North East Business Association

Plans take shape for first charter school in KCK district

Nov 23, 2007

by Mary Rupert

The first charter school in the Kansas City, Kansas, school district took another step closer to reality with a search for a principal.

The Kansas City, Kansas, district is advertising for an elementary school principal for the Maurice R. Holman Academy of Excellence, a charter school scheduled to open in the fall of 2008.

The school, approved in January by the Kansas City, Kansas, school board after six ideas from the community were received, will be a classical school with themes of entrepreneurship and government, said Chiquita Coggs, executive director of the North East Business Association, which is the community supporter for the school. The business association has its headquarters at Turner House.

The new school is expected to serve about 100 at-risk students in kindergarten through fifth grades at the old Parker Elementary School building at 34th and Haskell, Coggs said. A charter school is a public school, under the authority of the Kansas City, Kansas, district, but with a different focus and community support.