The Kansas City (Mo.) School District’s vast plan for establishing K-8 elementary schools across the district could be derailed within a year. The school board’s new leaders never supported the plan, have serious misgivings and even contemplated urging the administration this week to back off the reorganization, midway through a two-year transition. Interim Superintendent John Martin warned that abandoning the kindergarten through eighth-grade plan would add fire to public perceptions that the school board cannot keep commitments to programs and leadership. The K-8 plan in April 2007 was the most dramatic of many changes ushered in during then-Superintendent Anthony Amato’s 1½-year tenure.
Click here to read The Kansas City Star article.
FROM APRIL 2007: The Kansas City (Mo.) school board has approved a plan to phase out most of its middle schools in favor of neighborhood elementary schools that would serve students in kindergarten through the eighth grade. In the first year, sixth-graders would remain in elementary schools instead of moving on to middle schools. That would leave just seventh- and eighth-graders in the middle schools. Seventh-graders would be added to elementary schools the following year and eighth-graders a year later. After middle schools were phased out, the district would be able to close six buildings. Some middle schools would close, but some elementary schools might move into vacated middle schools. (Kansas City Star)
