UPDATE:

Rick Sullivan, the chief executive officer of the St. Louis Public Schools,  told the State Board of Education today that the exodus of students to charter schools is draining the district of revenue that could be used to turn around the troubled city school system.

In a story today, Sullivan explained that with the administrative board looking ways to find  $30 million to balance the 2008-09 budget, the district’s finances — particularly the loss of resources to the charter schools — dominated Sullivan’s hour-long report to the state board.

“Those who support charters cannot ignore the fiduciary impact it has,” he…

The National Park Service announced on Thursday it will soon begin accepting public input for improvements to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Officials with the park service want our advice and guidance on how to make the park easier to get to and more enjoyable for visitors.

“It’s a public engagement process and that’s what we’ve been wanting,”said Walter L. Metcalfe Jr., a veteran lawyer who has been tapped by City Hall to lead a group charged with improving the Arch grounds.

In Friday’s story, we learn that despite years of trying, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth has been unable to…

The St. Louis School District’s special administrative board says it is looking for the “best urban superintendent we can find” to replace Diana Bourisaw. She’s the current superintendent of the city school district, but as of last week, she’s effectively out.

The administrative board said it’ll start a hunt for a new superintendent and that Bourisaw was welcome to apply. Bourisaw said no thanks and will leave at the end of the school year.

Oh, and let’s remember: Bourisaw was the sixth superintendent of the district since 2003.

So, why don’t we take a crack at writing the classified ad…

In our story Monday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’ve asked several community leaders their thoughts on King’s legacy and race relations — what the civil rights leader’s legacy could teach St. Louis today about racial harmony. What are your thoughts on Dr. King’s legacy and how it affected race relations over the last several decades since his death.

A story ran in the Post-Dispatch over the weekend that touted St Louis as the sixth most literate city in the nation, based on a set of six criteria.

Post-Dispatch Book Editor Jane Henderson wrote in her Saturday story about the study conducted by Central Connecticut State University that we ranked us above such other larger cities including Boston and San Francisco.

The study measurements pertained only to the city and did not include St. Louis County.

According to the study, those six indicators of literacy tracked were: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and…