On Sept. 20, the State Board of Education announced the Kansas City Missouri School District will lose its accreditation effective Jan. 1, 2012. What this means is the district will not be officially recognized by the state.
In result, the students of this district can potentially be able to transfer to a neighboring school district, including North Kansas City School District.
This may happen as long as the unaccredited school district pays tuition and provides transportation.
“Our district now faces a critical test of one of the most important lessons in life- a test of our resilience and persistence,” interim KCMSD Superintendent Steve Green said, “We can, and we will, bounce back from this set back.”
The KCMSD has had numerous setbacks as of downsizing and making space for all students. If the district fails to bounce back in time, the state must intervene.
The state could take over the district or dissolve it. The state is hoping for the school to recover so they will not have to go to the full extent.
“While this decision was an extremely difficult one for our board to make, we believe it is the right one,” said Peter Herschend, president of the Missouri State Board of Education in a press release. “This action may feel like a set-back for the district, but this decision is not totally unexpected.”
According to Assistant Principal Bart Bates, NKCHS currently has nearly 1500 students and we are close to our capacity. Still, in the future, Northtown could potentially add new students from KCMSD.
One alternative is that KCMSD could potentially be broken up and adopted into neighboring school districts.
No decision has been made yet, and no decision will not be made until January 2012 at the earliest.
In addition, the court case Turner v. Clayton is being challenged in courts and could affect students who would want to transfer into a neighboring school district.
Turner v. Clayton is a lawsuit against the Clayton School District that will govern or control school transfer options. Like KCMSD, the St. Louis School District lost their accreditation, but in 2007. The school district has had little movement from the students because of the resistance of neighboring school districts, including Clayton School District.
The resolution of this court case could change the way neighboring schools react to accreditation situations, including the Kansas City situation.
Another hearing for the Turner v. Clayton case is set for January 2012, and all decisions and plans will be made in court.
For more information, go to the KCMSD website at http://www2.kcmsd.net/Pages/AboutKCMSD.aspx.
