Author: Mary Rupert

School board discusses increasing security

School security was discussed at the Tuesday night, May 31, meeting of the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education.

Plans are underway to apply for a grant for security, according to district officials.

District administrators are proposing to use grant funds up to $1 million to increase lighting and cameras at school buildings.

The grant would require a 50 percent match from the district.

Tracy Kaiser, executive director of business operations, said although their initial thought was to apply for $1 million, they understood from state education officials that probably only $400,000 to $500,000 could be approved, so they are looking at a $200,000 or $250,000 match.

The grant is proposed to replace outdoor and interior cameras that are outdated, she said.

Board member Wanda Paige asked about adding school resource officers at the elementary schools.

While Superintendent Anna Stubblefield does not oppose the idea, she said she had looked at the grant funds as one-time funds more suited to purchase equipment than for personnel. If used for personnel, the board then would need to make a decision in the future whether to continue the positions, when the grant funding was not available. She also said she wanted to discuss the issue first with the school district’s new police chief.

The district has 38 campuses, with 20 elementary schools, Dr. Stubblefield said.

The district received the applications for the grant last week, and it’s due on June 10, according to district officials.

Board member Rachel Russell recalled an earlier discussion that the board did not want to add any more security positions. Board member Janey Humphries said she was not comfortable with using grant funding for salaries when the board is not sure they’ll be able to continue the positions.

Dr. Valdenia Winn, a board member, said she would like to see a copy of the grant application before it goes out.

The board reached a consensus to talk more about the grant at its special 3 p.m. Monday, June 6, budget session.

In other action, the board approved a school name change for the Fairfax Learning Center, now the Alfred Fairfax Academy, which is located at the old White Church Elementary School building, and a mascot name change for Arrowhead Middle School, which is changing from Apaches to Wolves.

The board also heard a report about a service agreement with Proximity Learning to provide virtual certified teachers in the event of vacancies at high schools and middle schools.

The total cost will be $3.043 million, but that amount would be reduced as the district hires its own teachers, according to district officials. The cost does not include the cost of hiring teacher assistants for the classrooms.

The district will continue its search for teachers, according to Dr. Stubblefield.

It was recently reported that more than 200 staff members will be leaving the district. Dr. Stubblefield stated that this year’s number of teachers leaving the school district because of retirement or resignation is not very much different from the usual numbers over the past five years.

There were 327 staff members who retired or resigned last year, she said. In 2019-2020, there were 273 total; and in 2018-2019, there was a total of 361, she said.

She said from information they gathered, the district’s enforcement of a policy last year concerning not allowing staff members to pay liquidated damages if the district does not have a suitable replacement could have had an effect on some staff members leaving.

Several other topics were discussed at the meeting, which is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiPf6F8GQv.

Proposed amendments to ‘Safe and Welcoming’ ordinance move forward

A Unified Government committee on Monday night moved forward a proposal to amend the Kansas City, Kansas, ordinance for a “Safe and Welcoming” community.

The amendments now can move forward to a full UG Commission meeting. The UG is trying to bring its ordinance into compliance with a new state law.

The amendments to the ordinance were proposed because the Kansas Legislature passed a law blocking parts of the UG’s earlier Safe and Welcoming ordinance, according to Casey Meyer of the UG’s legal department. The new law blocked the UG from prohibiting law enforcement from turning over information to federal immigration authorities. That part of the UG ordinance has been removed in the amended version that is being considered.

However, members of the Safe and Welcoming Coalition, which advocated for the ordinance, said on Monday night that they could not support these new amendments without having a meeting first of the coalition. They asked for more time.

Karla Juarez, executive director of Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, said the biggest part of the protection piece of the Safe and Welcoming ordinance is going away because of House Bill 2717.

At the UG committee meeting Monday, she said this could make it potentially unsafe for some community members.

Juarez said if the UG chooses to go the route of administering the ID program, it would be expensive, and personal information would not be kept private, therefore becoming a danger to community members.

It took the commission five years to pass a Safe and Welcoming ordinance, working in collaboration with the Safe and Welcoming Coalition, and it is too fast to make a decision on either of two options presented Monday, Juarez said. She asked the committee to delay its vote.

Judy Ancel, president of the Cross Border Network, also a member of the Safe and Welcoming Coalition, said at the committee meeting that she agreed with Juarez.

UG commissioners had wondered at the meeting if they would get any outside applicants now for an ID program, or if the UG would have to do the ID program itself. Ancel named a possible private contractor for the ID program who was outside the city and who does similar ID programs throughout the nation. Ancel thought they could still get applicants for an outside contractor to run the program.

The reason the coalition wants to delay the vote was so they could have a chance to meet, she said.

“Frankly, the members of the Safe and Welcoming Coalition were extremely traumatized by what happened in the Kansas Legislature,” Ancel said. The coalition hasn’t met since the bill was passed and signed into law, she added.

Ancel said she was absolutely opposed to the UG administering any type of ID program under this ordinance.

As an example, Ancel said if an undocumented person with no ID currently gets a community ID with an address on it, that person could be stopped by the police for jaywalking or some other reason, and have to divulge the person’s address through the ID.

