On Wednesday, November 20th, the Kansas City School (KCPS) Board finalized plans and ballot language for an over $470 million bond. Now, in April 2025, KCPS will place a General Obligation (GO) Bond on the ballot to provide funding to address critical deferred maintenance needs and improve the learning environment for all KCPS students.
What this means is that the school district is declaring its intent “to borrow $474,000,000 for constructing, repairing, improving, and equipping new and aging school buildings, including safety and security measures, heating and cooling systems, roofs, plumbing, and other deferred maintenance” and to pay for it by issuing general obligation bonds in the amount of $474,000,000.
The authorization of the bond, if approved by 60% of the vote, will authorize the levy and collection of an additional debt service property tax of $0.6100 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation of real and personal property, in addition to any other existing taxes on all taxable tangible property within the District.
Voter approved bonds are extremely common, but Kansas City Public Schools has not successful convinced voters to approve a bond since 1967, something that has left the district in a significantly worse position. Today, the district needs $1.25 billion to get to where it needs to be, with over $650 million needed to fix deferred maintenance problems and $600 million for various improvements.
Today, KCPS is the only district in this region without a General Obligation (GO) Bond. Voters will soon have the opportunity to decide whether to invest in kids by funding building maintenance and modernization needs.
Local unions have not yet weighed in on the bond, but are expected to at some point in the near future. For the Building Trades, the bond potentially represents an enormous amount of work for union members in the construction trades. More broadly, this question could seriously impact the trajectory of Kansas City’s school system and the likelihood of parents to raise kids in the KCPS district.
The exact language of the question, which will appear on the ballot for those residing within the Kansas City Public School District, is as follows:
“To promote public education, student and teacher safety, and academic performance, shall The School District of Kansas City 33 (d/b/a Kansas City Public Schools) issue general obligation bonds in the amount of $474,000,000, for constructing, repairing, improving, and equipping new and aging public school buildings, including safety and security measures, heating and cooling systems, roofs, plumbing, and other deferred maintenance? If this question is approved, the District will levy a debt service property tax in the estimated amount of $0.6100 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation of real and personal property, with $50,000,000 of the total $474,000,000 amount of general obligation bonds allocated for nine participating public charter schools.”
The KCPS board will again vote on the 10-year capital plan during its December 18th meeting.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
