Faith leaders call on public to support KCPS bond in upcoming vote

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Faith leaders are standing alongside the Kansas City Public Schools district in support of the April 8 general obligation school bond.

The $474 million bond would include upgrades to safety and security systems including alarms, secure entry points, and ADA accessibility.

“Vote yes for Kansas City, Missouri public schools. Amen,” said Park Avenue Missionary Baptist Church pastor Greg Stevens.

District leaders with KCPS said their facilities are falling apart. With the help of local faith leaders on Tuesday, they called on the community to vote for a bond that would help them put the pieces back together.

“The tradition was, once you had a school-age child you left Kansas City and went to suburbs or Kansas. How amazing would it be if people came to Kansas City because of our schools?” said KCPS board member Monica Curls.

If passed, this would be the first bond the district has received in nearly 60 years. According to the district, previous attempts to pass a bond in the 1960s through 1980s have failed due to lack of community support.

“The district will take some responsibility in that over the years the district has had some downsides, they’ve had some challenges and we knew that we had to do the work in the classroom and we knew that we had to do the work in the classroom before we could ask the community to trust us,” said Curls.

The district reports $1.2 billion worth of deferred maintenance. Some buildings even have cracks in the floor and mold on the walls. District leaders said the aging condition of its buildings have contributed to families deciding to leave the district, and the bond would fund necessary repairs and restorations.

READ MORE: KCPS continues push for school bond to fix decades of decay

“It hurts the city because those are families. Those are taxpayers. Those are business owners who are opting to leave the district so that’s tax revenue that’s leaving the district,” said Curls.

A new state of the art Career and Technical Education center would also be created at Central High School.

John R. Gray is an alumni of Paseo High School with a grandson currently attending school in the district. As students like Gray compare the halls they walk to ones at other schools, he said they question why they look different.

“To me, the simple answer is their public invests more than people within the district,” said Gray.

Gray said the power to change that is in the hands of the voting public on April 8.

“If we want quality education, we as citizens must invest and pay for it,” he said.

Details on the district’s full list of plans can be found here.