KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
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Voters in the Blue Valley School District passed a $251 million bond in 2023. The bond was intended to pay for upgrades to facilities, safety, security and technology.
The district allocated $4 million from the bonds to eliminate mobile classrooms and add more permanent classrooms at Leawood Elementary School and Cedar Hills Elementary School.
Mobile classrooms are trailers outside of a school building used when those buildings run out of classroom space.
The Blue Valley School District is getting rid of all the trailers.
A KSHB 41 crew was allowed inside of one of the trailers during a recent school day.
A Cedar Hills Elementary School teacher walked the students from the main building to the trailer to start class.
The trailers don't have restrooms. Teachers try to keep students on a bathroom schedule or allow breaks during when students have down time.
There are other challenges, including moving from building to trailer in when its cold, raining or snowing.
“The sound barriers of the mobiles isn't like a typical building," said Cade Chace, principal at Cedar Hills Elementary School. "We've had some challenges with heating, cooling, controlling the environment."
The school usually has around 600 students enrolled.
For the past 10 years, they've had four mobile classrooms that usually accommodate six to 10 students at a time.
"You have transitions that are valuable pieces of time, where depending on the age group of students, you have five to 10 minutes that you’re losing academic time," Chace said. "The environment can be overstimulating depending what’s going on outside.
Jake Slobodnik, executive director of operations for the Blue Valley School District, said the mobile units were never meant to be permanent.
“You can't put a dollar amount on what that impact will have to this building and community," Slobodnik said. "The value that provides, although it’s financial and doesn’t seem a lot out of $250 million, the value is immeasurable."
The district won't use the trailers for another purpose. Contractors will dispose of them.
Cedar Hills Elementary School is currently an active construction site as they work on adding new classrooms.
The timeline is for the projects to be finished in July so new classrooms are ready for next school year.
“That improvement and progress we might not be able to measure, but I can guarantee you will see it on kid's faces everyday," Chace said.
