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. The firm’s plan still may shift after two public hearings – the first taking place tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at Roosevelt High School – but ultimately thousands of students and hundreds of teachers will lose their schools.
SAB member Richard Gaines was still trying to make sense of the consultant’s report. He said closing a school is never easy but the facts are unavoidable and some schools will have to close.
“When we have school buildings that are half empty, we don’t have to go through this process to know that costs this district an awful lot of money,” Gaines said. “We’re facing a $36 million deficit – that’s not chump change.”
Approximately 200 people, many of them teachers, attended MGT’s presentation on Thursday at Vashon High School.
Bill Carnes, project director for MGT, stressed that the report is preliminary and the Special Advisory Board has the final decision.
At its peak St. Louis’ public schools, the largest school district in the state, had well over 100,000 students.
Today, the district has 85 buildings for educating 26,405 students. MGT’s plan would downsize the district to 58 school buildings.
MGT officials projected that enrollment will continue to drop and within the next 10 years there will be just over 20,000 students.
The firm scored each school on its educational sustainability, technological readiness and building conditions, among other things, as the basis of its recommendations.
Under the master plan, closures will be phased over a few years, with most of them occurring in the coming year.
Supporters of the city’s comprehensive high schools were breathing a collective sigh of relief, as none of them were listed for closure. The magnet and career high schools are, however, up for consideration.
“There was a great job done in saving Sumner but in the midst of all that four other schools are on the list to be closed,” 4th Ward Alderman Samuel Moore said of the schools in the Ville neighborhood.
“The problem is that we are rebuilding the neighborhood with $55 million worth of work, yet we’re closing our community schools – and that’s not right.”
If the district adopts the plan, Cleveland Naval Junior Academy, currently housed at Pruitt middle school, would merge with Vashon High School.
Students at McKinley Classical Jr. Academy would move to Humboldt, a former middle school in Soulard, while students at Gateway IT would move to McKinley.
The programs at Northwest Law Academy would be absorbed at Sumner High School, and Roosevelt 9th Grade Center would return to the Roosevelt building on Hartford Street.
Bunche middle school, a magnet program, would be consolidated into Soldan High School.
Of the schools to close, half are on the city’s north side and half are on the south.
Cote Brilliante, Hickey and Simmons will be replaced with one new elementary school on the north; and Mann, Shepard and Shenandoah will be replaced with one new elementary school on the south.
Parent Alvin Goode has four children in the district, two of whom are at Shenandoah Elementary School.
“To close a school that is performing and doing everything that you’ve asked of them is a slap in the face to our teachers,” Goode said of Shenandoah, which dodged an attempt to be closed last year. “It’s already been proven that the smaller neighborhood schools thrive better.”
Selling unused facilities to “interested parties” for a price tag of $1 for development or demolition are among the possibilities the board could consider, the firm suggested.
Currently, the district is trying to sell buildings that are already closed. But through deed restrictions, the SAB will not sell an unused building to someone who wants to open a school of any kind, including public charter schools.
The Missouri Charter Public Association released a statement last week encouraging the district to consider selling its empty facilities to generate revenue and to educate children in public charter schools.
“There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in potential revenues wasting away as the empty buildings decay to the point where they are no long useful,” Aaron North, executive director of MCPSA, said.
The SAB has yet to approve MGT’s plan. The board hopes to reach a decision by the end of February after two community forums to accept public comments.
The meetings will be held Wednesday, February 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Roosevelt High School, 3230 Hartford Street; and Saturday, February 7, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Vashon High School, 3035 Cass Ave. Comments will also be accepted on the district’s website.
To see MGT’s full report visit www.slps.org.
Recommended for closure or consolidation
Phase 1
Ashland Branch
Baden
Clark
Gallaudet
Henry
Mark Twain
Meda P. Washington
Meramec
Scruggs
Shepard
Mallinckrodt
Des Peres
Bunche IS at Madison
Langston
L’Ouverture
Stevens
Turner
CAJT at Nottingham
Phase 2
None
Phase 3
Ames VPA
Cote Brilliante
Hickey
Mann
Shaw VPA
Sherman
Shenandoah
Simmons
Pruitt
Phase 4
NW Law Academy
Phase 5
Gateway IT
Phase 6
None