KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson is on the in-depth team. She's covered the district's latest financial struggles and spent a couple of weeks comparing Carpenter's employment with superintendents in the Kansas City-metro area. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
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The Hickman Mills School District has been navigating financial challenges that became public after the firing of former superintendent, Yaw Obeng.
Starting next school year, Dr. Dennis Carpenter will be superintendent for the Hickman Mills School District. He was appointed as the interim superintendent in July 2025.
KSHB 41 In-Depth reporter Alyssa Jackson obtained his employment contract and spent two weeks filing records requests for several big, medium and smaller districts in the metro area for comparison.
She took a deeper look into the district's financial decisions during its leadership transition.
Highest paid in one of the smallest districts
The district's communications office announced Carpenter's promotion to superintendent was finalized in a closed session.
Carpenter previously served as superintendent of the district in 2013.
He resigned in 2017.
The Lee's Summit School District hired Carpenter that same year.
He resigned from the district in July 2019.
Carpenter's return is an expensive one for Hickman Mills. His employment contract reveals a $30,000 raise from his interim salary, paying the incoming superintendent $291,000 per year.
In-Depth Reporter Alyssa Jackson requested superintendent contracts from: Kansas City Public Schools, Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, Shawnee Mission School District, Olathe Public Schools, Raytown School District, Blue Valley School District, and Grandview School District.
Carpenter's salary is higher than all of those districts — nearly the same as Blue Valley Superintendent Dr. Gillian Chapman, who makes $290,000 per year.
For a size comparison, Hickman's enrollment is 4,684 students — one of the smallest districts in the metro area.
Olathe's enrollment: 27,917 students.
Blue Valley's enrollment: 22,389.
KCPS enrollment: 13,964
Grandview enrollment: 3,527
Carter Taylor, legislative chair for the American Federation of Teachers Local 691, was shocked at the salary.
"Have they actually demonstrated they are worth it?" Taylor said. "They are being paid by the public to do a public service and I'm not sure that service has been done to the effect that would warrant the raise or salary at all?"
Hickman Mills: "In a financial crisis"
The Missouri State Auditor's office announced a full audit of the Hickman Mills School District after discovering evidence of financial mismanagement.
The audit, triggered by an investigation before Carpenter's return, is still in progress.
In August, Carpenter requested the services of the Missouri Capital Asset Advantage Treasury (MOCAAT), a financial management resource for Missouri school districts.
The agency identified a $12 million budget shortfall unless corrective action is taken with the district's budget in the following school year.
"Right now, we are in a financial crisis as a school district," Carpenter said in November.
Now, the district is exploring the closure of schools to save millions of dollars.
"Is this going to be easy? Do we like doing it? No, but we don't have a choice. We have to get it done," Hickman Mills School Board President Bonnaye Mims said.
Byron Townsend, vice president of the Hickman Mills Board of Education, said in August during the budget presentation that "the district is on fire."
Carpenter returned as the district needed expensive changes.
The district's expense on him is a price tag that most districts in the Kansas City area haven't reached.
"I find a lot of times when there's a power imbalance, it's very easy for the scales to tip in favor of one — at the expense of the others," Taylor said.
KSHB 41 In-Depth reporter Alyssa Jackson contacted the Hickman Mills School District for an interview, explaining Carpenter's contract and the contract negotiation process.
After the first denial, Jackson pushed for an interview to have the district's representation in the story.
We did not receive a response by this story's deadline.
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