Mo. judge orders KC to turn over schools

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Jackson County judge has ruled that the Kansas City School District and its nonprofit building corporation must transfer eight schools to neighboring Independence.

Judge Jack Grate gave Kansas City two weeks to hand over the schools and ordered Independence to pay $12.9 million for the buildings, essentially affirming a state arbitration panel's decision last month. The Kansas City Star reported that Grate's Tuesday ruling also bars the urban district from meddling in the school transfer.

Last November, voters in the Kansas City area agreed to allow some of the Kansas City School Districts' schools to switch to the neighboring Independence district. But the school transfer was complicated because a nonprofit building corporation and not the Kansas City School District actually owns the buildings.

The building corporation argued that it should be allowed to determine the values of the schools, and that the state arbitration board's order to give the buildings to the suburban district amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their property.

Grate disagreed. He ruled that the building corporation didn't have standing to sue because it had given over "rights, interests and title" for the buildings, and that when voters changed the districts' boundaries, ownership over the schools transferred to Independence.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com