For all the challenges she faced in getting to her first day as a teacher, Kora Snavely could feel any nerves or anxiety melt away when her 20 students filtered into her classroom for the first day of second grade at Meadowlark Elementary in Andover. Snavely, who graduated college in May, wanted to lead her […]
First-year teachers are Kansas’ future — if schools can keep them
Posted inEducation
‘Not who we are’: Wyandotte Co. tackles violence as a public health issue for youth
The Enough is Enough program at Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools is part of a growing consensus that the community must unite to resolve complex issues that endanger young people.
Posted inEconomics
In Kansas City, Restaurant Revitalization Funds flowed to whiter, more affluent areas
In Kansas City, Missouri, 187 businesses received Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants. The list includes restaurant franchises, bars, breweries, barbecue joints and more.
Posted inLocal Government
The number of seniors is growing. Can Sedgwick County keep up?
Diane Pope, 72, first ventured into Linwood Senior Center six years ago. Her husband had died years earlier, and Pope felt “just lonely, lonely, lonely.” As a shy and introverted person, she was skeptical whether she could find community there. But after stopping by Linwood for the first time, a staff member chased her down […]
Posted inLocal Government
Which city departments are falling behind in getting vaccinated? Kansas City won’t say.
Two-thirds of Kansas City, Missouri’s 4,233 city employees were vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of July. But the city refuses to release vaccination percentages for individual departments, making it impossible to tell whether some departments are lagging behind.
Posted inEducation
Where the money comes from to teach Kansas students
How do you budget for a classroom when you don’t know how many students will even be in it? That’s a challenge Kansas school districts face as they attempt to estimate how many students will return to their school buildings this fall. The Wichita Public Schools’ budget uses more of a high-range guess at how […]
Posted inLocal Government
What a Department of Justice investigation would mean for the Kansas City Police Department
Correction: A previous version of this story inaccurately stated that no KCPD officers were charged or indicted in the killings of Ryan Stokes, Dantae Franklin, Cameron Lamb and Malcom Johnson. This story has been corrected to say that the officer who shot Lamb was charged in Jackson County court with involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal […]
Posted inEconomics, Local Government
‘Where are we gonna go?’: New jail to displace over 100 Jackson County residents
Jackson County paid $7.05 million to purchase the property at 7000 E. U.S. Highway 40 from Park Holdings Inc., a real estate company based out of Wichita, Kansas. The purchase was approved unanimously by the Jackson County Legislature on July 12.
Posted inDIY Democracy, Watchdog
How to be a Wichita whistleblower: What to do when things go wrong
No one knows a city’s secrets, patterns or stories as intimately as its residents. As a Wichitan, what can you do if your gut tells you something’s wrong? Are you protected from sharing potentially sensitive information? How do you even start checking things out? We’ve crafted a short guide on how you can be a […]
Posted inLocal Government
How do KC-area police departments handle domestic violence among their own?
When it comes to having policies for dealing with domestic violence cases that involve officers, Kansas City-area law enforcement agencies have different approaches.