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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For weeks teachers and parents have had a chance to weigh on Blueprint 2030, Kansas City Public Schools vision for the future launched by former Superintendent Mark Bedell, who left over the summer.

Parents and staff got a chance to voice opinions on the type of person who should lead the school district in carrying out that blueprint.

“For me, a big thing is going to be for this new leader to come in and think and partner with local government, with civic leaders to look long term in Kansas City to see how we address certain things that are weighing on and impacting our educators and our students,” one woman told JG Consultant Al Frailey.

Frailey asked the crowd about challenges and accomplishments.


“I think there’s some great things that are happening in the district as you heard other teachers, parents, community advocates sharing tonight. There’s a lot of great things happening in KCPS that sometimes flies underneath the surface that other people in the city aren’t aware of,” parent Josh Jackaway said.

He also asked about desired characteristics for the next superintendent.

“I think one of the major issues in this district is trust and a relational leader focuses on building relationships so you can build that trust,” a former teacher said.


Many in the crowd expressed support for Interim Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Collier.

“She knows children, she knows this neighborhood, she’s home grown,” school secretary Erika Taylor said.


She said it could be difficult for an outside candidate to come in and institute proposed changes under Blueprint 2030. 

The school district announced Monday a vote on that plan which included closing 10 schools under the original proposal won’t receive a vote Wednesday.

Instead, the district says its composing an update based on significant community input.

The vote is now set for January 11. JG Consultants say the superintendent’s job will then be posted on January 12th with hopes of finalizing a candidate by February 28th.

Town Hall meetings are planned at Maddie Rhodes Center at 5pm Tuesday in English and 6:30 pm in Spanish.

Virtual meetings will also take place Tuesday through Thursday. Log in codes for those meetings can be found here.