KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Public Schools District is mourning the death of one its secretaries.
Valeria Villa-Alvarado, 31, was the victim of a hit-and-run that happened on Friday morning near East 12th Street and Bales Avenue.
"She was vivacious, joking all the time. Anyone who was around the office enough was a friend of hers," Ben Richardson, vice principal at East High School, said in a Facebook post. "Every year, there were certain kids who became her kids."
According to the Facebook post, she joined the district in 2017 in the transportation department and helped families navigate their bus routes.
Christopher Wells, the director of KCPS' Transportation said she was a "perfect fit" for the job.
As someone who was bilingual and spoke Spanish, Villa-Alvarado helped Latino families feel more connected to the district, Wells said.
Villa-Alvarado joined East High School in 2018, where she "quickly became the face and voice of the school," according to Richardson.
There are plans to memorialize Villa-Alvarado at East High School.
Her two daughters also suffered non-life threatening injuries in the crash.
The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department said it's still searching for the suspect involved in the crash.
