So when a new principal arrived at the imposing red brick campus in a tough, high-poverty neighborhood, this is how she greeted him:
“Hi, I’m Patty Kamper, and this is my last year here.”
That was in 1996, but Kamper is still there, teaching art at a transformed Wyandotte. Today the halls are orderly, and students work industriously in small “communities” with the same teachers throughout their high school years. Attendance, achievement test scores and the graduation rate have climbed steadily.
Kamper and most city leaders credit a school reform program called First Things First.
Kansas City Schools went through a substantial court ordered spending increase during the 1990’s.