Month: April 2022

School board accepts NFL grant; no change to mask rule

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education voted Tuesday night to accept the NFL’s $250,000 grant to build a turf athletic field in the district.

In another vote on Tuesday night, the school board voted not to change its mask rule, which requires students, staff and all those in the district to wear masks.

There was some opposition to accepting the NFL grant. Board member Wanda Brownlee Paige said the grant was done by a former employee who did not have board authorization at the time, and that the school district did not own the property it was on, at Eisenhower park.

Dr. Anna Stubblefield, superintendent, said this vote meant only that the district wants to accept the grant and is exploring where the field may go. The district was looking at an artificial turf field at Carl Bruce Middle School or for Sumner Academy.

Dr. Stubblefield said if the board decided later not to move forward, it still could decline at that time. Grant partners are allowed to explore other property for the athletic field, she said.

Paige said she didn’t want to vote for it, since she didn’t like how the situation developed. The district would end up spending much more than the $250,000 grant, she believes.

The amount required by the district to match the grant would be $550,000, according to district officials. For several years, the district has set aside money in the budget for a Sumner Academy field, and those funds are still available, according to the superintendent.

Board President Randy Lopez backed the idea of agreeing to accept the NFL grant at this time, as there was a deadline of Friday for the district to respond to the grant.

The vote was 4-2, with Paige and Dr. Valdenia Winn voting against the acceptance of the grant. Explaining her vote, Dr. Winn said as long as the board allows staff to commit taxpayers’ money without any review, there was no reason to have a board.

In other action, Lopez made a motion to make the school district “mask-optional” beginning Wednesday, but the motion did not pass. The vote was 4-2, with Lopez and Yolanda Clark voting yes.

There was no recommendation from the school district’s nursing staff, and Paige said she would have liked to have had a recommendation from the staff.

Dr. Stubblefield said that an appearance by the health staff wasn’t necessary since none of the information had changed since the last time the district discussed the topic, a few weeks ago. Wyandotte County is still ranked high on the CDC’s risk list for COVID, and the district’s mask policy is tied to the CDC’s guidelines.

Board member Rachel Russell said at the meeting that something was “fishy” and she was very taken aback that those who work in the front lines on health services did not have input on this decision.

Later in the meeting, Lopez said he would defend his integrity, stand up for himself, and that he would never do anything to undermine integrity because that is what he holds high.

Several other topics were discussed at Tuesday’s meeting. To view the six-hour KCK school board meeting on YouTube, visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIWtV2CQ2NE.

Kansas education commissioner publicly apologizes for racist story on Native Americans

Watson offered to resign, but state board imposed one-month, unpaid suspension

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas commissioner of public education apologized Tuesday for telling attendees of an online education conference that when growing up he attempted to convince people visiting the state they should be more afraid of dangerous American Indians than violent tornadoes.

Randy Watson, who was suspended without pay for one month after disclosure of his racist remark, said during the Kansas State Board of Education meeting that the recollection of a story from his youth betrayed his personal 40-year career in education devoted to valuing every student. It was his first public comment about the offensive statement uttered in mid-February to people participating in a professional education conference.

“I really let some people down and hurt people with things I said. The very people and groups of kids I tried to uplift every day, I failed to do so on that occasion,” he said.

Gov. Laura Kelly joined Native American legislators and tribal leaders who called on Watson to step down from the administrative job overseeing coordination of K-12 public education in Kansas. He submitted a letter resignation, but the state Board of Education voted to reject the offer following a closed-door meeting with Watson. Instead, the 10-member board ordered the commissioner to serve a one-month suspension.

“There are a lot of kids, every teacher knows this, that go unnoticed. They are not the 4.0. They’re not in sports,” Watson said. “I dedicated my life to really trying to make sure that every child felt valued, every family was uplifted, especially kids that maybe didn’t have a family life.”

Video of Watson’s remarks obtained through a Kansas Open Records Request showed Watson speaking to the Kansas Virtual Learning Conference. He made a reference to a tornado in the 1990s before sharing with listeners that during his youth he attempted to convince relatives they ought to be more frightened of American Indians than of violent storms that might erupt in Kansas.

“I had some cousins from California. They were petrified of tornadoes,” Watson said on the video. “They’d come visit us, you know, in the summer. They were like, ‘Are we going to get killed by a tornado?’ And I’d say, ‘Don’t worry about that, but you got to worry about the Indians raiding the town at any time.’ And they really thought that. Grow up in California, I guess you don’t know much of the history of Kansas.”

Watson, a former school administrator in McPherson, was hired by the state Board of Education as the commissioner in 2014. He began his teacher career at Tescott High School.

Board of Education chairman Jim Porter said the board decided remarks by Watson weren’t career ending and the board was committed to engaging in restorative justice. Porter bristled after others in state leadership publicly pressured Watson to step down, despite the state Board of Education’s responsibility for personnel decisions of executive leadership in the state education department.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/04/12/kansas-education-commissioner-publicly-apologizes-for-racist-story-on-native-americans/

KCK homicide under investigation

Police are investigating a late night homicide in the 3700 block of Plaza Drive, a spokesman stated.

Officers were sent to the area on a shooting call around 10:33 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, stated a spokesman for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department. The location of the shooting was near 37th and Yecker.

Officers discovered an adult female who was the victim of an apparent gunshot wound, the spokesman stated.

She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and later died from her injuries, according to the spokesman.

The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department’s Major Case Unit is investigating.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS. All tips remain anonymous and may qualify for a cash reward, police stated.