GRANDVIEW, Mo. — The Grandview C-4 School District welcomed students back to the classroom Monday.
Thanks to a $45 million bond passed in 2021, students and families will notice upgrades throughout the district.
"Being able to spend the last two years designing and preparing, and then for the construction to start and all this kind of mayhem, so to speak, that goes along with it to prepare for this," said Grandview Superintendent Dr. Kenny Rodrequez. "It was the largest bond we've ever done in our school history.
"So being able to do that and being able to now be able to show our community, 'Okay, thank you for what you did. Here's what that really means, here's what's going to change every single day for our students.' Which ultimately is going to still impact academics as well."
Upgraded logos highlight the branding initiative.
"We went through last year, the whole branding process and making sure we got input and everything and really center around everybody in our district being a bulldog and what does that really mean in our Grandview community to be a bulldog," Rodrequez said.
Martin City K8 students will start the year with a new gymnasium and new fine art space.
The school's principal, Dr. Justin Larmie, said he's excited for families to experience all the new upgrades, with the hope of creating an even stronger community.
"I think the message that I am trying to send this year to our students, our staff and our families is every staff member we have, every student that we have [and] every family that we serve deserves the best when they come in this year," Larmie said. "They see upgraded spaces like this room and our fine arts room and our K-5 gym — our students, our staff, they deserve this.
At Grandview High School, students will return to new locker rooms and a new cafeteria, creating more space for students.
"We have a comprehensive high school. When you have 1,100 students or more, you're constantly looking at ... a master schedule of how many lunches you need to have and how many students we need to go through, so it's a lot of transitions and trying to get students in and out of class and being in the cafeteria," Rodrequez said. "The smaller the space, the more lunch periods you'll have to have, and the more transitions that you have throughout the day.
"This will allow us to shorten that a little bit, have a few less lunch periods and then, obviously, for them just to have a better experience while they're here."
Over the summer, 322 security cameras were added districtwide to enhance security and safety.
"We're going to continue to make safety and security a priority in everything that we do, so even little things, like in this cafeteria, we have all these glass walls around the outside, putting bullet resistant film around that just to give a little bit of extra sense of what that could look like," Rodrequez said. "Brand new cameras throughout our entire school district, so every single school site, every single building to make sure we have the highest level quality of cameras there so we know exactly who's coming in and going.
"But then also to be able to do a badge system so we will put a door lock system throughout all of our exterior doors throughout the entire school district."
With the bus driver shortage impacting districts across the Kansas City area, Dr. Rodrequez highlighted the district's current situation. While the district is down a few drivers, Rodrequez students will not be affected on their first day of school.
"They (bus drivers) actually work for us, like they're Grandview employees, so we don't have to contract them out, which is fantastic," Rodrequez said. "They feel just a part of what we do. They are just as excited as [on] the first day of school to see all the smiling faces. They build relationships with kids, so they know the families, they know the kids as well, but it's always a challenge. It's challenging to find the right number and the total number that we need. Right now, we're in a good place, we could always use more."
To learn more about the district's upgrades andtransportation, click here.
