactics are in place to increase enrollment numbers.

Ray Weikal, Manager of Public Relations & Marketing, discussed newspaper ads, radio ads, billboards, digital advertising, email campaigns and direct mailing that are being distributed to the community.

Natalie Lewis, board member since 2016, representing Sub-district One, expressed concern that there was a lot of emphasis being placed on signature schools in the city and not enough on neighborhood schools.

“I think we need to focus more on these schools and market at a neighborhood level,” she said. “Once spring hits, it is almost too late to talk about neighborhood schools.”

Members agreed that the main goal was to understand what keeps parents enrolling in Kansas City Public Schools.

For those interested in running for school board, please contact June Kolkmeier, Board Secretary, with any questions, or to make reservations for one of the two School Board Schools at (816) 418-7621.