A Note from Dr. Cochran, Kindergarten through 4th Grade Principal
Dear Citizens of the World families, welcome to the 2025-2026 school year!
As the new K-4 elementary principal, it is my honor to join this outstanding community. As an educator for over 25 years, I have spent my career working with students and teaching staff across the Kansas City area, and I’m very excited about our upcoming school year together.
In my work around the metropolitan area, I heard about Citizens through a group of Kansas City educators who shared stories about project-based learning opportunities, family and community involvement, and the excellent school staff at Citizens, and I knew this was the place for me.
This school year, our focus will be on meeting each student where they are academically and moving them forward. We have a exciting new partnership with School Smart and the Kansas City Royals Foundation, which will provide opportunities for literacy coaches for our teachers, high impact tutors for our K-3 students, and opportunities for family and community engagement. We will be working on differentiated instruction, goal setting and measuring growth for each child, all the while never forgetting to have fun along the way. At Citizens we believe that elementary school is the foundation for our students learning experiences and must be strong academically, but it must also create a love of learning and an excitement about school, in each one of our children. I will email home newsletters detailing upcoming family opportunities, so watch for invitations to family nights, concerts, showcases of our students work and creations, and fun family events!
As our first year together begins, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. Together I am sure we will make this an amazing school year for all!
I am excited to be joining Citizen’s and partner with parents, students, staff and our community to build a strong educational foundation and plan for the future for each one of our students. I look forward to a successful school year and getting to know each and every K-4 student and their families.
Thank you,
Dr. Sheryl L. Cochran
Principal, Grades K-4
A Note from Mr. Butler, 5th through 8th Grade Principal
Hello Fabulous CWCKC Families,
My name is Troy Butler and I have the honor of being the 5th-8th Grade principal of Citizens of the World - Kansas City. I would like to provide you with some information on the new and exciting structure of the Middle school.
Here at Citizens of the World we believe that all students and families have the right to a high quality educational experience. At Citizens, students and families are provided with the opportunity to acquire information and skills that teach them to lead themselves, lead the school, and lead our community at large. This past year Dr. Miles made the decision to hire an elementary principal, Dr. Cochran, who will be leading K-4th grades. This decision allows myself and Assistant Principal Manley to dedicate our efforts solely to improving the middle school educational experience and with the goal of creating a model intermediate learning environment that produces successful students and citizens within a rigorous, relevant, and valuable academic environment. With that in mind I would like to share with you some of the progress made this past year and the exciting changes coming this year and in years to come regarding our middle school.
Honor Roll: This past year we began the process of putting systems and processes in place to ensure that students are developing the habits and mindsets that will aid them in pursuing excellence, cultivating leadership of self and their community, and taking ownership of their educational pursuit and journey of self discovery and self improvement. After instituting honor roll privileges as Fun Friday celebrations, we saw the following gains from the beginning to end of the year as students adjusted their mindsets and habits:
The number of students achieving Honor Roll (3.0 or higher GPA) increased from 8 students 2nd quarter to 41 students 4th quarter. We are confident that a majority of students will earn honor roll by the end of this year.
The number of students who achieved Principal’s Honor Roll (3.8 GPA or higher) increased from 1 during 1st quarter to 12 by the end of 4th quarter.
Debate and Forensics Coach & Other Opportunities: We are extremely excited about the hiring of Carl Stafford to come on board this year as our Debate & Forensics Coach. Mr. Stafford joins us after a wildly successful tenure as the Debate & Forensics Coach at University Academy for both the middle and high school, and he was a 2025 finalist for the NAUDL National Debate Coach of the Year. He will be teaching 4th-8th grade this year and hopes to establish a competitive program at CWCKC. The ultimate goal is to build one of the top middle school programs in the city. He will be establishing other academic competitions in the coming years.
We are also expanding our middle school partnership with Operation Breakthrough’s MakerSpace in order to bring our students more elective choices and experiences. Sixth through eighth grade students will have the opportunity to participate in the MakerSpace every day for three quarters of the school year.
We deeply appreciate you trusting us with your child’s educational pursuit and we look forward to a fabulous year of pursuing Excellence, rolling with Change, engaging in our Community, respecting our differences through Belonging, and learning and growing into our Authentic selves.
Please always feel free to reach out to me with any questions. We will see you in a few short weeks.
Sincerely,
Troy Butler
Principal, Grades 5-8
Contact Us
Email: info@cwckansascity.org
Website: www.cwckansascity.org
Location: 3435 Broadway Boulevard, KCMO, 64111
Phone: (816)499-8000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cwckansascity
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cwckansascity