Bryan Stalder
Northeast News

Students from around the Kansas City Public School district had an opportunity to ask Superintendent Dr. Bedell questions on Thursday, February 27 at Northeast High School.

Students asked about administration consistency, student violence, college preparedness, and facility infrastructure.

“There’s a mentality that students and parents in our district don’t care,” Dr. Bedell began. “We have a very divided city, racially. The outcomes based on your zip code make a difference. I get upset when people say ‘these people just need to work harder,’ sure, everyone could work harder, but we need to be able to get loans and have access to affordable housing. The system we have in KC is based around structural racism. We can’t be as great of a city as we want to be if we don’t have conversations about this.”

A sophomore from Lincoln Prep asked about keeping principals on staff.

“I have made it a goal of mine to maintain consistency. You have to grow your way to excellence. If I’ve given you the tools and blueprint and you don’t have the skill or the will, I can’t keep people around who will kill [the students’] futures without the ability to lead.”

Elijah, an 8th grader at Northeast middle, asked about students in the district who have been murdered.

Dr. Bedell responded by saying: “We need to do a better job job of teaching people conflict resolution. Sometimes we will suspend students but we won’t fix the behaviors. Ultimately, if you don’t give them the counselling or coaching, that creates a school-to-prison pipeline. They are in the community doing criminal activity.”

Dr. Bedell recommends a book by John McWhorter titled “Losing The Race” to understand the topic more.

Then he added: “We’ve got to have stability from the government. Our city government needs to help with affordable housing, minimizing evictions, creating job and work opportunities to keep people off the streets. Between St Louis and KC we’ve put Missouri on the map for murders per capita.”

Naomi, an 8th grader at Northeast Middle asked “What was your vision before coming to KCPS?”

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to come here to begin with.” Dr Bedell said, “I did a lot of research and realized I could make a difference here. I was an underdog and I wanted to help others who were viewed as underdogs. I wanted to bring back students we lost to the charter system. I want to bring in good people who will be martyrs for the students success. You have to be willing to give it all for these kids. Some staff may say ‘he cares more about the kids than he cares about us’ and I care about you all equally but if you don’t care about the kids, you’re just here collecting a paycheck.”

James from Lincoln Prep said the school district infrastructure needs to be updated.

Dr. Bedell mentioned that he is working on a ten year plan which would include way o increase district finds to renovate schools like Longfellow, Border Star, and James, which are among the oldest buildings in the district.