A week or so ago, I attended the Waldo Tower Neighborhood Assn meeting, which included a presentation from Jesse Lang and Shannon Jaxx from the Kansas City Public School district regarding the former Bingham school location, now a vacant lot. Does this sound familiar? In May 2024, I attended a similar meeting regarding the empty Bryant school building in Brookside (319 Westover). This meeting was very similar to the Bryant meeting; KCPS is soliciting public feedback for the reuse of these two sites. Here’s a brief summary below:

You may remember at one point Walmart wanted to build a neighborhood market at this site; homeowners nearby rejected that idea. One of the main issues here regarding redevelopment is the lot, bounded by Wornall, Wyandotte and 77th St has no direct access off Wornall. Vehicle access from Wyandotte can be tricky as it’s narrow residential street, in terms of parking, additional traffic, construction vehicles and supplies going in and out of the area. Still, the land could be used productively, and KCPS would like to repurpose it for teacher housing (as originally suggested for the Bryant location). Other ideas mentioned include housing for seniors, tiny homes, a mixed use of residential and commercial; community amenities such as a public pool, dog park, athletic fields or community gathering space, a hotel or homeless shelter. There has also been a discussion of relocating the Waldo Library to this site. Jaxx and Lang indicated there are developers interested that would submit proposals and specific costs once the options are narrowed down. How any project would be paid for was not mentioned that I recall.

KCPS wants community feedback; I think there may eventually be a survey posted on the website for input. Formal next steps are:

November 2025: Marketing Bingham and other sites

February 2026: Proposals Due

Spring 2026: Reuse Proposal Presentations

Fall 2026: Select a Proposal / Contract Negotiations

Prior to Sale: Finalize the Community Benefit Agreement

A couple of other notes to share: The former Southwest high school will eventually reopen as a middle school. As for the Bryant repurposing project, an update will be provided at a community meeting Monday Sept 29, 6pm, at the Country Club Methodist Church, 400 W 57th St.

(Disclaimer!! I am not a trained reporter and information here is based on my personal notes! There may be a few errors.)