This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 12, 2009 - City school officials voted unanimously on Thursday night to accept the superintendent's proposal to close 17 schools in order to help reduce a deficit and streamline school services.
More than 100 people attended the meeting, conducted without incident at Gateway School, as the Special Administrative Board worked through routine business before deciding the key issue of whether to accept Superintendent Kelvin Adams' school-closing recommendations.
At a press conference Friday morning, Adams stressed that he didn’t expect the school closings to lead to a reduction in the number of teachers in the district
“As we downsize, we are able to maximize support for the schools we have,” he said. “We don’t anticipate a need to reduce our teaching staff.”
But he added that the district would review administrative staffing and some programs. In April, he said he and his staff would provide the board with information about “minimizing some of those programs and maximizing those we want to keep in place. There is some duplication, so we want to reduce the duplication.”
>In addition, Adams confirmed that the district hoped to begin new programs aimed at student achievement, including the possibility of some Saturday classes and longer school days.
But for now, he says he’s focusing on making the downsizing occur as smoothly as possible through media announcements about how the process will work, face to face staff interaction with parents affected by school closings, and efforts to encourage the public to give strong support to city schools and the plan.
Adams submitted his recommendations on Feb. 26 after he and his staff reviewed a report by a consulting firm, MGT, to shut down 29 buildings, mainly to help cover a $36 million deficit. Adams' recommendations to shutter 17 is expected to save $7.7 million.
Although some people in the audience spoke against school closings and other board policies during the public comment part of the meeting, there was no sense of public unease during or after the meeting.
Rick Sullivan, head of the three-member SAB, praised the work that Adams and his staff performed.
"He took a great deal of information into consideration," Sullivan said. "They have prepared an implementation and communications plan that will make these dramatic changes more palatable. The plan will make it easier for a student to move from one school to the next."
Adams said the reorganization wasn't just about saving money but also about helping the district "better utilize our resources." He said some schools might now have 10 students in a classroom while others might have 20. The consolidation plan, he said, would help the district make better use of buildings and staff.
"This is a very difficult decision for any community to make," Adams said, adding that he was "very pleased with the process" used to decide which schools to close.
Sullivan said the district had yet to figure out how to eliminate the deficit now that it will close fewer schools than what MGT recommended.
Under Adams' recommendations, the district will close the following schools in June of 2009: Ashland, Baden, Clark, Des Peres, Mark Twain, Washington, Scruggs, Shepard, Simmons, Blewett, Stowe, Turner, Roosevelt, and Kottmeyer. Three others will close in June of 2011: Cote Brilliante, Mann and Sherman Elementary (pending construction of two new schools).
He also recommended that the following schools, which MGT had recommended should close, will remain open: Gallaudet, McKinley, Gateway, Henry, Mallinckrodt, Ames, Shaw, Shenandoah, Hickey, Bunche, L'Ouverture, Langston, Stevens, Nottingham, Cleveland and Northwest.
The only school that Adams recommended for closing that MGT did not was Stowe.
Adams had warned that in the future some schools would remain in limbo because their remaining open would depend on the outcome of an aggressive recruitment and marketing program to boost enrollment.
On another matter, the board agreed to approve a plan for conducting lead abatement and remediation at 25 elementary schools at a cost not exceeding $5,385,000. But the board made this work contingent on "availability of funds." Sullivan insisted that the amount in the plan was sufficient to address lead problems in the 25 schools.
