There are 14 schools within our six-census-tract study area. These schools currently enroll over 4,500 students and employ almost 500 staff. Of the two of the 14 schools that are run by Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS), only one is a regular ‘public’ school – Troost Elementary School. The other is a magnet school, or a “Signature” school, as deemed by KCPS – Border Star Montessori. The rest of the area’s schools are charter schools. There are four elementary, middle and high schools each. Interestingly enough, these charter schools appear to have clustered into three distinct areas. One of which is just east of the Landing site.

The below GIF shows how the students per square mile have changed over time in our census tracts. The most identifiable trend is that the census tracts east of Troost have declined since 1990 at a much more drastic rate than those west of Troost. West of Troost, only Tract 82 went down since 1990 (and only by 6 students per square mile). Tracts 83 and 86 have both increased their student density since the 1990 census.

Census Tracts 80, 81 and 87, which are east of Troost, have all had majority public school enrollment since the 1990s.

Census Tracts 82, 83 and 86, which are west of Troost, have had less of a consensus when it comes to public vs. private school enrollment. Tract 82, has seen the most consistent split over time. Most recently, this tract has seen a 50-50 public-private school split.

Tract 83 has seen a consistent 65% private school enrollment rate over the tracking period.

Finally, tract 86 has oddly gone back and forth with their public-private school enrollment.

The students in our study area, which is all six census tracts discussed above, looks to be and have been mostly public school students since the 1990 Census.

Comparatively, our total tract area is much like Kansas City, Missouri and the KCMO/KCK Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in that the majority of students are enrolled in public school.