Several public schools in north St. Louis, including Sumner High School, were severely damaged during last month’s deadly tornado. Students will be attending other schools this fall, but Sumner alumni are worried that its students may never return since St. Louis Public Schools has proposed its closure over the years.
Kim Garrett, president of the Sumner High School Alumni Association, said the group has been trying to keep the school from closing for some time, and it has become harder in the wake of the storm.
“We're going to fight to keep our school open, because the students are doing great things at Sumner High School, and we want to continue our proud tradition of excellence,” Garrett said. “We have a wonderful legacy of greatness, and we want to continue that for years to come.”
The recent tornado destroyed parts of Sumner’s roof, damaged some of its tennis courts and downed trees. SLPS reported the storm’s damage and will move Sumner students to Clyde C. Miller College Prep Academy in Grand Center this fall. Alumni are concerned that this move could become an excuse for district officials to shutter the school, though the district says it will not.
SLPS plans to reopen Sumner as soon as the building is repaired and is safe for reentry, said Superintendent Millicent Borishade in a statement.
“Our teams are working diligently to assess the damage, plan the repairs, and ensure that when Sumner reopens, it will continue to provide the high-quality educational environment our students and families deserve,” she said.
Garrett is hopeful that Sumner reopens, but she said the damage to the roof could have been minimal if the district had repaired the roof prior to the storm.
On April 30, Garrett emailed district officials about a video she received of Sumner’s leaking roof. The digital recording showed water dripping from the roof into a room on the third floor. She said in the email that the roof had been in the process of being repaired, but it was not completed, and that upcoming storms would make matters worse. Garrett did not receive a response from the district about the leak prior to the tornado.
“We want our school open. We want the roof fixed,” Garrett said.
Sumner High School was the first high school for African Americans west of the Mississippi. It’s known for graduating celebrities, athletes, educators and politicians. In 2020, SLPS announced that it was planning to close 10 schools to help the district save money. Sumner was among them because it had low enrollment and declining grade-point averages. But a few months later, the board voted to find a way to save the historic high school through an arts program.
“We actually have the arts. We have museum studies, fashion and design, and we have a Robotics Club,” Garrett said. “Some of the students have even been writing plays, and they're making minidocumentaries, and that was something that never happened at Sumner, so these new programs are bringing in more children.”
In 2020, there were more than 200 students enrolled in the high school. Recently, enrollment has doubled. Alumni say they want to keep the students in north St. Louis, but the community needs more than the arts program to keep students engaged year-round.
Julia Allen, co-founder and board chair of 4theVille, an organization that helps restore and preserve the legacy of the historic Ville neighborhood, said that while the “Delmar Divide” gets a lot of attention, people should talk about the “Dr. Martin Luther King Drive Divide” as well, because many north St. Louis schools have been neglected.
“You can't have a community without a school, so say all of these schools remain closed, they're going to bus these kids out of their neighborhoods to south city,” said Allen, who is also a Sumner alumna. “It is so important that we fight to keep our schools open, that we hold the Board of Education accountable in supporting our schools.”
When the district proposed to save the school in 2021, 4theVille created an advisory board and came up with a five-year plan to help the students at Sumner thrive.
“Even when I was in school, they slowly picked that school apart, and now we're in a rebuilding process,” said Allen, who graduated in 1967. “Over that five-year period, it has been nothing but steady improvement … and it's all because the community came together and said, ‘Hey, this is worth saving. This is worth fighting for.’”
Alumni are calling on other Sumner graduates and the community to stay on top of the district to ensure that the roof gets fixed in a timely manner and that students return to Sumner in the spring.
Garrett is worried about where Sumner’s teachers and other professionals will be moved this fall. She also wants the district to outline how students who are participating in Sumner’s arts programs will continue with a similar curriculum at the new school.
“I want to just make sure that the children are comfortable, that they get the education, that the programs are still going forth, but I want them ultimately to be back at school,” Garrett said.
