No one held back on Monday night at Shalom Church (City of Peace), where about 400 people gathered to talk about students transferring out of the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts.
During the three-hour public forum, North County superintendents, pastors, parents and politicians spoke the “hard truth” about the educational system.
Riverview Gardens Superintendent Scott Spurgeon, who has been on the job less than two weeks, pleaded with Riverview parents in the room to stick with the district.
“Because if not, it will put us in a position where we won’t have enough money to take care of the kids who actually choose to stay with us,” Spurgeon said.
Currently, more than 700 students have chosen to transfer out, he said, and the district has to pay tuition costs of $12,000 to $15,000 for each student. That’s $8 to $10 million a year that will leave the district next year, not including transportation costs.
“By year two, we are going to be – I hate to say the word ‘broke’ – but financially stressed,” he said. “Can you see what we look like in three years?”
Recently the Missouri Supreme Court ruled to uphold the state law that requires unaccredited school districts to pay tuition costs for their students to attend an accredited school district. Soon after, the state announced that unaccredited districts were only obligated to pay for transportation to one designated district. Normandy chose Francis Howell School District in St. Charles County, Riverview Gardens chose Mehlville School District in South St. Louis County.
Both Normandy and Riverview Gardens administrations have been sharply criticized for choosing to subsidize bussing their students to distant school districts. Ty McNichols, who has served as Normandy’s superintendent for about two weeks, explained why Normandy chose Francis Howell.
“People ask, ‘Why didn’t you go to Clayton, Parkway or some of these other districts?’” McNichols said.
“We didn’t go to Clayton because Clayton costs $20,000. We don’t get $20,000 in funding from the state. We get about $7,000, and I’m rounding up. For every student who chooses to go to Clayton, that’s two students worth of resources that leaves Normandy. Normandy is paying for it – not the state.”
McNichols said though Francis Howell seems far away, the bus ride will be shorter than bussing to many other districts because it’s 20 miles of highway. It’s also a district of distinction, where Rockwood and Pattonville school districts aren’t, he said.
Art McCoy, superintendent of Ferguson-Florissant School District, said superintendents from Jennings, Hazelwood and Ferguson will support Normandy and Riverview Gardens “by any means necessary,” making a reference to a Malcolm X speech.
Like several other leaders that night, McCoy spoke about how this issue affects North County’s economy.
“The school districts represented here in this room make up over $550 million of this community’s revenue,” said McCoy, who attended Riverview schools from kindergarten to ninth grade. “It’s a lot of money. When you start to spread money to places where you are not living, where you are not owning, I have to say you’ve been bamboozled.”
The crowd laughed and applauded.
McCoy also talked about how the accreditation process doesn’t take into account cultural differences, and all children are expected to learn the same way. Some of the accreditation points may not matter to parents as much as they may think, such as having a 97 percent attendance rate instead of a 93 percent rate. That can lose a district a point, he said.
“There are some people in high places who don’t like that I speak truth to power, but that’s what the role that God has given me,” McCoy said. “Because of that role, I don’t know how long I’ll be here, because power doesn’t like truth to power. That’s what you deserve. The truth will set us free.”
McCoy’s words sparked the only standing ovation that night.
Later, several audience members decided to form a citizens taskforce to review the state board’s decisions on accreditation.
Grayling Tobias, superintendent of Hazelwood Schools, spoke from his own experience.
“I was a student in the Ferguson-Florissant School District when they had a merger with Kinloch School District,” Tobias said. “We’ve seen this before. History is repeating itself. Parents, you may or may not get a better education somewhere else.”
Gwendolyn Reed, a retired teacher of 30 years in Hazelwood School District, said she also experienced an earlier generation of school desegregation.
“Those are the same parents in North St. Louis when I went to high school, who moved to North County, that left North County and went to St. Charles,” she said. “Know your history, and make sure your children understand mentally what they are going to go through.”
One Riverview Gardens mother, Felicia Davis, said she just submitted her paperwork to transfer her two children, who are in fourth and fifth grade. Davis volunteers three to four days a week, but said it’s hard to build a relationship with principals when they change so frequently. She would prefer that her students stay in her neighborhood.
“I want to support my community and keep my tax dollars here, but I need more than just broken promises and empty words,” Davis said. “I just want some change.”
The Rev. Freddy J. Clark, pastor of Shalom Church, said the church is setting in motion initiatives to provide support for the unaccredited schools’ students and parents, in partnership with the 100 Black Men of Metropolitan St. Louis and the school districts. For more information or to get involved, call Shalom Church at 314-653-2300.
