School is in – and dropping out is out for at least 125 St. Louis Public Schools students who otherwise would be without educational options due to suspension or violence violations.
Those students – who either egregiously disrupt classes or are returning from jail – will get a last chance to go to school and graduate, thanks to a program tentatively named the Innovative Concept School.
The school is the brainchild of Circuit Judge Jimmie M. Edwards, and a collaboration of Family Court–Juvenile Division, St. Louis Public Schools and Mers Goodwill.
It will be housed at Blewett Middle School (1927 Cass Ave.), one of 11 City schools scheduled to be shut down by June 11. An additional three may close by June 2011.
The new school will be the first to reutilize closed City school buildings as a community-focused institution, which appeases community members, many of whom oppose the closing of public schools.
St. Louis Public Schools Special Administrative Board Member Richard Gaines gave the Innovative Concept School a high mark.
“It’s a good way to bring social services together, to bring needed services to prospective neighborhoods,” Gaines said.
“Community centers are what those schools that are going to be closed should become.”
‘Something more innovative’
Judge Edwards came up with the concept for this school out of concern for parents and teachers whose classrooms and actively learning students are disrupted by children who don’t fit into a regular school setting.
“I decided that we needed to do something more innovative and creative with more structure and a different curriculum and environment,” said Edwards who overseas the city’s juvenile court system.
Edwards said school-age children’s inability to read and write are the main factors leading to delinquency. When those same students are placed in juvenile custody and test into remedial classes at the detention center, they tend to want to learn.
“Their bad behavior is learned, and they can learn when they learn the right things,” Edwards said.
“But when they can’t read and write, they find a way to get kicked out of school, because they don’t know – not because they already know the answers. And we will be teaching them in an environment that isn’t embarrassing to them.”
A four-tiered program, ICS will include
* Basic education, including mentors and tutors from Harris-Stowe State University
* Recreation, which will include the Police Athletic Association (PAL)
* Evening reporting, with youth required to report to the centers daily between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. when incidents of delinquent activity are most likely to occur
* A curfew and truancy center, where those apprehended by the police for curfew violation or truancy will be supervised by the courts and police.
The ICS will school the most difficult students, as identified by SLPS. They will include those returning from incarceration and those seeking a General Equivalency Development (GED).
Students leave school for various reasons, contributing to the already high dropout rate.
In Missouri, the dropout rate for African Americans rose from 5.0 percent in 2004 to 9.0 percent in 2008, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Their Caucasian counterparts in Missouri had a dropout rate of 3.2 percent last year. Hispanics in Missouri dropped out last year at a rate of 6.9 percent.
The graduation rate of blacks in City schools was recorded at 49.3 percent in 2008, down from 60.3 percent in 2004.
Both Edwards and Gaines believe the new ICS program will decrease the dropout rate.
“It can have an impact on the dropout rate and provide a positive alternative to those who have dropped out and are on the streets,” Gaines said. “It’s an attempt to reclaim some of the youths of this city.”
The school will be a last chance. Those who commit offenses there will not only be kicked out of the ICS, but may be placed in custody.
Along with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, some collaborating participants and services are federal, state and local officials, Missouri Division of Youth Services, Missouri Department of Mental Health, Cameron Youth Orchestra, Prison Performing Arts, The Spot, YMCA, Eric Rhone/Cedric the Entertainer, Nelly and Greek organizations.