Free complimentary copy March 11, 2016 • Volume 3, No. 20
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‘Every Student Matters, Every Moment Counts’ in Raytown schools By Diane Krizek
ing. In return, the district would require a commitment to teach for four years. “Teachers who grew up here, go to college and end up coming back home,” said Marlene DeVilbiss, director of human resources. “A scholarship with commitment to teach might catch kids who cannot afford college.” A similar fellowship in partnership with the University of Central Missouri would be offered to UCM sophomores majoring in education and intending to teach K-12.
Career Center.
The Raytown C-II School Board of Education held a special meeting for a work session Feb. 22 in which Superintendent Allan Markley presented the administrative staff’s Every Student Matters, Every Moment Counts initiative. Markley started off by citing a list of accomplishments to illustrate how far the district has come. A few among them were: budget reductions chosen over job cuts, community involvement and partnerships, maintenance, technology and security upgrades in the schools, Raytown South High School’s turf investment and new stadium, and the Raytown Schools Wellness Center. “I’m tired of hearing outsiders refer to Raytown as a ghetto,” Markley said. “They don’t know what we have here.” The district’s progressive plans for the future includes the addition of educational programs and services designed to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed, that attract and retain highly qualified teachers, and to elevate the standards of living for struggling families by offering adult night school training at Herndon
Early Childhood
The benefits of early childhood education for 3 to 4 year olds has been proven over and again. The district now has 227 children in the program, but approximately 600 kindergarteners are entering the district every year. Head Start and Title I provides funding that subsidizes early childhood programs, but space is currently limited in the early childhood classes at New Trails Early Learning Center and Herndon Career Center. The district plans to gradually roll out early childhood programs to each elementary school in the district starting at Eastwood Hills Elementary in 2017 and Westridge Elementary in 2018, where the need is greatest. By increasing the number of classrooms, the district can also expand its fee-based early childhood program to children now in day care. “For $135 a week, we can provide a daily full-time program using certified teachers and serve breakfast and lunch,” Markley said.
Grow Your Own
The district believes that its minority students would benefit from having teachers and mentors
Southland CAPS
who look like them but finding diverse candidates to hire has been difficult. Preference is given to those who graduate from Raytown schools and to those of color. “Minority kids are going to college not for teaching degrees but for careers in higher-paying jobs,” said Anthony Moore, assistant superintendent of elementary education. Grow Your Own is a fellowship program that would offer up to $10,000 per fellow plus provide professional development through summer curriculum camps and provide a mentor for each fellow during junior and senior years and during the first three years of teach-
The Southland CAPS program is specifically designed for students who are undecided on a career path. The program would emulate the successful Northland CAPS, requiring a separate board and bylaws. Students would meet for half day for a full year, with the first year spent in classroom and second semester in an internship with large core business partnerships or small businesses of less than 10 employees. Like Herndon, the new program will require the participation of multiple school districts, such as Ray-Pec, Grandview, Lee’s Summit and Center. By not starting from scratch and using existing Herndon staff,
Southland CAPS will be launched for the 2016-2017 school year. “Getting high school students out of the classroom and interested in the real world with internship experiences that help them see how things work should bring in new candidates,” said Brian Huff, assistant superintendent of secondary education. “Kids get in the program and they grow up.” CAPS will not compete with Herndon because the program is much broader in helping students find themselves. (Think veterinary medicine, municipal judge or even construction trades.)
April Work Session
July Extended Summer School, Telemedicine, After School Tutoring, Raytown Residence Incentives, Herndon Adult Night School are more planned initiatives to be discussed at the next school board work session on April 18. “Far too long have we underutilized Herndon,” Markley said. “In my experiences seeing the number of adults barely getting by in our community, I can’t imagine the effects it has on a child. We have the resources to better their experiences. Today the average welder is 64 years old. We can train welders who make $30 an hour.”
Demo begins to clear way for new QuikTrip on 350 By Kris Collins Crews began demolition Tuesday at the QuikTrip at 9323 East 350 Highway and surrounding properties to make way for a Generation 3 QuikTrip store, the newest model. The property is being cleared to make way for a 5,773-square-foot store, which is approximately 1,700 square feet larger than the current QuikTrip building. Additional traffic improvements will be made on the property as well, said Raytown Director of Development and Public Affairs John Benson. “There’s a driveway that comes onto Maple at 350, and that’s going to go away,” he said. “That traffic flow on maple will be much improved. They’re also building across the front of their property a bicycle and pedestrian trail.” QuikTrip is also depositing $50,000 into an escrow account dedicated to downstream stormwater improvements. Under the development agreement, the city will have five years to complete the improvements.
Photo by Kris Collins Demolition began Tuesday at the QuickTrip on Missouri 350 in Raytown to make way for a new 5,773-square-foot Generation 3 model QuikTrip
Downtown Streetscape phase 1 to begin in late March By Kris Collins Phase 1 of Raytown’s The Downtown Streetscape project is set to being later this month. John Benson, director of development and public affairs, said that may literally mean the last day of March. The streetscape project area includes East 63rd Street from the existing railroad bridge east to Blue Ridge Boulevard, Raytown Road from East 61st Street south to East 64th Street, and Blue Ridge Boulevard from East 63rd Street north to East 59th Street.
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The $948,000 first phase of the project will focus on East 63rd Street between Raytown Road and Blue Ridge Boulevard. The city secured a $483,000 Federal Transportation Enhancement Grant that from covers approximately half of the cost of the first phase. The city held a meeting at the Raytown Mid-Continent Library Feb. 23 for downtown property and business owners to review the scope and work timeline for the project. The project was put on temporary hold approximately two years
ago after a first round of bids received for phase 1 construction came in over budget. The city had to reject all the bids and enact some cost saving measures — the use of less expensive streetlights, for example — to decrease the cost. As outlined in the city’s Streetscape Master Plan, the object of the revitalization is to improve navigation downtown, create sense of place for the downtown area, and to set a standard of quality for future development. The master plan was completed in 1996 and the Centralized Business District plan was adopted in 2002.
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Phase 1 work includes a reduction in vehicle lane widths, converting the four-lane street into a three-lane street section with bicycle lanes, and converting existing on-street parallel parking to angled parking spots designed for back-in parking, which is typically safer. The upgrades also include expanded sidewalks for the promotion of foot traffic, landscape beautification, and “bump-outs” at street corners that make the crosswalk distance shorter and provide a stage for a gateway or district identification monuments. The project is planned in multi-
ple phases. The master plan simply designates the phases after Phase 2 as “future phases.” No hard timeline exists for the future phases because they rest on the availability and securing of grant money. Benson previously told the RaytownBrooking Eagle he estimates the entire project could take 10 or more years to complete. The city intends to manage the project to mitigate inconvenience to those in the downtown area during construction. Streets will not close completely, except for the transportation large, heavy objects.
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