2000s Annexation Boundary Line Debate
In November 2007, the voters of Independence Public School District and Kansas City, Missouri School District, voted for seven schools which consists of one high school, one middle school, and five elementary schools to be taken over by the Independence School District. Victor Callahan, a state senator, supported the annexation and said that he hoped that KCMSD would disappear via annexations within a 10 year span. The teachers' union of Kansas City opposed the move. Gwendolyn Grant, the head of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, supported the move; she said it would make the KCMSD school board more racially homogeneous and therefore reduce tensions within the school board. In November 2007 84% of voting residents within Independence and 66% of voting residents within Kansas City approved the transfer. Jim Hinson, the superintendent of the Independence district, believed that the KCMO district fought the annexation was because it was a "pride issue" and because the KCMO district feared that other parts of the district could secede.
In April 2008 the Kansas City Missouri School District Buildings Corp. sued to receive a declaratory judgment on the value of the Independence buildings. In July 2008 Missouri Commissioner of Education D. Kent King asked for KCMSD to give up the schools. During that month a judge ruled that Independence has a right to control the seven transferred schools and the closed Anderson Campus. In August 2008 the Independence School District wired more than $12.8 million United States dollars to the Kansas City, Missouri district. The building transfer was completed.
Read more about this topic: Kansas City Public Schools
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