St. Louis Public superintendent not expected to close all 29 schools
The St. Louis Public Schools superintendent will present his school closure recommendations to the board and public at tonight’s 6 p.m. meeting at Gateway Middle, off North Jefferson Avenue at Gateway Drive.
But it is not expected that Superintendent Kelvin Adams will attempt to shutter all 29 schools first recommended for closure last month by the consulting firm MGT of America.
The city schools would save at least $22 million a year if the board chose to close the recommended 29 of its 85 schools, according to a staff report given to the district’s administrative board earlier this month.
But the MGT report has been met by lines of angry parents, staff and students, who have attacked the plan’s accuracy as well as its intent during board-sponsored meetings this past month. The schools, many said, cannot hold as many students as MGT reported. And the closures, they continued, would ruin neighborhoods across the city.
Still, Adams has made clear the district has no choice but to close some schools.
“At the end of the day, I don’t really know how the community thinks you can keep all the schools open with 15,000 less kids,” Adams said this morning.
The schools targeted by the MGT proposal ranged from elementary school buildings to those housing Cleveland Junior Naval Academy and Gateway IT high schools.
Closing Cleveland in Phase 3 of the plan, district staff reported, would save $940,846 in nonteacher salaries and benefits, and another $489,413 in utilities, maintenance, custodial and other building costs. The largest single projected savings would come from the Phase 5 closure of Gateway IT High, at $4.1 million.
In total, the district estimated $11.3 million in payroll savings and $10.9 million in building savings, per year.
The plan is broken into six phases, covering at least six years, maybe more.
Superintendent Adams said this morning he and his staff were still making last-minute adjustments, but would be ready by this evening.
The administrative board is slated to make its final decision at a March 12 meeting.
Doesn’t the new stimulus bill have a bunch of funds for city schools? Maybe they should take a step back and reevaluate based on the new conditions.
Too bad they can just blow up the entire system. They need to restructure everything from the union contracts to the buildings themselves but instead they keep focusing only on the buildings as if closing, consolidating and selling schools will solve all of the larger problem(s). I’m not saying this can’t be part of a comprehensive solution but how have the schools improved since the last round of closures and sales? I don’t see it.
I don’t know how they can operate 85 schools in a city with a population of about 350k. Another article in stltoday shows the declining population…I think at some point, many school districts will close schools. These schools were there to accomodate the vast amount of boomers. We don’t have near that amount of people of school age in this country any longer. Any new schools built, will probably be spanish speaking.
hire a consultant, pay them a lot of money and then blow off thier advice. fewer schools would save a lot of money and that along with better administration would leave more money for instruction. i feel sorry for the parents and kids who have to utilize the present stl. schools. doesn’t have to be that way, but when you have the uneducated running the education system, this is what you get.
Uneducated? How so?
There are city schools that are doing good jobs. Citizens need more information about those schools and their programs. My grandchildren have had great experiences at Stix and now at Shaw.
Bad news travels fast–good news doesn’t seem to travel at all!
Well, here’s one of the reasons it’s hard to see that we have too many schools: my child had almost 40 classmates in her 4th grade classroom until the midyear break, at which point they finally assigned another teacher to take kids from the existing 4th grades and took away the computer lab to make another classroom out of it. I don’t see any extra room in that school to absorb kids from schools that close.
this is an absolutely STUPID idea….so they are going to take away a child’s education to save money?? So now students are not good investments?? What happened to NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?? they could be depriving the next united states president of an education or the person that’s going to cure AIDS!! How is this fair to the students in any way?? But they’re not thinking about that….and what does the superintendent mean by he doesn’t have a choice….whatEVER!! i don’t even want to hear it…this is ignorant and selfish and i’m most definitely not going to sit around and watch this happen. i am going to fight and fight hard!! i’m calling everyone i know….and i do know some people!! this is NOT the last time you will hear from Brittney Alexis Hale!!!!!!!!
It seems like these articles are not giving enough information about what is really going on with these school closings. Yes, the plan recommends closing a lot of buildings, but it also proposes rebuilding some of those buildings to modernize them and bring about safer environments for the children in our district. Where is that bit of information in the article? For example, according to the summary posted on the SLPS.org website, Shepard, Mann, and Shenandoah would get new buildings built in place of the old ones that are inefficient and falling apart. I am all for new modern facilities that cost less and are more efficient for our children. In addition to the new buildings, 32 of the existing schools would be renovated. Some of the buildings that are being closed honestly need to be closed such as the building I work in, Meda P. Washington. It is a beautiful building, but old and inefficient for what it is currently being used for: offices and preschool classrooms. The Kottmeyer building they are discussing moving us to would make much more sense, especially with the preschool children since it is all one level. We currently have 3 stories with a lot of steep stairs for 3-5 year olds who are still working on their motor coordination to climb up and down several times a day. That is not a safe environment for them. Look at the entire picture, people, before you start and continue to blast the school district. The new superintendent is doing the best he can with the hand he’s been dealt.
I think free condoms are in order for all city residents that are able to pro-create. It would solve the problem of overcrowding.
MIZZ HALE OPINED:
“they could be depriving the next united states president of an education or the person that’s going to cure AIDS!!”
I seriously doubt that. They would have a better chance of making it in the NBA then Getting a PhD, as for them finding the cure for AIDS, it’s more likely they will contract it or spread it.
Of course I could be wrong, NOT!!!!!