Alexis Wright, the new head of school at New City School, already has blazed a trail in St. Louis as the first African American to be named to lead a major private school in the region.
“It’s a distinction,” he told The American, “and it may make me stand out in St. Louis, but it’s not something I will think about all the time.”
At the moment Wright, who moved here from New York City, is thinking more about having an entire house for his family on a broad, safe street in the Central West End.
“The other day, I saw a priceless image,” he said after his first month in St. Louis: “my girls riding bikes down the middle of the street. Children don’t ride bikes down the middle of the street in New York. It was a magical moment.”
More space for his family and “a different pace of life,” he said, were major motivators for him to leave his position as dean of Children’s Programs and head of school at Bank Street College of Education in New York. But his new school had to be just right, not least of all because his own children (Morgan, 8, and Avery, 3) will become students there.
“New City stands for academic excellence and a commitment to diversity with a broad definition of diversity,” Wright said. “I knew I could see my children going there and it’s a place where I would be comfortable.”
As for academic excellence, 6th grade New City students score in the 92nd percentile for reading, the 97th percentile for math and the 94th percentile overall, compared to national averages on the Stanford Achievement Test.
There are 48 faculty with a 7:1 student to teacher ratio. Last year, nine graduates went to John Burroughs School, and nine also went to Crossroads College Prep, with the rest attending a mix of private, public and charter schools.
The student body – currently, 320 students from age three to 6th grade – is composed of 42 percent students of color. Students come from 49 different zip codes throughout the city and county. The school provides need-based financial aid for 39 percent of students. (The current full tuition is $18,800.) The school’s total annual allotment of financial aid is $1.2 million, or approximately 15 percent of the operating budget.
“The school led the job search,” Wright said. “It just happened to be in St. Louis.”
During his job search, of course, the St. Louis region was forced into national focus by the Ferguson protest movement and subsequent reform efforts toward achieving greater racial equity in the region. That also attracted him.
“Now is a good time to be here,” he said. “There is an ascendancy. Post-Ferguson, this is a great opportunity.”
His leadership of an expensive private school does not limit his ability to make an impact on the wider community, he said.
“There is a misperception that independent schools are not necessarily part of the community,” Wright said. “There is work already being done at New City to help the children realize that their community is not just the school, but it’s much wider. And I have some ideas for how to ensure our kids define their community broadly.”
Brittany Packnett is one of countless change agents who studied at New City School as a child. She served on both the Ferguson Commission and President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and recently accepted a promotion to a national vice president position at Teach For America that takes effect October 1. Currently she is executive director of Teach For America St. Louis and serves on the New City School board.
Wright has diversity experiences of his own, starting long before he blazed a trail at St. Louis’ independent schools. Originally from New York City, he earned an undergraduate degree in Human Ecology from Rutgers University and a Masters in Marine Affairs and Policy from the University of Miami before getting involved with teaching children. “Just because of my course of study,” he said, “I was always one of the first, if not the only, African American.”
He may have been the first African American named to lead a major private school in the St. Louis region, but he already is not the only one. This May, City Academy announced Milton Mitchell, a native of Kinloch, as its new principal. Wright and Mitchell actually started work at their respective schools on the same day, July 1.
