Given the way things had evolved between the former mayor and the community that the St. Louis Public Schools district so desperately needs to engage if it is to properly educate its students, the resignation of Vincent Schoemehl Jr. from the SLPS Board of Education must be applauded. Schoemehl’s critics overlook his problem-solving skills, which are real, but his presence on the board had been hurtfully divisive, owing to his careless use of language, apparent bullying tactics and unavoidable association with business as usual in the city of St. Louis – business which has in recent years included declining and at times embarassing public schools.
The board and Superintendent Creg Williams simply do not need the distractions that surround Schoemehl in tackling the hard work of turning around the city’s public schools, which recently have been plagued by an alarming streak of violence in addition to continuing bad news regarding test scores and dropout rates. The goods news, all things considered, of Schoemehl’s recent resignation was amplified by Mayor Francis G. Slay’s appointment in his place of James Buford, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, whose record of aligning himself with the Republican Party – and, more recently, the movement to promote school vouchers – should not cloud his established record as a community leader and advocate for education.
Slay should be commended for his choice. Buford has a reputation for good, uncontroversial stewardship in the black community. He also has good working relationships within the white community and among civic leaders, whose support for the schools is essential.
Buford’s presence on the school board should encourage the community to place its trust in the board in its effort to rally behind the superintendent and improve schools. Without the support of the community, and parents in particular, no leadership in the public schools has any hope. Therefore, it is with relief that advocates of the public schools now leave behind an era when petty infighting amongst school board members and a mutual antagonism between the board and the community often obscured what should be the one and only subject of concern in this struggle, which is improving the education and brightening the future of the students enrolled in St. Louis Public Schools.
While Slay is wise to appoint Buford to the board, despite the Urban League CEO’s ongoing tangle with the mayor over the role of elected seats on a citizen’s review board of the city police, let us hope that Buford maintans his admirable stance on this wholly separate issue. He should work side by side with Slay in the mayor’s efforts to improve schools, which is perhaps the most critical piece in reviving the city as a residential center for area families. At the same time, he should stick with his gutsy instincts regarding the need for much, much better oversight of the city police, including the creation of a citizen’s review board whose members are elected and completely independent from Slay. After all, Slay has proven far less courageous in addressing the problems in his police department – which falls squarely under his jurisdiction – than he has been in taking it upon himself to address the problems in the schools.
Years of struggle lie ahead for Buford, the board, Williams, Slay, parents and the community, all of whom must work together diligently if public education in St. Louis is to move away from the status of disgrace and toward a source of pride and renewal for the city and the region. Putting Schoemehl on the sidelines and Buford in a position of leadership is certainly a move in the right direction.