Last month I attending a public meeting at Hale Cook Elementary, hosted by the Kansas City Public Schools.  KCPS is proposing turning the former Bryant School into housing for teachers. Bryant was built 1915-1938 on just over four acres of land at 319 Westover, and has been vacant since 2009.  Whatever happens to this property, it will affect home values and the immediate neighborhood.  As a Realtor, I wanted to find out more about the plans….and share them with you!

Jesse Lang and Shannon Jaxx, who both work in “repurposing” closed schools for the district, moderated the event; Superintendent Dr Jennifer Collier kicked it off by talking about increased enrollment in the district schools and the recent hike in teacher salaries.  When KCPS conducted a survey of first year teachers, one of the questions was about housing. The survey indicated teachers are having trouble finding affordable housing and would prefer rents of $800-$1000 per month close to the schools they work in.  KCPS feels converting Bryant to teacher housing would help some of these staff people. Several school districts around the country have built apartments specifically for teachers; California is “leading the way”, also Chicago and Newark.  Locally, the Guadeloupe Center recently broke ground on a 50 unit apartment complex near their elementary school.

In addition to the proposed renovation of Bryant, Dr Collier talked in detail about the $650 million in deferred maintenance of the district’s current schools, which they hope to address via COP Bonds and a spring 2025 General Obligation (GO) Bond, which would require voter approval. These measures would not fund the Bryant project.

Approximately 50 persons were present at the meeting and overall, there didn’t seem to be any strong objections to the teacher housing proposal.  I jotted down several notes and have summarized the information in quick bullet points below.  You can also find slides from the presentation here.

*The land Bryant sits on is divided into four tracks, currently zoned for single family or school use.  KCPS would need to have the neighborhood “restrictive covenants” changed to allow the apartments.  KCPS will also apply to have Bryant on the National Register of Historic Places to qualify for tax credits. 

*Approximately 27-40 units would be built, with the possibility of a few single family homes (at market sale rate) on the eastern track.

*No projected cost was mentioned for the project.  Several for profit and nonprofit developers have expressed interest in submitting a proposal.  Philanthropic support will be needed to keep rents below market value. KCPS needs to decide if the land would be a long term lease or sale to the developer.

*Other alternatives for this property are:  demolish the building and KCPS keeps the site as a vacant lot; or sell it to a developer for new, market rate single family homes.

*It was also mentioned that KCPS is “evaluating” the current Southwest High School building for a third middle school location. It is not being considered for teacher housing.

The next steps are this:  over the next several months, KCPS will solicit feedback from the community, make a recommendation to the school board and in the Fall, “proceed with critical actions”. KCPS promises to “participate in good faith negotiations with the property owners” and will “solicit community feedback prior to choosing a developer” if the teacher housing proposal goes through.

KCPS wants your feedback!  You can complete a survey online by May 17.  I’ll plan on attending other public meetings related to this topic and keep you updated via the blog—thanks for reading!!