Public elementary schools add classrooms

By Sara Wiercinski

Two neighborhood elementary schools are working to add more instructional space for students.

Hale Cook Elementary

Hale Cook Elementary, 7302 Pennsylvania Ave, is seeking a special use permit from the city to construct a mobile classroom to accommodate a spike in enrollment.

The 24×64 foot mobile classroom would be installed in the southwest parking lot to provide space for iSparks (STEM) and Spanish classes. The city hearing is October 5. If the permit is approved, construction would begin shortly after.

Hale Cook Elementary was built in 1923. It closed in 2009, then reopened with just three grades in 2014. It now hosts pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade. Enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year is 362 students, up from 321 in 2023.

“To watch Hale Cook grow has been a blessing,” said Charlotte Chauvin, who has taught iSparks at the school since 2015. “It shows how this area is trusting Kansas City schools to give a quality education.”

“I am curious as to the size of my new classroom,” she added.

Kansas City Public Schools plans to permanently address needed facility improvements at its schools through a general obligation bond which will appear on the April 2025 ballot.

Phase 1 of the bond plan calls for $2.4 million in improvements to Hale Cook Elementary, with a total of $11.4 million for the school over the course of the next 10 years. If the bond measure passes, Hale Cook would have the second highest dollar amount in improvements among KCPS elementary schools (second to James Elementary in the northeast, which was built in 1910 and would receive $12 million).

KCPS’ other southside elementary school, John T. Hartman Elementary, located at 8111 Oak St., would receive $5 million in phase 1 and $9.2 million over the next ten years.

Leawood Elementary

Construction on a new addition at Leawood Elementary, 2400 W 123rd Street, will begin in November, the result of a $251 million bond which Blue Valley School District voters passed in 2023. The new wing adds five classrooms on the school’s north side.

“It’s exciting for the school to get this addition, something new,” said 5th grade teacher Amy Flammer, who will move to the new wing next year. “We’re expanding and taking care of our community. We’ll have a bigger space for our bigger students.”

Construction is expected to finish by August 2025, in time for the 2025-2026 school year. At that time, the mobile classroom, which has been in use for four years, will be removed.

Flo Long currently teaches gifted education students from the mobile classroom and looks forward to returning to the main building next year.

“It’s a bit isolating being out here, both for the students and for staff.” During inclement weather like thunderstorms or extreme cold, Long moves the entire class inside for safety which is an inconvenience.

The building addition will include a mother’s room for teachers with infants and individual restrooms, as opposed to the stall setup which teachers say can get chaotic.

Leawood Elementary is home to Kindergarten through 5th grades, with enrollment at around 550 students.

Through bond-funded facilities upgrades, Blue Valley Schools aims to eliminate the use of mobile classrooms at its 22 elementary schools.

Learn more about both school districts at https://www.kcpublicschools.org/bp2030 and http://www.bluevalleyk12.org/bond.