COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) With students returning to classrooms this month, Missouri once again ranked last in the nation for public school safety. A 2025 Wallethub ranking placed the Show-Me-State as 51st in the country for public school safety for the second consecutive year. This comes despite Missouri finishing 33rd in overall school quality. The school
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Delmar Cobble School in Columbia is among the number of schools for disabled children around the state to permanently close, according to a Tuesday press release from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The DESE Board decided on Tuesday to close six buildings that were already “temporarily consolidated due to staff
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Columbia Public Schools is still working toward the goal of having construction work finished next month at Ridgeway Elementary. CPS approved a $100,000 contract with PlayPower LT Inc. for work to be done at the school during one of its meetings in May. The work began on May 13 and is expected
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A Cole County deputy pleaded guilty on Friday to a pair of misdemeanors related to a December 2023 crash that left a driver with serious injuries. Mercy Gonzalez, of Jefferson City, pleaded guilty to reckless driving and failing to obey a traffic control device. She was sentenced to two years of unsupervised
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Harrisburg School District will lose out on about $300,000 and likely will need to cut staff or programs after voters rejected a property tax increase on Tuesday. School district voters rejected the dual measure, which would roll back Prop C sales taxes while increasing the district’s property tax levy, with 275
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) In less than a month, students across Missouri will be preparing to head back to the classroom for the 2025-2026 school year. As the new school year approaches in Missouri, state health officials are urging parents and guardians to check their child’s vaccination status, warning that falling immunization rates could lead to
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Firefighters were seen at the site of Columbia’s new elementary school on Thursday afternoon after a fire was reported. First responders were called to the 5400 block of South Sinclair Road, the site of the new Eagle Bluffs Elementary School that is expected to open in 2026. Columbia Public Schools spokeswoman
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) In less than a month, more than a million children across Missouri will be shoving notebooks into their backpacks, sharpening their pencils and walking down the halls of their schools for the new school year. While having all the right supplies on the first day is important, making sure you have all
Continue Reading
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) Back-to-school shopping is starting earlier than usual this year, as families scramble to buy supplies before new tariffs take effect next month. For many shoppers, it’s all about beating the clock. With tariffs set to impact the cost of imported school essentials starting Aug. 1, parents and grandparents are hitting stores
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) For the first time in more than 15 years, the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services will not be offering flu shots in local schools during the fall semester. The free flu vaccines were previously offered by the Health Department each fall for students in preschool through 12th grade. The change
Continue Reading
By Devan Cole, John Fritze and Sunlen Serfaty, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday said President Donald Trump may proceed with his plan to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education in the latest win for the White House at the conservative high court. In an unsigned order, the justices lifted
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Local after-school organizations are raising alarms about the Education Department’s plan to withhold nearly $7 billion in funds for the next fiscal year. Those funds include money for programs such as the Boys and Girls Club. If the funding is not released, Boys and Girls Clubs across the country could face widespread
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Trial dates have been scheduled for next year in the case over the name of Rock Bridge High School’s football field. Wayne Sells refiled a lawsuit in October 2024 against Columbia Public Schools over the naming rights to the field. Sells previously filed a lawsuit against the school district in 2021, claiming
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Southern Boone School District is considering a schedule change for the 2026-27 school year. The district said in a Friday press release that it is considering changing its school week to four days. The release cites teacher recruitment and retention and enhancing student engagement for possible reasons. No changes will be
Continue Reading
By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Friday backed a group of religious parents who want to opt their elementary school children out of engaging with LGBTQ books in the classroom, another major legal win for religious interests at the conservative high court. In the latest decision blurring the line that once
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Jefferson City Board of Education on Thursday night unanimously approved its operating budget for next school year. The $172 million budget includes the largest base pay increase Jefferson City teachers have seen in 17 years. Certified staff will see an $1,800 increase to $43,300. The total raise for teachers with one
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A bond issue that was approved by voters this past spring, but was not certified by the state auditor’s office, is expected to appear on the ballot again this November. The Hallsville School District’s $6.5 million bond to complete the second part of a three-phase plan for construction to address the growing
Continue Reading
Editor’s note: The sentence referring to the percentage of families who do not qualify for free or reduced lunch has been corrected. COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Leaders at Columbia Public Schools are looking at how to best tackle the more than $90,000 of student meal debt. The conversation continued at the Columbia Public Schools’ Finance Committee
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A fire was reported Tuesday in the bathroom of Waynesville Middle School, according to a social media post from the St. Robert Fire Department. The department wrote that it was called around 10 a.m. and found moderate smoke in the building. It found a fire in one of the bathrooms, which was
Continue Reading
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A “handful” of students and staff from Columbia Public Schools attended a national speech and debate tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, where a hoax threat occurred, according to a district spokeswoman. Spokesperson Michelle Baumstark wrote in a text message to ABC 17 News that fewer than 20 people from CPS were in
Continue Reading