EDITOR:
I agree with Scott Fricker’s letter to the editor (“Park Hill is attempting a cash grab” published on Feb. 27).
Mr. Fricker raises compelling arguments opposing new taxes that would fund capital improvements and increase teacher salaries in the Park Hill School District. However, Park Hill’s problems run deeper than mere “cash grabs.”
As a Platte County resident with two school-aged children, we chose this community for its exceptional schools. However, we are concerned by the Park Hill School District’s decline—a trend that threatens the very reasons we put down roots here.
School data (readily available from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) reveals a troubling reality: Park Hill’s struggles are unrelated to insufficient funding. In fact, Park Hill stands as one of the wealthiest districts in the Northland. Median home values show that Park Hill is leading at $386,000 per home, outpacing the Liberty, Platte County (both at $354,000) and North Kansas City ($252,000) districts. Financial resources are not the issue for Park Hill.
Nor can we point to a lack of investment in our schools because Park Hill consistently outspends its Northland peers. From 2017 to 2024, Park Hill had the highest average teacher salaries in the region at $62,961, surpassing Liberty ($60,178), North Kansas City ($59,906), and Platte County ($57,645).
Administrator pay for the same time period follows a similar pattern, with Park Hill’s $110,553 average salary trailing only North Kansas City ($111,722) and exceeding Liberty ($110,553) and Platte County ($108,412).
Most strikingly, per-student spending from 2019 to 2024 reveals that Park Hill led the Northland at $13,554.67 per pupil—ahead of North Kansas City ($12,533), Liberty ($11,844), and Platte County ($11,145).
Advocates for increased public school funding often insist that more investment is the solution. Yet, despite Park Hill’s spending, student outcomes are not just stagnating, they’re declining.
ACT composite scores, a key indicator of college readiness, paint a troubling picture. From 2017 to 2021, Park Hill students achieved scores between 22.6 and 22.1—respectable results. But since then, scores have tumbled to 21.6 in 2022 and 2023, inching up slightly to 21.9 in 2024.
While other Northland districts have seen declines, Park Hill’s drop is steeper and more persistent than in Liberty or Platte County, signaling a unique failure within the Park Hill district.
These troubling trends extend beyond academics. High school dropout rates in the Park Hill district have increased from a low of 0.9% in 2019 and 2020 to 2.3% in 2024, an eight-year high that is more than double previous levels.
Meanwhile, disciplinary problems are on the rise. Long-term suspensions (10 or more days) have grown from 100 suspensions in 2017 to 180, 172, and 189 in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. These aren’t mere statistics—they’re red flags.
Something is wrong in the Park Hill School District, and it’s not a lack of money. We pour resources into our schools, yet an increasing number of children are falling behind, dropping out, and experiencing increased disciplinary problems at school.
This isn’t the future we envisioned when we chose Platte County as our home.
--Chad Blomberg
Riverside
