COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Columbia Public School District’s Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee is looking into voter-approved bonds to fund $420 million in its long-range facility plan for the next 10 years. The district’s last $300 million bond plan included new schools like Beulah Ralph Elementary School, John Warner Middle School and more. The Columbia Area
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Family Access Center of Excellence of Boone County has changed its name to better reflect its services after being tasked with cutting $1.6 million. The shortfall in funding has cut out community-based services and has forced some staff to be let go. The newly named Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Columbia Board of Education’s Policy Committee on Monday discussed how to best honor students at graduations who died before getting a chance to receive their diploma. The policy introduced outlines the process schools and administrators need to take leading up to graduation, on the day of and after. Under the guidelines,
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has given school districts their new A-F grades, and education officials are alerting families ahead of their publication. Wheaton R-III Superintendent Alyssa Kennedy told ABC 17 News on Friday that the state has shared a first look at 2024-25 data with districts and schools,
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A school bus carrying five Blair Oaks School District students was hit by an SUV Wednesday morning. Cole County Emergency Services was called to the crash at Route B and Tanner Bridge Road at about 7 a.m. The school bus and the small SUV that collided with it each had moderate damage,
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Columbia Board of Education this week approved changes to its bullying and hazing policies during Wednesday morning work session, expanding who can report bullying and how students are supported throughout the response process. Board member Paul Harper said the changes have been under discussion since August 2025. “We changed the notifications that
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced a new head of the state’s K-12 schools on Wednesday. Lisa Sireno will serve as interim commissioner for the department, DESE said in a news release. Sireno was the department’s deputy commissioner of learning services, a job she took over in July. Sireno
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Officials say a threat a student made at Smith-Cotton Junior High School in Sedalia on Wednesday was not credible. The Sedalia Police Department wrote on its social media that after a threat was made on social media on Wednesday morning, a school resource officer detained the student. “The threat was found not
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) Missouri Interim Commissioner of Education Stacey Preis resigned effective immediately on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the State Board of Education selected a firm to assist with its search for a permanent commissioner. Preis did not provide a specific reason for her departure. In a statement, she said she submitted her resignation
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Having responded to seven school shootings during his career, John McDonald stresses that school districts must first understand where they stand on the spectrum of school safety. As the chief operating officer for the Missouri School Boards’ Association Center for Education Safety, he emphasizes that recognizing this baseline is a critical first
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) EDITOR’S NOTE: The number of school resource officers has been corrected, and a video reporting an erroneous number has been deleted. Columbia’s Youth Advisory Council heard from two school resource officers Tuesday about their roles in schools and how students can help improve campus safety. The presentation from Columbia Police Department officers
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Columbia Public Schools is among the five school districts in the state that is partnering with the University of Missouri for early college direct admission, MU announced in a Tuesday press release. The program “guarantees admission to qualifying students” before their senior year of high school, the release says. Partner school districts
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A student who made a threat about the Morgan County R-1 School District last week is no longer enrolled, according to a Monday social media post from the school district. The statement says the student made a post that included a weapon on the social media application SnapChat around 11 p.m. Thursday.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) Columbia Public Schools argues in a new lawsuit that the Missouri State Board of Education violated state law in its approval of a Frontier Schools charter school in April. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, CPS asks the court to throw out the vote and Frontier’s license to operate in Boone County.
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A gun was found on the campus of another Mid-Missouri school on Monday. Blair Oaks Superintendent Ben Meldrum wrote in a statement to parents a gun was found in a student’s vehicle on campus. Meldrum told ABC 17 News that the gun was “never in any school building.” “Blair Oaks families: This
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Missouri Association of Librarians asked the Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday to uphold a lower court’s ruling that deems a law on sexually explicit materials in schools unconstitutional. The law in question is Senate Bill 775. The bill went into effect in August 2022 and addressed sexual assault and school materials.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) The Missouri State Board of Education approved a new A-F school and district grading framework Tuesday, with one board member voting against it. The vote approves the formula the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will use to calculate letter grades for public schools, charter schools and districts. In January,
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Missouri school districts could get their first look at 2025 performance data connected with the state’s proposed A-F grading framework by the end of this month, a Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education official said Thursday. Jocelyn Strand, DESE assistant commissioner for the Office of Quality Schools, led the department’s final
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is reporting a new low in measles vaccination rates as the common childhood illness resurges in other parts of the country. The department reports that Missouri kindergartners from the 2025-2026 school year had an 89.5% measles vaccination rate, ranking Missouri 15th lowest in the
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Two new Missouri laws taking effect Friday will give school districts more options for placing armed personnel inside schools. One law creates a training program known as the “Missouri Rangers.” The other expands who may serve as a “school protection officer.” Participation in both programs is optional for school districts. The Missouri
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