Avila got the Funk

On February 3^rd, 2010, Mayor Mark Funkhouser came to Avila for his 63^rd town hall meeting since being elected in 2007. Funkhouser expressed concerns with education which was highlighted through out the meeting.  He believes in order to see change in Kansas City we need to start with today’s youth and communicate messages to them, allowing change in the future.

Kansas City has fourteen different school districts, which holds 275 schools and over 75,000 students K-12. Public safety, around the schools, a main topic addressed and discussed by the mayor. Mayor Funkhouser wants to help his city and create an environment where kids feel safe and can walk to school again.  He plans on implementing the “Schools First Program,” which will cost 100 million dollars. To approach the new program consists of a five step process to help today’s problem with public safety. This will ensure our neighborhoods around schools will be fixed up, constructing sidewalks as needed and making the local community around the schools safer for our future students and residents.

The Mayor is going to re-authorize public safety sales tax to add more police officers in the vicinity’s around our schools and neighborhoods. Initially, Funkhouser will as the city council to target the neighborhoods around our schools first.  Then expand to the other neighborhoods without schools in their local vicinity. Separate departments will be organized to focus and raise awareness.  These groups will also strive to receive grants to help pay for these improvements.  Mayor funkhouser wants to help Kansas City change to a more desirable city to live in but he states that, “The city is more like a battle ship and it will take some time to turn it around.”