KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five hundred students and 47 teachers will be impacted by Hickman Mills School district closures.
The Hickman Mills School Board had to cut $5.5 million to fill a budget deficit.
During a Thursday night meeting there were a lot of tears in the room.
“I don’t even know,” said fifth grade teacher Victoria Potts, teacher at Johnson Elementary School.
Potts was seen crying on the shoulder of fellow Johnson Elementary School teacher Kathie Remley.
“We are going to make it, we are going to do what we have been doing every day,” Remley said.
It was a night of two types of tears. Some had tears of relief knowing their school would not be closed next year. Others had tears of uncertainty.
“This is my family, I don’t like what they just did,” Potts said.
For most of the meeting, it looked as if the board would close Symington and Truman Elementary schools.
But after hearing Johnson Elementary was more of a financial burden, leaders changed their minds. That school and Symington will close.
The decision will impact more than 500 students and 47 teachers.
“We are going to take care of them, we are going to love on them and they are going to get the best education they ever got. We are still going to do it,” said Remley.
Part of the deficit came from an error with the Jackson County tax revenue estimate.
Former Kansas City councilman John Sharp says the closures send the wrong message.
“They say it will be repurposed, repurposed is when you actually have a use for it, they will be boarded up, then they will be broken into, then this area will be blighted and it will send the message that this area is in decline,” said Sharp.
The vote also cuts money from teacher supplies and training. Sixth grade students will move to the middle school and ninth grade students will move to Ruskin High School.
