KANSAS CITY, Mo. — High school students at Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, started the school year in a new building Monday. The charter school spent $10.5 million on the facility.
The new building is located next to the old high school near the intersection of Meyer Boulevard and Troost Avenue. Superintendent Dr. Jayson Strickland said roughly 450 students attend the high school.
“The first day of school is always exciting, but then when you throw in an extra variable like a brand new facility, it just adds to that excitement,” Strickland said.
The superintendent said architects designed the new high school with versatility in mind. Teachers are not assigned to specific classrooms, except for the science lab. Each traditional classroom has an attached “dojo room,” where teachers can work with smaller groups in a more personalized setting.
“With our design, all the rooms are used all the time. So teachers rotate in and out depending on the subjects they’re teaching and depending on the students in the class they have,” Strickland pointed out. “It was very intentional to be versatile like that. Hopefully we can take full advantage of that.”
Students interning with a marketing and graphic design firm last year helped create the artwork which decorates the school. Strickland believes this is the first new school building within the Kansas City, Missouri, Public School boundaries since the Ewing Marion Kauffman School opened its high school in 2014. KCPS is currently considering repurposing more of its facilities as charter school enrollment grows within the district. Strickland said a new school makes a big difference for students.
“It tells them they are important. It tells them they are worthy of a top notch quality facility,” he said.
Construction is currently underway on a new building for Hogan’s 7th and 8th grade students. Hogan Prep also has plans to build a new gymnasium/fieldhouse for its “upper campus.” Kindergarten through 6th grade students attend class at the “lower campus” about three miles away near East 51st Street and Chestnut Avenue.
