KSHB 41 reporter Fe Silva covers education stories involving K-12. Share your story idea with Fe.
Lauren Amicone, the principal of Garfield Elementary, walked KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva around the building for almost two hours.
The goal: To show how the school could benefit from the GO Bond.
“Our auditorium doesn’t have air conditioning,” Amicone said. “You can see in the ceiling, we've had a lot of water damage due to the roof leaking.”
The leaks have even affected classrooms. But the problem also extends to the floors.
“There are holes and spaces in the floors,” Amicone said.
Repairs are needed everywhere – and for that, the district would need extra funding.
A General Obligation (GO) Bond is the primary way school districts fund facility improvements and repairs. In April’s election, KCPS will place one on the ballot. The goal is to provide funding to address maintenance needs — and ultimately improve the learning environment for KCPS students.
The cost for the average district homeowner in the April 2025 GO Bond (for property owners with homes valued at $200,000) is less than $0.64/day — to raise $474 million. Of this, $50 million would go to charter schools. More than $7 million would go to Garfield Elementary.
Space is also part of their wish list. There’s not enough storage space in the building. Some materials are stacked in the hallways.
Also, some professionals share their rooms with others.
ELL teacher Lisa Stull has a short wall between her work area and her co-worker’s. They have groups of students in the room simultaneously.
“You kind of have to teach the kids that whatever is said over here can be heard over there – and the same thing the other way around,” Stull said.
Outside, there are no green spaces for the kids to play in. But they do play soccer and have fun – on the pavement.
“Lots of band-aids and stuff like that,” Stull said.
The repairs would help heal students – both outside and inside.
At least, that’s what more than 40 years of experience have taught speech-language therapist Sherri French.
“I think it sets up an expectation that they don't necessarily deserve the best, that it's okay for them to have less than quality,” said French.
“We might have our kids go to, in a way, a sports game, and as they're heading to the gym, going by classrooms, they see what a school should look like infrastructurally – a place that values them and sets them up for the highest quality education space that you can have,” said Shain Bergan, public relations coordinator for the district.
This is a mindset that staff and teachers work hard to change every day.
“We want that space to be just as inspiring as the people,” Amicone said.
“We want to help deliver that to our kids,” added Bergan.
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