The Hickman Mills School District had a problem: Low-income kindergartners were arriving without the basics they needed to start school on the right foot. Solution? Revamp a dilapidated middle school building and provide high-quality, full day pre-K programming to every child in the district, free of charge. The first of four phases kicked off in February of 2015, and already includes complimentary door-to-door pickup, on-site resume and application resources for parents.
Despite the $10 million price tag to implement the changes, the district’s Superintendent Dennis Carpenter says that programs like this endeavor will yield long run savings via lower crime rates, incarcerations, and mental health issues, and help students not only do better in school, but succeed throughout life.
Explore innovations in education in our metro with KCPT’s The Learning Curve, a new, year-long initiative online and on television each Thursdays at 7:25pm right after Ruckus. Join us for a roundtable discussion with metro superintendents on a special Kansas City Week in Review, April 24 at 7:30pm.
Reading these stories is free, but telling them is not. Start your monthly gift now to support Flatland’s community-focused reporting.
Related Stories
Nick’s Picks | Messi, Jail, Buses, and More …
World Cup Team(s) Arrive It’s starting to feel real. The first World Cup team has landed in Kansas City. Defending champions Argentina touched down at KCI airport on Sunday and will begin practicing today at Sporting KC’s training facility in Wyandotte County. Much of the attention, of course, is focused on Lionel Messi. The soccer…
World Cup ‘Statement Piece’ Evokes Best Version of Kansas City
Before I moved to Kansas City almost 56 years ago, I had been here only once — for a brief visit to the Kansas City Press Club when I was attending the University of Missouri School of Journalism. But because of that visit and the fact that I grew up in the Midwest (Woodstock, Illinois,…
KU Center Helps Women Gain Foothold After Incarceration
A flier from her probation officer was the turning point for Jodi Whitt, who had spent more than two decades in and out of the criminal justice system. The piece of paper introduced Whitt to the Technology Education Program offered by the University of Kansas’ Center for Digital Inclusion. Since 2019, Whitt has risen through…