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id=yn-title>Mass school closures approved in Kansas City, Mo.</H1><A
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alt="In this photo taken Feb. 28, 2010, the Kansas City Board of Education building,"
src="cid:1F318F4664CA476698897E256BC44A35@Justinscomputer" width=213
height=116 apple-height="yes" apple-width="yes"></A><CITE
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.2em; ZOOM: 1; DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: arial, verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(119,119,119); CLEAR: both; FONT-SIZE: 12px; PADDING-TOP: 3px"
class=caption>AP – In this photo taken Feb. 28, 2010, the Kansas
City Board of Education building, located near the
Sprint …</CITE></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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class=byline><CITE
style="FONT-FAMILY: arial, verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(119,119,119); FONT-SIZE: 13px"
class=vcard>By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press
Writer </CITE>– <ABBR
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title=2010-03-11T04:56:10-0800>45 mins ago</ABBR></DIV>
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<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">KANSAS
CITY, Mo. – Facing potential bankruptcy, the board that governs the once
flush-with-cash <SPAN id=lw_1268312194_0 class=yshortcuts>Kansas City
school district</SPAN> is taking the unusual and contentious step of
shuttering almost half its schools.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Administrators
say the closures are necessary to keep the district from plowing through what
little is left of the $2 billion it received as part of a groundbreaking
desegregation case. The <SPAN id=lw_1268312194_1 class=yshortcuts>Kansas
City school board</SPAN>narrowly approved the plan to close 29 out of 61
schools Wednesday night at a meeting packed with angry parents. The schools
will close before the fall.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Although
other districts nationwide are considering closures as the recession ravages
their budgets, Kansas City's plan is striking. In rapidly shrinking Detroit,
29 schools closed before classes began this fall, but that still left the
district with 172 schools. Most other districts are closing just one or two
schools.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Emotional
board member Duane Kelly told the crowd of more than 200 people Wednesday
night, "This is the most painful vote I have ever cast" in 10 years on the
board. Some chanted for the removal of the superintendent, while one woman
asked the crowd, "Is anyone else ready to homeschool their children?"</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px"><SPAN
id=lw_1268312194_2 class=yshortcuts>Kansas City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders
Brooks</SPAN> said the closure plan had prompted some housing developers
to consider backing out of projects.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">"The
urban core has suffered <SPAN id=lw_1268312194_3 class=yshortcuts>white
flight</SPAN> post-the 1954 <SPAN id=lw_1268312194_4
class=yshortcuts>U.S. Supreme Court decision</SPAN> Brown v.
the <SPAN
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed; CURSOR: pointer"
id=lw_1268312194_5 class=yshortcuts>Board of Education</SPAN>, blockbusting by
the real estate industry, redlining by banks and other financial institutions,
retail and grocery store abandonment," Brooks said to applause from the
standing-room-only crowd.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">"And
now the <SPAN id=lw_1268312194_6 class=yshortcuts>public education
system</SPAN> is aiding and abetting in the economic demise of our school
district," she said. "It is shameful and sinful."</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Under
the approved plan, teachers at six other low-performing schools will be
required to reapply for their jobs, and the district will try to sell its
downtown central office. It also is expected to cut about 700 of the
district's 3,000 jobs, including about 285 teachers.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">District
officials face dozens of issues as they begin the massive job of downsizing
the district — reworking<SPAN id=lw_1268312194_7 class=yshortcuts>school bus
routes</SPAN>, figuring out what to do with vacant buildings and slashing its
payroll.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Superintendent
John Covington has spent the past month making the case to sometimes angry
groups of parents and students that the closures are necessary.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Once
the district had enough desegregation money to build such amenities as an
Olympic-sized swimming pool. But the effort to use upscale facilities and
programs to lure in students from the suburbs never worked quite as
planned.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Covington
has stressed that the district's buildings are only half-full as its
population has plummeted amid political squabbling and chronically abysmal
test scores. The district's enrollment of fewer than 18,000 students is about
half of what the schools had a decade ago and just a quarter of its peak in
the late 1960s.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Many
students have left for publicly funded <SPAN
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed; CURSOR: pointer"
id=lw_1268312194_8 class=yshortcuts>charter schools</SPAN>, private
and <SPAN
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed; CURSOR: pointer"
id=lw_1268312194_9 class=yshortcuts>parochial schools</SPAN> and the
suburbs. The school district also isn't the only one serving students
in <SPAN id=lw_1268312194_10 class=yshortcuts>Kansas City</SPAN>; several
smaller ones operate in the city's boundaries.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Covington
has blamed previous administrations for failing to close schools as the
enrollment — and the money that comes with it — shrank. Past school closure
plans were either scaled back or scrapped entirely.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Administrators
warned that without the cuts, the district would have been in the red by
2011.</DIV>
<DIV
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 1em; LINE-HEIGHT: 23px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">"None
of us liked voting for this," board member and former desegregation attorney
Arthur Benson said, "but it was
necessary."</DIV></DIV></DIV></SPAN></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>