"Signature" program may be restored at Kansas City (Mo.) high school

From The Kansas City Star: The Kansas City (Mo.) district may convert its Southwest Early College Campus back to a districtwide school serving only students who choose to be there and commit to its program. The school board still needs to approve the change, but Superintendent John Covington and the partner institutions have worked together on a memorandum of understanding. Students, parents and neighbors had been pleading for the district to give up its attempt to operate the campus as a general middle and high school. They wanted it to go back to being a "signature school" -- which is what the district calls its magnet schools. Covington had converted Southwest from a magnet school last summer as part of a districtwide school consolidation, but the transition was painful. More than 1,500 students showed up at the start of the school year — several hundred more than anticipated.

FEBRUARY 2011...from The Kansas City Star: To quell student discipline troubles at the Southwest Early College Campus in the Kansas City (Mo.) district, a total of 18 security guards and police officers and a dozen additional hallway monitors are patrolling during the school day. The district has been dealing with a rash of disturbances since the start of the school year. The trouble returned last week when a series of small fires forced two evacuations and was capped by a large fight in the school’s auditorium.