This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: For some parents in the Riverview Gardens District, the transfer law is turning out to be an illusion, promising access to better education for their children but offering no space or free transportation to accredited schools on their radar. Yet, for others like parents Orney and Corie Walker, the law is a godsend.
Orney Walker attended schools in the now-unaccredited Riverview Gardens district, and Corie Walker is a graduate of Metro, the high-achieving high school in St. Louis. They enjoy living in Bellefontaine Neighbors, but they no longer feel that Riverview Gardens meets the needs of their two young children.
The Walkers are using the transfer program to enroll their children in a better school district without having to move out of Bellefontaine. This fall, the children will become first and fourth graders in the Pattonville district.
The Walkers said two unsettling experiences last term in the Riverview district convinced them it was time to search for other school options.
“As a kindergartener, my daughter read well, but some of the others didn’t,” Orney Walker says. “So the teacher had to spend a lot of time teaching them to read while my daughter was left sitting off on the side.”
In some instances, he says, school officials “would have an older kid come down to read with my daughter, but that wasn’t giving her the kind of teacher attention she deserved.”
Meanwhile, the couple said, they discovered the bad consequences of having a son, a third grader, in a classroom where he outpaced his peers in science and other subjects.
“He’d get his work done faster,” Walker said. “He’d then get bored, and at times act out a little bit because he was sitting there idle.”
While Riverview Gardens selected the Mehlville district for transportation, Mehlville ended up taking only 216 of the estimated 500 Riverview students who applied. Whether Mehlville was legally required to accept more students is likely to be the subject of litigation.
In any case, the Walkers weren’t interested in Mehlville. Pattonville was their overwhelming first choice, with the Clayton and Brentwood districts as their second and third choices.
“We chose to go to a district that’s logically better for everybody,” he says. “We’ll be able to drop off our kids on the way to work, but transportation was less an issue than the quality of education. We looked at test scores. Clayton would have been a good choice, but Pattonville was a little bit more diverse and its scores were on target.”
Still, he concedes the family is moving into what amounts to uncharted territory.
“We’re pretty excited about the transfer, but it’s kind of scary and exciting at the same time. The unknown is always a little bit frightening.”
Jennifer Rucker is as disappointed as the Walkers are happy about the transfer program. Her children were among the 500 Riverview district students who applied to attend schools in Mehlville. She got the news last weekend that no space was available in Mehlville or Kirkwood, her second choice. Her home district was offering to pay for student transportation to either district. Her daughter is a senior and her son, a sophomore.
“I didn’t even list a third choice because of the transportation issue,” she says. “It would have meant having to cover the cost out of my pocket. I couldn’t afford it, as well as lunches and sports activities, for two high schoolers.”
The experience has caused her to become cynical about the way the transfer program is being handled.
“It surprised me that no space was available. I began to feel like the program was set up to fail because our district chose schools far away that wouldn’t take all the children. I understand the concerns by Mehlville and Kirkwood about not wanting to increase class sizes.”
On the other hand, she says, “Our children have suffered over the years and they deserve better. But because transportation isn’t being provided, I just decided that they will return to Riverview.”
Like Riverview Gardens, the Normandy district is unaccredited. Francis Howell has agreed to take in 475 Normandy students wishing to transfer and Normandy will pick up the transportation cost.
“I applaud Francis Howell for taking in more students from Normandy,” Rucker says. “But our children were weren’t given the same opportunity to transfer.”
She says the rest of her family wasn’t as excited as she had been upon learning that students from Riverview Gardens might have the option of transferring to accredited school districts.
“My daughter was a little more excited about moving than my son,” she says. “It was sort of hard to explain the value to my children and to my husband. He’s into sports at Riverview. But my main focus was on academics, not sports. My children want to go to college, so that’s why academics are so important to me.”
She says she was also disappointed by how little school officials seemed to have reached out with a promise to improve academics in the Riverview district.
“Nobody from the academic side sent out any material saying they wanted to keep us in Riverview and what they would be doing to improve the schools.The only person who contacted me was the athletic director. I think that’s sad.”
Not that every Riverview Gardens parent finds fault with the school system. In fact, roughly 75 percent of the students are expected to return to the unaccredited district this fall.
“I’m not leaving,” says Sharlisa Wallace, parent of a seventh grader. Two granddaughters also attend district schools. “We’re staying because I don’t believe in taking anything from this community and the schools. I don’t have a problem with the schools or the teachers.”
She says some parents who find fault with the district's teachers are indifferent and do little to prepare their children to succeed.
“My son is an honor student. The teachers who have taught him have done a good job. It’s all a matter of how you work with your children at home. I do know that parents can make a difference by being responsible and involved with their children.”
Asked about accreditation and complaints that some parents have raised about the district, Wallace says, “I can’t really explain why parents want to leave. I just think it’s unfortunate. But I’m not taking my children anywhere. My child and twin granddaughters are receiving the education they need right here. And they are going to be successful.”
