KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The superintendent of Kansas City, Missouri, Public Schools revealed an updated version of the district’s Blueprint 2030 plan Wednesday night. The plan called for closing or repurposing far fewer schools than a previous version.
Whiles school closures have captured the public’s interest, Samara Crawford Herrera has watched other elements of the proposal.
“School closures are a small piece of the puzzle to provide a high quality public education for students,” Crawford Herrera said.
Crawford Herrera is the executive director of Kansas City Action Fund, an advocacy organization pushing for data-based policy changes in public education.
The Blueprint 2030 proposal uses several data points to lay out strategic goals for the district to achieve by 2030.
LEARNING:
- Have 70% of third grade students read at, or above grade level. The number is closer to 20% today.
- Increase four-year high school graduation rate to 85%
SUPPORT
- Achieve the “trauma-informed status” stage 4 by 2030 to best support students and families.
- Add more partner and volunteer opportunities.
- Have 75% of K-12 students participate in at least one extracurricular/co-curricular activity by 2030.
PEOPLE
- Have 45% of teachers be people of color by 2030. About 80% of today’s students are Black or Hispanic.
- Retain 90% of certified teaching staff in 2030.
- Create a leadership development program so at least 20% of school leaders in 2030 participated in the pipeline.
SYSTEM
- Grow enrollment to 17,000 students by 2030. About 13,500 students are currently enrolled. The district had nearly 36,000 students in the late 1990s.
- Secure bonds to pay for school building maintenance and modernization.
Crawford Herrera applauds the district for laying out metrics to measure success, and giving detailed examples of how the community can help the district achieve these goals by 2030.
“What it does is give us the framework and the pathway to continue engaging and continue staying thoughtful,” she said. “So I hope people will continue to have strong thoughts, strong opinions, and show up for actions related to students. That’s part of our work, we galvanize the energy around key issues and we want to put it to real work.”
The school board meets January 25 to formally vote on adopting this plan.
