1st Ward Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe is calling for an investigation of the City of St. Louis Building Division.
“What I think we’ll find is corruption, incompetence of the Building Division and indifference of the Building Division to enforce code in North St. Louis,” Troupe said.
Troupe said the division does not provide equal services in the inspection and permit-granting processes in North St. Louis as it does in downtown St. Louis or other areas.
Acting Building Commissioner Frank Oswald did not return calls requesting comment.
The investigation request spawned from Troupe’s recent experience appealing a conditional use permit to open a charter school in his ward.
Troupe’s redevelopment plan for North Kingshighway Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue, outlined in Board Bill 87, was to collaborate with the National Benevolent Association to make its 9-acre complex at 3033 N. Euclid Ave. a “money generator” for the community, he said.
Troupe envisioned a strip mall and storefronts along Kingshighway Boulevard, south of Natural Bridge Avenue. Also in his plan, senior living apartments would be built on the second floor of the stores.
The association, which is the human service branch of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, owns the land and buildings. Since 1887, the land has been used for its ECHO Children’s Home, but with foster care replacing orphanages, the association is looking to expand its programs for families and the elderly.
Sterling Ellis, chief operating officer of the association, said he wanted to support Troupe’s efforts, “but I couldn’t quite understand what he was trying to do.”
“We met with him, but there was never any agreement” about the redevelopment plans, Ellis said.
This spring, a new charter school, Northside Community School, approached the association to lease the school building, which was once the site of the association’s orphanage school building.
Charters, appeals and permits
Troupe opposes the city’s charter school movement advanced by Mayor Francis G. Slay and spoke against allowing the conditional use permit at the school’s hearing on June 11. However, the Board of Public Service granted the permit on June 23.
On July 20, Troupe appealed the permit, and the Board of Aldermen’s legal counsel David Sweeney had the appeal hand-delivered to Oswald’s office, according to court documents. The appeal was also delivered to the Board of Adjustment and Public Safety Director Charles Bryson.
The following two weeks were filled with confusion and poor communication.
Although Sweeney spoke with the attorneys for the Board of Public Service and the Board of Adjustment shortly after the appeal was delivered, Oswald claimed that he didn’t get the appeal until Aug. 7. Oswald scheduled the appeal for Sept. 9 – after classes for Northside Community School were set to begin on Aug. 24.
Troupe said he believes the process was purposely delayed so the school activities could begin on time. To Troupe, it’s all part of the mayor’s agenda “to destroy the public schools.”
According to Troupe’s appeal, the Building Division erred when it didn’t grant a stay on the conditional use permit, which is required by law in the appeal process unless there is proof of “imminent peril to life or property.”
In an email to Sweeney, Oswald said that he wouldn’t grant the stay because he didn’t feel the appeal application was followed correctly and it wouldn’t be fair.
“The process needs to be reviewed when conditional use permits are granted in the appeal process,” Sweeney said.
New Northside charter
Meanwhile, as Troupe fumes and seeks validation, the Northside Community School is now in its second week of school.
John Grote, the school’s founder, said he decided to open the small-scale charter school at the 3033 N. Euclid site because young black students growing up in North St. Louis don’t have many choices for education outside of the public schools.
Grote founded and heads a taskforce for Cole Elementary School, a St. Louis Public School, at 3935 Enright Ave. His two little brothers, as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, both attended the school. Through watching the boys’ experiences, he saw that his little brothers were not getting the attention and education they needed, he said.
“We have a good knowledge of the education that has taken place in St. Louis and know what needs to be done,” said Ross Woolsey, the school’s executive director. “We felt we can better prepare students to move on to the next level if we know about their families.”
The teachers are required to make two home visits to their students’ houses.
This year the school started with three kindergarten classes and one first grade class. Each year they plan on adding a grade level, as their students advance.
Finding a building was the biggest struggle, as it is for all charter schools, Woolsey said.
The National Benevolent Association saw the charter school as an opportunity to advance its agenda – an intergenerational compound. Since 1887, the buildings have been used as an orphanage, children’s hospital, foster home, home for young pregnant mothers and other programs.
Now the association plans to build a senior-living center behind the school, which would allow the elderly to interact with the students and vice versa.
Grote said the students have an hour of community service on Fridays and, when the living center is built, it would be a great opportunity for their students to offer service.
Like many other charter schools, Northside has been criticized for taking away from the St. Louis Public Schools’ funding, cherry-picking its students and being outsiders trying to come into the black community.
Woolsey said they aren’t trying to compete with St. Louis Public Schools. On the contrary, he said he has met with SLPS Superintendent Kelvin Adams numerous times to see how they can compliment each other.
“We’ve had to overcome perceptions that are typical of charter schools. It’s important that our school is considered as part of the community, not just in the community,” Woolsey said.
It took Grote four years to get his plan for a charter school in motion because of the intense conflict with charter schools in the city and the lack of university sponsors in beginning years.
Still today, when any charter school fails, it makes Grote’s job more difficult. Paideia Academies, formerly St. Louis Charter Academies, has been on notice for years that it needs to make improvements or be shut down. Another charter school Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy, located on Washington Avenue downtown, had a falling out with its management company Imagine Schools last year.
By state law, charter schools must be sponsored by a university or school district. The Missouri University of Science and Technology sponsors Paideia and Missouri Baptist University sponsors Ethel Hedgeman Lyle.
Both sponsors have given the academies one more year to make improvements and stabilize before they pull their sponsorship.
With these charter schools performing poorly, the Northside board is having trouble getting Troupe’s support.
“We had a two-hour meeting where he indicated that he was concerned about a charter school in his area,” Woolsey said.
“It was a disappointment to us. We would love to have his support, but we will not give up trying to convince him that we are an added resource to the community.”
Aldermen and power
In this standoff, Troupe feels he doesn’t have enough power as alderman to develop his ward. The mayor appoints the building commissioner, along with the citizens on the Board of Adjustment and Board of Appeals, who can override an alderman’s decision.
“The issue is: How can you have an extension of the executive branch of government completely overrule the legislative board of government?” Troupe said.
“They can rezone over the objection of the alderman.”
Troupe pointed to a case concerning 24th Ward Alderman William Waterhouse, who also had to appeal a conditional use permit in his ward. There was a business operating in a residential zoning area that obtained a conditional use permit to expand. Waterhouse didn’t approve because the zoning was only meant for residential purposes.
When he appealed the permit, the Building Division overruled his argument and gave the business the permit. Waterhouse had to take the case to court, but the business pulled out before a ruling was given.
“I didn’t appreciate that [the building division] disagreed with me, but they are trying to be fair,” Waterhouse said.
“I’m not happy with the Building Division, but I’m not king either. I think the aldermen have enough power.”
However, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed sees merit in Troupe’s claims, and his Chief of Staff Tom Shepard accompanied Troupe and the board’s lawyer, Sweeney, to a hearing attempting to restrain the charter school from opening, pending Troupe’s appeal.
“The President’s Office has a lot of concerns with how this situation has been handled,” Shepard said.
“Aldermen Troupe, our attorney and this office have been subjected to requests being ignored and a lack of responsiveness by the Board of Adjustment, Building Division and City Counselor’s Office. In this matter, we support Alderman Troupe’s position.”