The Star's Saturday editorial

Politics and favoritism have to be dropouts in new discussions on school closings in the Kansas City School District.

Kansas City school board members should be grateful that new Superintendent John Covington has started the process to make the badly needed cuts. This is not the time for the board to start meddling in administrative business.

District officials only have to do the math to see that buildings must be closed and staffs must be downsized.

The district has 61 school buildings, and overall they are barely half full. The 11 buildings that serve high school students are even worse off. They are only 39.7 percent full.

Like state and local governments, the Kansas City School District is facing extreme cash shortfalls. It can’t afford wasted space and bloated staffs. Budget projections in September showed the district facing a revenue drop of $32.5 million, with decreases in federal, state, sales tax, local and property tax funding.

Extreme belt tightening is unavoidable and may include closing a significant number of schools. Board members and district officials have known for years that cuts are needed; they just haven’t displayed enough backbone to get the job done. But the tough job can’t be put off any longer.

The cuts will anger a lot of people. People are right to be attached to neighborhood schools and successful magnet programs. So the reductions must be strategic, leaving the district with the most academically successful programs and staffs.

As a newcomer with a new team of administrators, Covington is best suited to guide the reduction process without the all-too frequent influences of politics and favoritism. The school board has to maintain the stance it has admirably taken so far this year — backing away from micromanaging and meddling and letting the superintendent do his job for the good of the children and the community.