The "repurposing" initiative for Kansas City Public Schools has been an abysmal failure.
Nobody else can say it but this blog community thinks it has the scheme figured out:
It's a shell game . . .
KCPS "sells" the schools to some rinky-dink development firm and they take meetings for years at a time and probably rack up pretty good consulting fees. When it's clear that no progress is going to be made, there's no money available to rehab buildings and investors are nowhere to be found . . . The buildings are "sold" again to another set of developers who do the same trick all over again. All that's required is for the media and neighbors to KEEP BELIEVING HAPPY TALK AND NOT ASK ANY REAL QUESTIONS ABOUT WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM TO "DEVELOP" SCHOOLS . . . The scheme falls apart with even the slightest inquiry about a funding source . . . But the house of cards doesn't fall down, it continues to blight Kansas City neighborhoods until merciful demolition.
Now . . .
The Show-Me Guys recently wrote up a fascinating study of this topic:
What to Do With Vacant School Buildings
There's even a nifty PDF version of the essay that contains a great deal of info in an archival and easy to read format.
The basic conclusion that this Libertarian think tank proposes: Kansas City has apparently a better plan in place than St. Louis, but this town still hosts ALMOST TWO DOZEN vacant schools. They recommend the schools be leased or sold to charter schools, but there are other options as well.
Developing . . .