Views West
by Murrel Bland
There is a very important link between education and business. That was the message that five area school superintendents delivered Friday, May 2, at a membership meeting of the Kansas City, Kan., Area Chamber of Commerce at the Holiday Inn Express in Village West.
The superintendents and their districts were David Howard, Basehor-Linwood; Dan Brungardt, Bonner Springs; Cindy Lane, Kansas City, Kansas; Tim Conrad, Piper; and Michelle Hubbard, Turner.
All of the superintendents reported that their districts have shown slight increases in enrollment for the current school year.
Lane said that the Kansas City, Kan., District has more than 21,000 students and that Sumner Academy was ranked as the No. 1 high school in Kansas, based on a designation from U.S. News and World Report. She spoke of the challenges in the district with nearly 90 percent of the students considered “at-risk” (receiving reduced or free meals); students speak 65 languages.
She said that from the time that pre-kindergarten students (4-year-olds) enter the system, until the time that they graduate, careers are stressed. She said by the year 2021 everyone who graduates will have at least one year of college credits or a technical school certificate.
Hubbard said she considers the Turner schools as agencies of work force development. Brungardt said it is important for schools to determine what the future work forces will be, and act accordingly.
Conrad said that many Piper High School seniors will graduate with at least 20 hours of college credit. He said the district will have a special election June 3 to see if voters want to increase its local option budget 1 percent. He said, if approved, it would either result in a very small or no increase in property taxes. Conrad said that the district gained 135 new students this year, but lost 111—a net gain 24. He said most parents who left the district did so because of employment opportunities.
Lane said the recent Kansas Supreme Court decision should help the Kansas City, Kan., School District; the district was one of the lead plaintiffs in this suit that sought to restore equitable state funding. She said the district lost about $47 million in state funds during the past six years and that forced teacher layoffs.
Lane and Hubbard said their districts have difficulty in attracting and keeping qualified teachers—there are better paying jobs elsewhere. Hubbard said she believes recent legislation that will allow districts to increase their local budgets could result in rich districts getting richer and hurt poorer districts. Johnson County school districts favored that legislation.
The Kansas City, Kan., School District has faced some very serious challenges during the past 45 years when it lost about 10,000 students; that was a period when Wyandotte County lost more than 60,000 persons. It gained about 30,000 persons during that same period—so the net loss was 30,000. And most of those leaving were middle-class residents.
The good news is that in the last few years, Wyandotte County has seen small gains in population as reflected in student increases in all public school districts. Much of that gain is because of Hispanic immigrants.
Financing schools is big business. The Kansas City, Kan., School District has a current budget of more than $341 million—that amounts to more than $16,000 a year per student.
I look at my personal and business tax bills and one-third of it goes to the Kansas City, Kan., School District. I understand and appreciate that the district is facing severe challenges trying to educate students who are considered “at risk,” but I also know that small business owners continually struggle with high property taxes and a lack of qualified workers.
But hope springs eternal. Once a month I meet with fellow neighborhood business association executives at the Chamber of Commerce office downtown. We discuss mutual concerns including our members’ need for qualified workers. Last month, Lori Hewitt, the Kansas City, Kan., School District‘s business liaison specialist, met with us and pledged to help place interns in area businesses.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.