The Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools are in the early stages of discussing a bond issue, according to a school district spokesman.
The district’s Board of Education met last week to discuss a bond issue and school finance.
David Smith, chief of staff and spokesman for the school district, said the district is doing some visioning in committees currently, and eventually, a recommendation will be made to the board on whether to have a bond issue and what amount it should be.
If the board approves a bond issue, then school district officials would go out to the community and present information on it, he said.
He said one goal is to have a bond issue with no mill levy increase.
Currently, the school district is experiencing some space shortage in classrooms in the elementary schools. Earlier this month, the school district applied for a temporary permit for a modular classroom at William Allen White Elementary School.
“We’re oversubscribed at the elementary level, so we have to be flexible on finding space,” Smith said.
The bond issue, if approved by the board and the voters, would be for permanent structures, he added.
A facilities study conducted by DLR was presented in November. According to the study, school buildings in the district have an average age of 60 years old, which is older than the average national lifespan of a school.
In February, the school board voted to begin plans for a bond issue to address facility needs; however, it is still in the exploratory stage and no action was taken to approve the bond issue.
So, it was completely acceptable to build a totally-new stadium (for a school that already has a field on their property) while buildings that are used for EDUCATION are crumbling? Everyone on this board needs to get a great big “F” and retake Fiscal Responsibility 101.
Priorities need to be realigned, and it might take some top-level management changes to get it done. Remember this at election time!
I hope a bond gets approved. Shawnee Mission School District’s voters approved a $200+ million dollar bond issue. KCK kids deserve modern school buildings just like the kids in Shawnee Mission. I think the KCK School District has demonstrated they are good stewards of tax dollars by the building of 4 new elementary schools in recent years along with expansion/renovations of several others with no tax increase by using the capital outlay funds they already had. In response to the naysayer who posted; KCK students also deserve modern athletic facilities.
Mr. Wilson:
Like every other apologist for USD 500, you FAIL to address the question I posed: WHY DID USD 500 HAVE TO BUILD A TOTALLY-NEW FACILITY INSTEAD OF RENOVATE/UPGRADE THE EXISTING FACILITY THAT WAS ALREADY ON THEIR PROPERTY?
No one, NO ONE has been able to answer that simple question. Until every student in USD 500 is going to school in facilities that are adequate (a classroom in a trailer is NOT adequate) fringe benefits like the one I mention are not acceptable. The deciding factors need to be 1) the amount of time the facility is being used in any given week, and 2) is the facility also used for non-school activity (public/after school use). An athletic facility that is shuttered most of the time and not accessible for the public to use should be far down the priority list compared to a classroom.
Kansas City Kansas school district could save theirself a lot of money. This could be accomplished if they would quit mailing their district magazine to Turner school households Living in the Tuner district mine goes straight from the mail box to the trash.