Alternative High School in Urban Core Celebrates $8 Million Expansion

Kansas City, Mo. – The DeLaSalle Education Center, which serves about 300 alternative students in Kansas City’s urban core, celebrated an 18,000 sq. ft expansion Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013.

“We’re celebrating the realization of a vision,” said Mark Williamson, Executive Director of DeLaSalle, to attendees at the ribbon cutting. “It is the building that our children deserve. … Living in the inner city, the challenges that our kids face are monumental, and it’s incumbent upon us to at least find some relief to those pressures so that they can focus on their math and English.”

In addition to renovating their existing building, the expansion at 3737 Troost Avenue includes a new space for the DeLaSalle Student Press, a daycare facility for students and neighborhood residents and a new media center with space for 5,000 additional books.

Krista Blackwood welcomed Executive Director Mark Williamson and DeLaSalle senior Makayla McIntosh to The Local Show to learn more about the expansion.