Independence school official's frustration with Kansas City continues

Independence School District Superintendent Jim Hinson is frustrated, and his frustration is growing daily.

The cause is the Kansas City School District’s lack of cooperation when it comes to the transfer of seven schools into the Independence district. Voters in both districts overwhelmingly approved the change last November.

“It is important to remind everyone that this is about kids, and it is about families,” he said. “The real item we should be discussing now is the thousands of students and families that have asked for a different way of life.”

But what Independence officials are now discussing is building appraisals – specifically four appraisals that lawyers for the Kansas City School District said they did not have during a Board of Arbitration hearing April 24.

Steve Mauer, an Independence lawyer involved with the transition issue, said he believes the appraisals in discussion are those for Fairmount, North Rock Creek/Korte, Three Trails and Mount Washington. He said at a hearing last month, Kansas City representatives said they did not have enough time to complete all the appraisals and asked the Board of Arbitration for more time.

This is despite a stipulation by that board that all written documents be submitted by April 22, two days prior to the original hearing. Ultimately, the appraisals were turned in one week later.

Not long after the hearing, Mauer discovered that Kansas City did have the four appraisals completed by the hearing date. He said instead of submitting those to the board, the district sought a different company for a second set of appraisals. Mauer has asked that the first set of appraisals be turned over to the Independence School District or the Board of Arbitration.

“They had the appraisals; they just chose not to use them,” he said. “We have asked the school district to produce those four appraisals, but they have said no.”

In a letter sent to the Independence district April 30, Jeffrey St. Omer, general counsel for the Kansas City district, confirmed that the district obtained the four appraisals. However, he wrote, the appraisals were not used because “the appraiser used a comparable sales methodology, which I believe is not consistent with Missouri law regarding the appraisal of school buildings.”

The method is in fact how the Independence district came up with its value on the buildings at $5 million. That amount does include what Hinson counts as deferred maintenance on such things as roofs and equipment. He said Independence officials took their information from a study conducted by the Kansas City district two years ago, which found a need for renovations and upgrades at many of its buildings.

The Kansas City School District estimates that the buildings are worth more than $40 million. That number does not include deferred maintenance.

“Please understand that this about kids, families, neighborhoods and communities. May we continue to move forward in that light,” Hinson said. “This is a discussion that has gone on for years, even decades. The election was in November. The transfer is supposed to occur July 1. This is not a surprise to anyone that this was going to occur.”

Citing Missouri’s Sunshine Law, Independence officials have repeatedly requested the original four appraisals from the Kansas City district, but officials there contend the records are closed to the public because they involve the sale of property.

Hinson said ultimately the Independence School District has legal precedent on its side. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was previously involved in a boundary change matter in Portageville vs. New Madrid.

State statutes do not establish a basis for compensation, but a division or distribution of real properly, personal property, funds and debt. In the end, Hinson said no value was placed on any of the property in the Portageville case. Property was simply transferred from one district to the other.

“The voters spoke, property was transferred, end of discussion,” he said. “That is what should happen here. They should just transfer property.”

When the Board of Arbitration will reconvene is anyone’s guess. Mauer said he just hopes Kansas City officials will hand over the requested appraisals so the Board of Arbitration.

“We just need a decision as quickly as they can give it,” he said. “We need to have this decided, and we would like the Arbitration Board to have all of the information available.”