The philosophy is simple: Good housing leads to stable families and better schools.

In an effort to improve a struggling school district, a housing advocacy group is leading a move to rebuild neglected or abandoned sections in three north St. Louis County municipalities.

The group, Beyond Housing, wants to build or rehab as many as 1,200 homes to help the Normandy School District, where nearly three-fourths of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches.

"The strategy of this project is to focus on the public education of poor kids," said Chris Krehmeyer, Beyond Housing's executive director. "The school system can't do all the work of making families strong."

The project might take a decade to complete, but Beyond Housing has a lot of help.

The St. Louis Equity Fund, a housing investment pool, is in charge of financing. St. Louis County is helping with millions of dollars in housing grants. And the Meyer Co., a Chesterfield-based builder, is set to begin a $9 million project in Hillsdale.

Stanton Lawrence, Normandy's superintendent, said the effort could become a national model.

Normandy has struggled for years with finances, below-average student test scores and declining enrollment. About 40,000 people live in the district, which encompasses all or part of 23 municipalities in a North County area bordering St. Louis.

HIGH FORECLOSURE RATES IN INNER SUBURBS

The housing work is concentrated in Pine Lawn, Pagedale and Hillsdale. All have been hit by residential property abandonment and, since the recession began, home foreclosures.

Foreclosure rates in Pagedale and Pine Lawn were among the area's highest last year. RealtyTrac found that a Pagedale ZIP code had the highest rate: 22 foreclosures for each 1,000 households in the first three months of last year. A Pine Lawn Zip code, with a 16 percent foreclosure rate, was fourth on RealtyTrac's list.

Krehmeyer said abandonment "is just staggering" in the Hillsdale area targeted for redevelopment. More than half of the 50 parcels face condemnation because their owners cannot be found, officials said.

As people have left the areas, property values have plummeted and school enrollment has dropped. Last year, state education officials projected that the number of Normandy students would fall to 5,000 by 2011, from 5,600 four years ago. But Normandy enrollment is already below 5,000, Lawrence said.

"When you consider the current economic situation across the country and in St. Louis, we have a lot of families impacted by the housing crisis," he said. "When these folks lose their homes, they move in with relatives elsewhere, they move into shelters. A district with students in poverty means that some of them will have learning problems."

Lawrence - an educator for nearly 30 years in Texas and, since last year, in Normandy - said that children in families with decent housing tend to do better in school.

"A high degree of family involvement leads to high student achievement," said Lawrence, a member of Beyond Housing's 22-member board. "If you can get families in stable housing, that helps."

HILLSDALE To GET 37 NEW HOMES

The project has already made progress in Pagedale, where about 90 homes have been built or rehabbed so far. After the work is done, Beyond Housing in most cases looks to rent the homes to local residents at reasonable rates.

Next on the project list is a 37-home development on what are now three densely overgrown Hillsdale streets. Adjoining the area is Greenwood Cemetery, where Dred Scott's wife, Harriet, is buried.

Jerry Meyer, whose company has built several projects with Beyond Housing, said he is eager to begin putting up 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath houses in what now "looks like a forest." Construction should begin this summer, he said.

"It's a lot of fun when you can go look at the before and after and wind up doing something good for the community," Meyer said.

Krehmeyer said the Normandy effort evolved from work begun in Pagedale in 2001, when Beyond Housing began building or rehabbing dozens of small homes there and in adjacent towns. The goal to provide affordable housing for renters includes the hope that at least some will become homeowners, Krehmeyer said.

Pagedale "is trending in the right direction," but how much Normandy schools are benefiting from new housing is yet to be determined, he said. Among the projects planned is construction of 25 homes on vacant land next to an elementary school in Pine Lawn.

The key is identifying projects community leaders want, then following through, he added.

"If the community doesn't believe in the way we're going, then all of this will fail," Krehmeyer said.

The St. Louis Equity Fund, which raises money largely from private investors, is involved in projects across the Normandy district. Meyer's Hillsdale project will bring to 142 the number of homes built through the fund's efforts.

John Kennedy, the fund's senior vice president, said equity generated by tax credits awarded by the Missouri Housing Development Commission were an important part in raising $29 million for the projects.

Jim Holtzman, director of the county's Office of Community Development, said areas within the Normandy district also will get much of the $15.5 million in federal grants the county uses - through developers - to buy foreclosed homes. Eligible buyers may purchase the homes, which get new roofs, windows and other improvements to remain nearly maintenance free for up to 15 years, Holtzman said.

From her rented house on Overlea Avenue, Alexis Newsom can look across at the abandoned houses that will be replaced in Hillsdale. Newsom, 24, said she will welcome the construction, adding that some family members have gone to Normandy schools.

"I just think they should build more houses around here," she said. "We'd have better living for the children attending Normandy."