By Abby Cambiano
Northeast News 

In 2016, Della Lamb Charter Elementary School was faced with the challenge of splitting from Della Lamb Community Center, per the request of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“DESE required that the school separate, and so that separation was official July 1st of (2016)…we became our own entity and we are no longer affiliated as we were with the community center, so we needed to change our name,” Superintendent Dr. Steve Fleming said.

The school was left without a name, and with the daunting task of transitioning, creating a new board of directors and hiring new administrative leadership.

“We are Kansas City International Academy, which is a true reflection of our student population because about 70 percent of our students are refugee students from different countries,” Fleming said.

Kansas City International Academy originally opened as Della Lamb Charter School in 1999 as the first charter school in Missouri. Opening with an enrollment of 120 students, the school, then located at the corner of 10th and Charlotte, expanded through 8th grade.

Since then, KCIA has included students from across the world. Between 12 and 15 countries are currently represented at the school.

The school had 13 or 14 interpreters during the past school year who helped with students, and particularly parents, on a daily basis.

“Many of those parents are also basically illiterate in their home language,” Fleming said. “They speak it, they can carry on a conversation, but they can’t read it and they can’t write it. So that makes it more difficult for us because the only way to communicate with them in (Somali) or Kenyan or wherever they’re from is through an interpreter.”

More than 98 percent of students at KCIA receive Free and Reduced Lunch, Fleming said, and many families are experiencing economic challenges.

“We still are working with families (who) are struggling, families that are in need, that have challenges economically,” Jennifer Wilson, Director of Student Services, said. “We are here still to continue that support system for them; especially our refugee students.”

With the separation from the Della Lamb Community Center, families are not left without resources and support.

“We also have some extra support academic staff, people who help kids who are struggling with learning to read, a social worker, counselors who can help with some of those home struggles or difficulties that parents need help with as well,” Wilson said. “We are continuing that tradition of really helping and supporting and surrounding families that need little extra supports.”

Fleming said KCIA plans to stay at the new facility for a while. Kindergarten and first grade, which were previously housed at the community center, will be moved to the 414 Wallace Avenue campus this fall. Fleming expects 560 to 600 students for the 2017-2018 school year.

“We’re doing a lot of construction this summer, remodeling classrooms and knocking some walls out,” Fleming said. Other additions include a new parking lot, soccer field and playground.

KCIA is chartered by the University of Central Missouri (UCM), one of the Kansas City area’s leading chartering organizations. The partnership with UCM includes a close working relationship with their leading edge program for English Language Learners.

With new leadership, a look at the curriculum with fresh eyes showed that there was room to improve.

“Primarily we’re taking a good look at our (English Language Learner) curriculum, which is how we teach students who come to us not speaking any English, and how we deliver that format and how we get them as quickly as possible to be mainstreamed into the regular classroom and be able to understand and communicate and write and read,” Wilson said. “It makes learning pretty difficult if you can’t write or read English, because that’s what we teach.”

Staff will participate in a month-long curriculum camp to explore new methods of teaching English to foreign language speakers, among other topics.