Jennifer Owen helps nonverbal students find their voices. The speech pathologist for Wichita Public Schools specializes in augmentative and alternative communications, helping students with trouble speaking, reading or communicating their thoughts to do just that. She does her work with tools, often expensive ones, like tablets that help students with word and image icons. She’s […]
How does Wichita Public Schools spend an average $15,000 per student?
Posted inLocal Government
KCPD ignores requests for progress report on five-year-old audit
Update: The Kansas City Beacon received confirmation that the audit was discussed by the Board of Police Commissioners and then-chief Darryl Forté, who decided to take no action at the time. An ARTS report conveying that fact was never filed with the city auditor. The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department should monitor how often employees […]
Posted inWatchdog
Wichita joins a long list of cities where gang data has been challenged
Update: A federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a gang list maintained by the Wichita Police Department will continue, though a judge dismissed three of its seven counts. The lawsuit, filed by Progeny, Kansas Appleseed and the ACLU in April 2021 on behalf of four Black men in Wichita, alleges that the gang list targets […]
Posted inLocal Government
Jazz in jeopardy: City-owned dangerous buildings at 18th and Vine sit in limbo
Roofs are missing. Cracks and small holes riddle the windows. Debris clutters the exposed interiors. One glass panel facing 18th Street has a painted sign: Paseo Bootery, Shoes and Repairing.
Posted inEconomics
‘Out of sight, out of mind’: Absentee owners allow properties to become dangerous buildings in Kansas City
A majority of these absentee-owned dangerous buildings are concentrated in neighborhoods east of Troost Avenue, a historic economic and racial dividing line in Kansas City.
Posted inLocal Government
How RideKC is trying to build a better bus stop with community partners
Waiting for his RideKC bus Monday afternoon, Norman Tate noticed a new addition outside the East Village Transit Center — a table covered with books, flyers, tote bags, masks and informational flyers. He watched and waited for several minutes, then approached. By the time Tate finished chatting with the two Kansas City Public Library staffers […]
Posted inLocal Government
Sedgwick County jail’s COVID protocols differ from other Kansas counties
In Sedgwick County, COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing — in July, new daily cases averaged about 62 per day. By mid-August, that number more than doubled to nearly 140. That’s beginning to impact the Sedgwick County Detention Facility. After months of nearly no cases, the number of positive cases shot up after just two weeks in […]
Posted inEducation
‘Our founders owned slaves’: William Jewell project reveals truths, prompts calls for change
Project participants hope it will provide a more complete story of the college’s founding — including recognizing the enslaved people who generated wealth used to found the school — and will lead to concrete actions to respond to the findings.
Posted inLocal Government
‘Silver tsunami’ rolls through KCMO government
Eighty-five years of experience have walked out of the Kansas City Auditor’s Office in the past year and a half. Two out of three audit managers retired, taking a combined lifetime of experience and institutional knowledge with them. The office is hiring, but new employees will take upwards of a year to start their full […]
Posted inLocal Government
Despite public outcry, KCPD officers will still be given 48 hours to make a statement after a shooting
Forty-eight hours. That’s the window of time a police officer with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department has to give a formal statement following a police killing or other violent incident, according to the department’s latest union contract. The Kansas City Beacon obtained a copy of the bargaining agreement through a public records request. The 48-hour […]