Independence school retooling auditorium to take the load from overflowing classrooms

Editor's Note: This story was originally published by The Beacon, a nonprofit news organization serving Missouri and Kansas. The Star is republishing up to two stories a week as part of a new partnership with The Beacon.

Fairmount Elementary School in Independence tore the shelves out of a storage closet, installed a smart television and a whiteboard — and started using the space for teaching.

With enrollment booming, every room counts.

"There is literally not a single space that is not being utilized," Principal Nicholas Younts said.

The school can't squeeze an entire class into a former closet, but it is using the space — and other office-sized rooms — for things that happen in smaller groups like speech therapy and support learning English.

Meanwhile, every classroom is occupied and some are so full they can't accept more students.

That's why 20 fourth graders have been sent to Mill Creek and Ott elementary schools as of Nov. 1Some ride the bus to Fairmount, then switch to a second bus to complete their journey.

That isn't a long-term solution. So the district has a plan to add classroom space and adjust school assignments, hoping to ensure Fairmount students and others can stay at their neighborhood schools.

In late October, Independence School District Superintendent Dale Herl said 77 students districtwide had transferred out of their neighborhood schools for lack of space. In close to 20 instances, an entire grade level was full at a school. The trend is especially acute in the northwestern area of the district.

An over-capacity school can create a domino effect by causing a nearby school to overflow into a third school, and so on.

The district hopes to relieve that pressure by repurposing Fairmount's auditorium into six new classrooms. Other schools could see boundary changes next fall to better distribute students among schools.

When schools run out of space, kids get pushed out of familiar environments, spend too much time in transit and miss class time due to bus schedules.

But Herl sees high enrollment as a plus.

"When you have schools that are decreasing, you are looking at having to close schools," he said. "That's something that certainly would not be popular. So I'd much rather be in a situation that we're having to figure out where to place kids."

Why this is happening

Herl can't prove why enrollment is growing in certain schools, but he thinks it could stem from low housing prices and good opinions of the district.

Independence switched to a four-day school week this year.

It's not clear whether that's drawn families in, but Herl said it doesn't look like a deterrent. Enrollment in grades one through five combined went up by more than 100 students.

"Some of the talk was we would lose kids because of the four-day week," he said. "Actually, it's just been the opposite."

Families hear about the good points of the neighborhood by word of mouth, said Terri Brewer, a family liaison for Fairmount and longtime resident of the area. Those benefits include affordable homes for sale and organizations like Community Services League and Fairmount Community Center that support the neighborhood.

"We have a lot of families that are new to Missouri and a lot of families that are new to the country," she said.

The growth could also be part of a regional trend. During an October school board meeting, Kansas City Public Schools reported that its fastest-growing schools were in the northeastern parts of the district, which border Fairmount and other schools in the northwest part of the Independence district.

Temporary solutions at Fairmount Elementary

Fairmount knew to plan for high enrollment based on trends last year, Younts said, though the school grew even more this school year. He filled every teaching position.

But there simply isn't space to add another class to Fairmount, which Herl said was built more than 100 years ago, and there are limits to how many students fit in a class. Those limits range from up to 20 for kindergarten, to up to 27 for fifth grade.

Fourth grade was the first the school had to cap, but kindergarten and fifth grade are nearing the same situation, Younts said in late October.

"Unfortunately, we've got some kiddos that have been with us since kindergarten that this year, they did have to go to another building just because we don't have the room," Younts said.

If a space opens, the school checks who among those students was the first to register and offers them a spot back at Fairmount.

But with some grades at the overflow schools filling up as well, there's a chance any new students at those schools or at Fairmount will need to be sent to yet another school.

Transferring means a longer and more complex journey for those who use the bus system.

"I'm less concerned about the expense (of transportation) and more concerned about the loss of educational time," Herl said. "They're arriving at school a little bit later, and then they have to leave school a little bit earlier."

Younts said it emphasizes the sad situation when students arrive at Fairmount on their first bus but can't stay.

"I see those kids every day," he said. "We have to tell them, 'I hope you have a good day,' and put them on another bus."

Long-term plans

Repurposing Fairmount's auditorium into classrooms looks like the cheapest way to remedy the space crunch and the pressure it can put on other schools, Herl said during the October school board meeting.

Other options included building an addition or an entirely new school.

He expects the auditorium project and light renovations to the gym to cost around $4 million, which the district can afford without passing a bond. A bond could be in the future, perhaps in April 2026, for more extensive renovations of Fairmount and other building projects.

Work on the initial Fairmount project could start over winter break if the board approves a bid, with the goal of finishing by next school year.

Herl said the district will keep some historical features from the auditorium, such as seats and decorative elements.

"We're going to reuse everything we can throughout the school whenever we do a full renovation," he said.

The project will mean that Fairmount no longer has its auditorium, which it currently uses for music classes and assemblies, Younts said. One of the six new classrooms would be set aside for music, and assemblies could take place in the gym.

Younts said there may be some sadness about losing the auditorium or changing the school in future renovations, but it's overshadowed by the drive to get Fairmount kids back in the building.

"We will hopefully be able to say to them, 'You are a Fairmount Bulldog, and you're going to be coming to Fairmount, and that's never going to be a question,'" he said. "That would bring me the greatest joy."