It’s not the current practice of the police or sheriff’s departments to inform on immigrants to the federal immigration authorities, but that is not prohibited by the revised UG ordinance, she said.

If the city has that personal information, it’s even worse, Ancel said.

“We really have doubts about whether this program will be popular with the immigrant community, because of House Bill 2717,” she said.

She said the coalition could try to meet and get back to the UG with their response in about 10 days.

The UG committee, however, did not postpone its vote, as it was trying to amend the ordinance and get it done by July 1, when the state law goes into effect. After approval by a committee, the ordinance goes to the full commission for approval. The UG Commission meets on June 9 and June 30. Commissioners felt there would be time for the coalition to meet and then give their response at a full UG Commission meeting.

Commissioner Harold Johnson proposed to amend the proposed amendments to allow the ID program to be administered only by an outside nonprofit group, a 501c3 as originally proposed, and not the UG.

Meyer provided two drafts of amendments for the commission to consider. The first removed any section of the UG ordinance that conflicted with the state law.

The second draft resolved conflicts as well as addressed some commissioners’ concerns from an earlier UG meeting, she said. She had included an option for the administrator of the ID program to be the UG or an outside nonprofit contractor.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez said he remembered a consensus of a committee that the UG should not operate the ID program because of the annual cost behind it.

“I don’t like opening the door for a city department to operate it,” he said. The committee already had been talking about finding extra funds for the sidewalk program, he said, and now if the ID program was operated by the UG, they would have to find more funds for it.

Some of the other, non-controversial amendments proposed, according to Meyer, included a definition added for the program administrator; an expiration term of two years for the ID card; a provision requiring persons to surrender the community ID card when it expires or when the person no longer lives in the county; documentation that was more specific; a section clarifying implementation and acceptance by city departments; the administrator would have the ability to suspend or revoke the cards; and an annual audit would be required or audits would be conducted at the request of the mayor to determine if they are complying with requirements.

At a UG meeting a few years ago, information was presented that estimated the ID program would cost $180,000 to $250,000, according to the UG.

Coal supply shortage noted at BPU

The Board of Public Utilities heard about a supply problem with coal at Wednesday night’s board meeting.

Bill Johnson, BPU general manager, reported that the BPU’s coal supply was down to 19 days, when the BPU is trying to keep it at 50 days.

Coal is delivered to the BPU through Union Pacific railroad, which has an exclusive agreement to access the BPU’s plant, according to Johnson. He said he is trying to mitigate the situation.

Deliveries of coal have slowed to the point where they are nearly shut down, not just for BPU but for others throughout the region, Johnson said. He added some of the difficulties may be tied to railroad labor.

Dong Quach, BPU executive director of electric production, said that overall, Union Pacific has been very good, except recently. In his 24 years at the BPU, the lowest the coal supply got was four or five days of coal left in 2008 at the Nearman plant, which was during a recession.

The BPU no longer routinely burns coal to generate electricity, but it has coal supplies on hand if it is necessary.

Eventually, renewable energy is expected to take over all generation from coal plants, according to Andrew Ferris, BPU director of electric supply planning.

The BPU board heard a staff report from Ferris on Wednesday night that indicated that renewable energy sources jumped at the expense of coal in recent years.

In 2012, coal was predominant, but in 2020 wind was the No. 1 power in Kansas and in the Southwest Power Pool, according to Ferris. Coal was regaining use again in 2021, the report stated.

Renewable energy prices, in some cases, have been trending down to compete with coal, as federal regulators encourage the use of renewables, but renewable prices may have been increasing again. Various tax credits and incentives make it financially more attractive for utilities to use renewable energy, according to Ferris.

According to Ferris’ report, BPU generation in 2020 was 47 percent renewables, 30 percent goal and 14 percent gas. Nationally, gas makes up 41 percent, coal 20 percent, nuclear 20 percent and renewables, 19 percent. The Kansas figures are 44 percent renewables, 31 percent coal, 19 percent nuclear and 6 percent gas.

There likely won’t be another coal plant built in the United States, unless something drastically changes, he said.

Industrial customers are more and more wanting to use “green” energy, according to Ferris.

The Southwest Power Pool, of which BPU is a member, is cautiously optimistic that there will be enough energy to meet summer demands, Ferris said.

ERC resolution adopted

In other action, the BPU board unanimously approved a resolution for the Energy Rate Component (ERC).

The resolution approves the under recovery of the ERC for the third and fourth quarter of 2021 for $2.3 million, which will be amortized over the first and second quarters of 2022.

There was no discussion on the ERC resolution.

According to the BPU’s website, the ERC was reported as $.036870 from April through June 2022. It was $.035010 from January through March 2022, and it was $.0339000 from October through December, 2021.

One recent BPU residential bill, from March 2022, listed the ERC as $.03501. The ERC amounted to around $20 on the approximately $200 bill.

BPU receives audit report

In other action, the BPU received an audit report from BKD, an outside auditing agency.

According to the auditors, there were no major issues found in the audit.