ByJoe Jarosz

Northeast News

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Like the fatigued fighter entering the last round, Manny Abarca sighed and sounded as if he knew he was going to get beat.

He couldn't not fight though.

At last week's Kansas City School Board meeting, Abarca, along with Bryan Stalder — two of the founding members of the grassroots group Save Thacher, Save Our Schools — asked the school board to rescind their decision to demolish the former Thacher Elementary School. On Feb. 25, the school board voted five to four to demolish the 115 year old building.

"There's a priority and obligation to tax payers to maintain all your properties along with educating all of our students," Abarca told the school board during the public comment portion of the evening's meeting.

Abarca pointed out that any member of the board who voted to demolish the school could, under parliamentary procedure, rescind the vote and make a motion for that to happen. Abarca asked the board for that to happen, however no board members made the motion to rescind the vote. After the meeting was adjourned, Abarca said they hoped one of the board members would have made the motion.

"We talked to a few of the [board] members and thought one of them would make the motion," Abarca said. "But they didn't want to side against the district."

The Next Fight

Abarca and Stalder weren't just at the meeting to speak once more about Thacher. The two, along with the help of Katheryn Shields, also made the point to bring up the fate of James Elementary. Since October 2014, the Kansas City Public Schools has been working on a Master Plan for its district. An item in the Master Plan that has stuck out with some is the idea to tear down and build a new James Elementary School. The current school is over a century old. Nothing has been recommended yet and the board won't hear the final presentation of the Master Plan until its April 8 meeting.

"The board needs to show us that our faith is well vested," Abarca said. "Thacher Elementary and the decisions made around it are a disappointment to our community."

Stalder told the board that its frustrating to him as a member of the Northeast community and as president of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association that there is more fighting over historic buildings than work being done to preserve them.

"The fact that the demolition of James School is even a consideration, whether we've made that decision or not, says to me that the district is not doing what it should be to work with the communities," Stalder said.

Katheryn Shields, representing the Historic Kansas City Foundation, told the KCPS board that the Foundation is deeply concerned about the school board's recent decision with historic buildings, including Thacher Elementary, and the "troubling policy direction" those decisions represent. Buildings are not disposable assets like textbooks, she told the board. The Foundation recently nominated every KCPS school building over 50 years old to its "most endangered building list."

Shields explained the designation does not give the buildings any legal protection, but it does call attention to their precarious situation and history. Every year, the Historic Kansas City Foundation develops and publishes a "Most Endangered Buildings" list, followed by a "Most Endangered Buildings" tour, which, she said, is always well attended. She'll also ask fellow board members to consider getting the historic school buildings added to the National Register of Historic Buildings and the local Kansas City Register, however, that could be a lengthy process which requires, "a lot of research on the architectural and historical significance of these buildings."

"They were paid for by the taxes of the community and this board should understand that it is merely the trustee of the community's asset and as such the board has the responsibility to return the asset for community use," Shields said. "If Thacher is so cavalierly disposable, what does that say about the many other beautiful and historic buildings of which the board holds sway?"