Kansas City closing hlaf its schools

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City school officials promised Thursday to shut down nearly half the district’s schools by the start of classes in the fall without offering details of how they intend to implement the complicated plan in just a matter of months.

The drastic project also calls for cutting hundreds of jobs and shuffling thousands of students. Officials say the changes are needed to keep the district from using up what little is left of the $2 billion it received as part of a groundbreaking desegregation case.

The school board on Wednesday night narrowly approved the plan that calls for closing 29 of 61 facilities, 26 traditional schools and three leased buildings that house early childhood programs. It also eliminates about 700 of 3,000 jobs and requires moving students from the shuttered buildings to other schools.

The district’s enrollment of fewer than 18,000 students is about half of what the schools had a decade ago, with many students leaving for publicly funded charter schools, private and parochial schools and the suburbs.

Superintendent John Covington has said the district would be bankrupt in 18 months without the cuts.

At a news conference Thursday, Covington thanked the school board for approving the plan, but offered few details about how it would be implemented. He said he would give the board details about putting the plan in place in about a week.

He added that the transition plan itself would cost $25 million, and that he would “be looking at ways to generate” that money “from additional savings that we will be recommending to the board.” He declined to offer more specifics about financing.

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