OLATHE, Kan. — KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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The Olathe School District is holding boundary meetings for six schools set to close. The first meeting is at Black Bob Elementary.
At the meetings, families will get their first chance to weigh in on where students could end up next.
District leaders will walk families through proposed boundary concepts, giving parents a chance to review the options, then share their feedback on the new plan.
The district says that feedback will be shared with school leadership and the Board of Education, but not in a formal vote.
While covering these closures, I've heard from Black Bob parents worried about transportation and student safety to and from school.
“There's a lot of walkers and riders to the school, and there's no safety provision for them to relocate in terms of bussing things like that. So that's one of the things that I think has been quite prominent for me as a parent,” said parent Vashti Colon Echevarria.
Of the six schools set to close, five are in southeast Olathe.
The district says they implemented a neighborhood school model in the southern region during peak enrollment growth, resulting in a high school saturation within the southern portion of the district.
As enrollment evened out, the district moved away from the neighborhood school model in areas like the northwest corner, so there are fewer schools and less need for closures.
Parents at Black Bob say they're concerned about where all those students will go — and whether the remaining schools can handle the increase.
"How do you know for sure that this many students can be absorbed into the remaining schools? When you're closing five of the six schools in just the southeast community. How can you expect to comfortably absorb all of those students into the remaining schools?" Parent Kelly Mazurek said.
The first meeting at Black Bob is the start of a long process with many more community meetings over the next two weeks. District administration will then bring a boundary proposal to the Board of Education in December, with a board vote anticipated in January.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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