KCK steps up work on school buildings promised with $180 million bond package

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Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools is launching four major construction projects, a visible result of the $180 million bond voters approved in November 2024. 

The projects include two brand new buildings for Argentine and Central middle schools, a new elementary school that will replace Silver City and Noble Prentis elementary schools and an addition to Sumner Academy of Arts and Science. 

The district began construction on the Sumner addition this spring and plans to start the three new buildings in July and August. 

The district anticipates all the new buildings will be ready to receive students by the beginning of the 2028-29 school year, and some will be ready earlier, said Miguel Martin, the district’s executive director of operations. He will become the district’s chief operating officer July 1. 

“Anytime you can go through and have a new facility with all the amenities and everything that comes with it to be able to support our scholars and continue the educational journey is an exciting experience,” he said. 

Even for families who don’t use the schools being replaced, the opening of the new schools will have an impact. 

In December, the board approved new school boundaries and feeder patterns meant to integrate the new buildings into the system and avoid overcrowding at certain schools. Some students may find they’re assigned to a different school.

Martin said the latest plan is for those changes to go into effect during the 2028-29 school year, when all of the new buildings are open. 

The district has been soliciting input from the public, he said, such as inviting families to view design plans and asking for feedback on naming decisions. 

In April, the board approved Woodland Hills as the name of the new elementary school. The district has also determined that when the new Central Middle School opens, its mascot will be the Bears rather than the Bearcubs, Martin said. 

The time for public input is largely over as the district has had to finalize plans and begin construction, Martin said. 

How the bond funding is being used

Spending for the bond — which the district said wouldn’t increase taxes — is divided among the four projects: 

• About $66 million to replace Central Middle School. 
• About $66 million to replace Argentine Middle School. 
• $35 million to build one new elementary school, Woodland Hills, replacing Silver City and Noble Prentis elementary schools.
• About $10 million to build an addition onto Sumner Academy of Arts and Science. 

That doesn’t quite add up to $180 million, but Martin said the district isn’t making plans for the extra funds yet in case costs unexpectedly increase. 

“The last thing that we want to do is go through and start looking at other projects” to redeploy available bond funding, Martin said. “If that doesn’t pan out, then we’re having to pivot and then trying to figure out other funding sources or things to try to get those projects completed.”

At the time of the bond vote, the district said the projects were chosen because they affected buildings that were in poor condition and/or too small. 

Both Central Middle School and Sumner Academy didn’t have enough space for all of their students without using ancillary detached classrooms. Argentine Middle School had problems with flooding, accessibility and bathrooms. 

The district website says both new middle schools will be about 125,000 square feet and have capacity for 900-950 students. They will feature modern “tech-enhanced” classrooms for hands-on learning, career and technical education facilities and improved security. The elementary school will be about 72,000 square feet and serve 500-550 students. 

In the fall, the district had suggested moving New Stanley Elementary students into the new school as well as those from Silver City and Noble Prentis. That idea was abandoned, at least in the short term. 

“There is room that could accommodate New Stanley (in the new elementary school) if the board did make that decision,” Martin said, “but there has not been any further discussion around that.”

The addition to Sumner will include “five classrooms, (a) larger weight room, flexible collaboration spaces, restrooms and support areas,” the website says. It will double as a storm shelter and replace eight detached units currently in use.

Project timing

Construction on all four projects starts this year but will be completed at different times. 

Martin said construction on the Sumner addition has started and will be finished in spring 2027. The addition will open in fall 2027 at the beginning of the 2027-28 school year. 

The new Central Middle School building will be on the old Bethany Hospital site, at 1129 Riverview Ave. Martin said construction is scheduled to start the second week of July and be complete by summer 2028. 

Construction of the new Woodland Hills Elementary School will start in August of this year and be completed in late 2027, before the larger middle school buildings are done. 

The school will be built near the new Argentine Middle School and the current location of Silver City Elementary School and J.C. Harmon High School. 

In January 2028, students from Silver City will move into the new elementary school, allowing Silver City Elementary School to be demolished. That demolition will make room for some of the final steps of construction of the new Argentine Middle School. 

Martin said the new Argentine will be built at 2525 Lawrence Ave., directly behind the existing Silver City building. Construction can start this August while Silver City is still in place and should be complete by summer 2028. Removing the Silver City building will allow for some final steps, such as finishing the bus lane and parking lot. 

Silver City students will be the only ones to change schools during the middle of the year, Martin said. The district will work with staff and communicate with families to make the transition go as smoothly as possible. Other students can remain in their current buildings until switching to a new building at the beginning of a school year. 

As the new middle schools open in time for the 2028-29 school year, other changes to KCKPS boundaries and feeder patterns will go into effect. 

The boundary changes were originally set for 2027-28, but Martin said they were pushed back after construction schedules became more clear. 

“That decision was made just to have everything change all at once,” to minimize disruption and avoid having students change schools multiple times, he said.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.