KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne covers issues in Overland Park and Johnson County and topics about government accountability. Share your story with Isabella.
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The Hickman Mills School Board approved recommendations Thursday to close Truman Elementary School and cut over 70 educators and staff members.
The district will save an estimated $12.8 million for the budget deficit, according to Superintendent Dennis Carpenter's presentation.
With the closure of Truman Elementary, current students will move to Alvin Brooks Middle School, which the district will convert into an elementary school building. Santa Fe Elementary School will become a sixth-grade center.
RELATED | Truman Elementary School targeted for closure as Hickman Mills District explores reconfiguration
The Hickman Mills School Board knew they had to make tough decisions on Thursday night, and teachers say it was a lose-lose situation.
“We all really feel that you’re either losing your job or going into next year, it’s going to be rough," library media specialist Julie Pierce said.
According to the superintendent's presentation, the cuts are estimated to save nearly $13 million. The district has to make up a $14 million deficit by next school year.
"We have got to tighten up our belt, folks," Carpenter said. "If we do nothing, we won't have a school district."
Nearly $9.7 million recovered will come from staff layoffs, service suspensions and tightening contracts for operating costs. Another $3.1 million is estimated to come from the closure of Truman Elementary School and the conversion of Santa Fe Middle School into a sixth-grade center.
Among the staff reductions, Hickman Mills will be cutting all math and reading literacy specialists, several behavior intervention specialists and reducing library media staff.
"The students are the ones who are going to pay the price," librarian Audrey Peters said.
The Hickman Mills School District has experienced difficulty in securing a reclassification following the loss of its accreditation status back in 2012.
"In a district like Hickman Mills, where we already have a literacy crisis that we have been battling for years, but we have been really working on this, to cut librarians at this time when we are making that growth just seems like a really bad move to me," Pierce said.
Pierce is one of the educators who may not have a job next year.
"We all know what's coming next year is more kids and fewer adults in the buildings that remain," Pierce said.
There will now be two middle schools instead of three, with Santa Fe Middle School converting to a sixth-grade center.
"It really is sad," Hickman Mills sixth grader LaMerra Davis said. "It's just like it's flipping upside down."
While some parents worry about their students' education due to the cuts.
"We don't want to see those classrooms get overpopulated and the teachers get so strained where the education starts to fail," LaNeisa Davis said.
Both teachers and parents are still asking the same question.
"If money is the issue, then why did this ever begin?" Davis said.
The school district said that the deficit is from increased spending and operating costs last year. Hickman Mills is still waiting on the final audit to show where the dollars were miscalculated.
KSHB 41's Isabella Ledonne asked the superintendent how a $14 million deficit could happen.
"My guess is that we should have been looking at our budget with the pandemic dollars and looking at our budget without the pandemic dollars," Carpenter said. "Maybe if we had done that, we wouldn't have been in this position."
Carpenter explained that if the money returns, there is a chance that employees and schools could come back.
"To those ancillary positions that you heard folks passionate about [Thursday] evening, they matter. They matter a lot," Carpenter said. "But at the end of the day, we have to be financially responsible, and we have to maintain this district."
Financially, the district has also gone through challenges, including a full audit after the Missouri State Auditor's office discovered evidence of financial mismanagement. The audit is still in progress.
RELATED | Superintendent makes expensive return to Hickman Mills amid district's financial challenges
There has been turnover at the administrative level as well, with Dr. Dennis Carpenter being appointed interim superintendent by the school board after former Superintendent Yaw Obeng was removed.
During Obeng's five-year tenure, the district saw an increase in student enrollment, a significant improvement in academics, and higher teacher salaries.
Carpenter previously served as the district's superintendent from 2013 to 2017.
Hickman Mills will have another community engagement meeting on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. at the Real World Learning Center.
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