kcstar | Backed by two of the most influential foundations in Kansas City,
Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro and a state-hired
consultant are planning the future of Kansas City Public Schools as a
slate wiped clean.
Revelations in emails obtained by The Star and
dating to April show a state education department eager to create a new
school system, even as the long-beleaguered but stabilized district was
preparing to celebrate its best academic improvement in years.
The
electronic trail exposes a rushed bidding process, now criticized, that
ultimately landed Indianapolis-based CEE-Trust a $385,000 contract to
develop a long-range overhaul for the district’s failing schools.
Summer
discussions in emails reveal Nicastro’s wish for a statewide district
to gather poor-performing schools under new leadership, with an office
for innovation and charter school expansion.
In mid-August, days
before the state’s district report cards were to be released to the
public showing a surprisingly high score for Kansas City, a CEE-Trust
partner shared his talking points with Nicastro and staff debunking the
performance of a district where 70 percent of the students still perform
below proficiency.
“It suggests a conspiracy against our success,” said Kansas City Superintendent Steve Green.
Even
as Green and his cabinet gathered in Jefferson City on Sept. 4 with
Nicastro and staff to plead Kansas City’s case for provisional
accreditation and a reprieve from state intervention, emails show
Nicastro had other plans.
Three weeks earlier at the Kauffman
Foundation, unknown to Green, Nicastro had introduced her planning team
to the person she selected to lead a potential statewide district —
Norman Ridder, who is retiring as superintendent of Springfield’s public
schools.
Such a district typically would operate many of the state’s low-performing schools, many of them likely in Kansas City.
