By Michaela Bishop
Northeast News
August 3, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Starting August 9th KIPP Endeavor will be expanding their grade levels and serving Kindergarten to 8th grade. This has been a long-time goal for KIPP, which had previously served students from 5th through 8th grade.

KIPP Endeavor recently bought their building, making it more open to a wider variety of students as well as teachers. This was a long eight-year process, but well worth it. The school completed a $2.3 million agreement with the City of Kansas City, Missouri to purchase their building, located on 2700 E. 18th Street.

KIPP had a “Sale-Abration” to celebrate this accomplishment with the public on June 17th. The expansion of the school opens the door for new improvements and curriculum for the 2016-2017 school year. With these new changes comes an investment in the future of KIPP Endeavor.

“We will be adding a playground and redoing the gym,” said Haley Bowman, Director of Advocacy and Community Engagement for KIPP KC.

The staff has been doing lots of planning for the newest changes to the school.

“We have been expanding our classrooms, doing lots of painting and curriculum planning and we have been meeting with every family so we can get to know them a lot better,” Bowman said. “The staff is working way more this summer than any other summer.”

Due to the expansion, eighth graders will now be having class upstairs. All the other grade levels will take place on the main floor. The expansion of grade levels will not only allow more students to attend KIPP, but will also, as Bowman mentioned, provide “an amazing building block.” Furthermore, many staff members were hired to help fulfill the student curriculum needs.

“We’re all excited to have a building that’s ours. It’s an opportunity to have more students,” Executive Director William Olsen said. “To make sure they have a productive learning environment, as well as getting to see more and more students graduate.”

Staff members have continuous home visits to meet with the families of the students, and have noticed they have only gotten positive reactions to the change. The 2016-2017 grade level expansion is just the first step. KIPP only plans to grow bigger and bigger, according to Bowman, so people are able to truly “recognize what a great school it is.”