Hickman Mills School District not living up to its vision

“Becoming well-informed on educational and community issues in order to determine the best direction for our school district.”

It may be the last line of the district’s Vision, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

At its regular meeting Tuesday morning, the City Plan Commission will be hearing a case about the reuse of the Kansas City Public Schools’ Franklin Elementary School as a community center:

Case No CD-SUP-2023-00020 – Franklin Elementary School SUP – A request to reapprove a Special Use Permit in District R-2.5 to allow for Public and Civic Uses (Office/ Administrative) for the reuse of Franklin Elementary School as a Community Center and KCSD Operation offices, on about 4.5 acres generally located on the north side of E. 35th Street,

This seems like a thoughtful reuse of a closed school building, unlike the Hickman Mills School District which had two closed buildings they had to ultimately simply demolish. Actually, they were more like two abandoned buildings, left for vandals to destroy everything on the inside and actually set on fire – multiple times.

When these buildings were in use as schools, they both had very good security systems, but no one was ever told what happened to those. For all the public knows, these buildings were simply left to rot with security turned off to save money. In the end, both were simply torn down, especially sad since one was named after a founder of the school district.

There were several suggestions for future use given by the community, including a community center and possibly a small clinic. By far the most compelling was for the use, and expansion of, the Community Assistance Council. This is an organization which provides residents in the Hickman Mills area with help finding fundamental resources not just for a healthy life, but often times to actually prevent homelessness and enable them to become self-sufficient. This is an organization which has been around since 1976 and which outgrew its current location in the district’s original administration center years ago.

The use of a no longer required elementary school would have been as close to a perfect fit as anyone could have wanted; yet, the district simply left the empty building until the only practical thing to do was to tear it down.

As is probably evident from previous blogs, the Hickman Mills School District is NOT community friendly. In fact, it seems to have no thoughts about the community or about the affect happenings in the community might have on the school district itself. It’s actually kind of sad because people used to believe that the two were united and dependent on each other. That no longer seems to be the case. While I will not reflect on those issues in this blog, be assured I will in the future.

Now, simply reflect on the impact the School District’s decisions, or non-decisions, have had on hindering, if not outright harming, good work that is trying to be accomplished by a worthy organization within its boundaries and for its constituents. Also, bear in mind the Hickman Mills School District has the highest transiency rate in the area. Perhaps with a larger facility and possibly more assistance, those numbers could be decreased.