Voters move seven Kansas City schools to Independence district

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The predominantly black Kansas City School District is expected to lose 30 percent of its white students after voters agreed to switch seven of its most successful schools to the neighboring Independence district.

Two-thirds of voters in the Kansas City district, 13,576 to 7,015, approved the plan Tuesday, according to complete but unofficial results. In the Independence district, 84 percent favored the switch, 10,173 to 1,918.

Many in the Kansas City suburbs of Independence and Sugar Creek argued in favor of the transfer, saying it would improve their property values and the quality of education for students at those schools.

"It's a total liberation for Independence," said Eileen Weir of the community group Progress Independence. "November 6 will always be Independence Day."

But Kansas City superintendent Anthony Amato, along with the district's board and teacher's union, had campaigned against the plan. The district also had fought the plan in court.

"I don't think citizens really understood the impact [of a boundary change]," Kansas City school board president David Smith said. "A lot of facts were misrepresented, but that's politics."

Even if Kansas City voters had rejected the proposal, state law would have required a state-appointed arbitration panel to approve the switch, because the provisionally accredited Kansas City district scored at an unaccredited level in its latest annual performance report by the state. The Independence district is fully accredited by the state.

But with the proposal winning the support of voters in both districts, it will be more difficult to challenge in court.

Civil rights lawyer Arthur Benson II had promised to file a federal lawsuit if Kansas City had voted against the change, noting the effect the transfer will have on the district's racial makeup.

Not only will the Kansas City district's makeup change after the switch, but the makeup of the seven schools is expected to change as well. Enrollment is expected to drop from 3,100 students to 2,200 students at the former Kansas City schools, which are in Independence and Sugar Creek.

About 1,400 students with Kansas City addresses, many of them minorities, may switch to Kansas City schools. Meanwhile, about 1,700 students with addresses in western Independence and Sugar Creek are expected to stay. They will be joined by about 500 students who live in the annexed area but who attend Lincoln College Prep and other Kansas City schools.

Both districts have discussed plans to exchange tuition costs and allow some students to remain in their current schools.

One of the transferred schools, Van Horn High School, is expected to see its white enrollment jump to 62 percent from 38 percent. The other affected schools are Nowlin Middle School and five elementary schools -- Mount Washington, Fairmount, North Rock Creek/Korte, Three Trials and Sugar Creek.

Benson could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday but said last week that he likely would not file a challenge if Kansas City voted for the change.

The Kansas City school board had likewise raised constitutional concerns, saying its voters would be disenfranchised.

Smith said Tuesday he did not know if the board would want to continue any legal fights.

"I don't want to do anything else to disrupt any of the kids' education," Smith said. "My focus is going to be on the plans we've had to try and improve the district."