Teachers, parents, students and elected officials pleaded to the Special Advisory Board for more than four hours not to close their schools.
The public forum, held last Wednesday evening at Roosevelt High School, brought together hundreds of advocates to respond to MGT’s facilities report.
Many said they feared that in closing their schools they would lose key programs and their school identity, and it would lead to overcrowding of good schools.
Chip Clatto, assistant principal at Gateway High School, urged the board to weigh academic success before closing any school. He feared Gateway, in particular, would lose key academic programs, such as its aviation program, if closed and moved to McKinley.
Gateway supporters have since started a website, www.savegateway.com.
“There is not another school in the metro area that can house Gateway’s programs,” Clatto said. “Gateway has 16 science rooms; McKinley has four. We have the only prescience program in the city.”
Comments were taken from two microphones in front of the auditorium. Lines stretched nearly to the back.
The three-member board along with Superintendent Kelvin Adams listened for the most part. SAB member Richard Gaines said they would answer questions at a meeting later this month.
Last week consultants from MGT of America Inc. recommended that St. Louis Public School leaders close or consolidate 29 schools, renovate 30 others and build two new elementary schools.
MGT’s plan would downsize the district from 85 to 58 school buildings.
School closures will be inevitable, Gaines said. The district is facing a $36 million budget deficit.
Still, many do not want to see their school close.
“We’re planning for kids at Gateway for jobs when they leave high school,” said James Arnold, a parent of a Gateway student. “If you are to get rid of these programs, you’re setting these students up to fail.”
Other schools represented at the meeting included Nottingham, Cleveland JROTC, Roosevelt and McKinley.
Edgar Harper, a student at McKinley middle school, accused the SAB of thinking with their pocketbook instead of in the best interest of students and teachers.
Steve Womack, former principal of Roosevelt High School, advocated for keeping the Roosevelt High 9th Grade Center and the high school separate. Separating the ninth-graders from the upper classmen has been beneficial in that it has improved attendance rates and lessened fights between students.
“It won’t work,” Womack stressed.
St. Louis Public Schools is still taking comments about MGT’s facilities plan on its website at www.slps.org.
Study: achievement gap remains wide
The academic achievement gap in St. Louis’ city and county school districts still remain stubbornly wide, according to a comprehensive study.
At all 25 districts, black students again scored lower than white students on last year’s standardized testing, according to the fourth-annual study from the Black Leadership Roundtable, which aims to eliminate the disparity in academic achievement between black and white students.
Nearly 300 people attended the roundtable’s presentation of its fourth report card last month at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The comprehensive study, Regional Report Card: Eliminating the African American Achievement Gap, found that the gap in general widened among elementary and high school students between 2007 and 2008. It shrunk only in middle schools.
Of the St. Louis region’s 172,744 students, about 46 percent are black.
“We think the community as a whole is working to achieve a level of stability,” said Charles Saulsberry, vice chairman of the roundtable. “We are poised to begin digging deeply into the achievement gap that has been nagging our schools for quite some time.”
Scores for elementary schools decreased in math but increased in communication arts by just a few points.
High schools, however, did not do so well. The gap in communication arts increased by more than 10 percent from last year. Math increased by 11 percent.
The study highlighted Kirkwood and Riverview Gardens for decreasing the gap in five of six testing categories.
It listed some of the area’s most respected schools – Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Brentwood, Parkway and Clayton – as having the widest gap between scores.
The roundtable’s report card was based on communication arts and math scores from the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) Index – a number calculated by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to measure academic performance – for black and white students.
Percentages for graduation rates, dropout rates, students taking the ACT, graduates entering four-year colleges, student-teacher ratios and attendance rates were also measured.
“We have a region that is lagging behind the national average in critical statistics,” Saulsberry said. “We think that if we can begin to deal with the gap and get black students to achieve at a higher level then we will see more graduation rates, an educated workforce, and a more dynamic community where people are able to participate fully in all of their talents.”
This is the fourth year that the roundtable has issued its annual report card. The roundtable’s list of “four desirables” has been adopted into strategic plans of most districts. The list includes the need for culturally competent teachers and staff, using MAP results for diagnostic purposes only, providing facilities and equipment that are conducive to learning, and reducing the impact of student mobility.
For more information on the Black Leadership Roundtable or a copy of its 2008 report card, call 314-367-8984.