Lined up on both sides of Stevens Middle School’s entryway off Finney Avenue in the Vandeventer neighborhood on Monday morning were about 35 Sumner High School alumni. They were dancing and chanting while cheerfully welcoming new and returning Sumner students to their first day of school.
Only this year, that welcome was different.
St. Louis Public Schools temporarily closed seven schools, including Sumner, due to damage from the May 16 tornado. Sumner’s roof and other parts of the school will need repairs before students can return. Alumni are also concerned about whether the school’s temporary closure may become permanent.
Until then, its students are spending the year at Stevens Middle School — and on Monday they walked into a celebration that felt like a homecoming.
Students hopped off buses and out of cars at about 6:45 a.m. and walked into the middle school to the sounds of “Who Let the Dogs Out” and “They Not Like Us.” The alumni hugged and high-fived students as they made their way through a maroon and white balloon arch to enter school.
It is very important that Sumner students know that the alumni love the school and that the members care deeply for them, alumni Jeannette Strong said while taking pictures of the students.
“They're important to us. They're important to our community,” she said. “Whatever we have to do, we're going to do.”
Sumner alumni typically welcome students every year on the first day of school to motivate them and help instill pride in education. They have been welcoming students with balloons, gifts and music for nearly 20 years, but this year is different because of the relocation.
Strong said the alumni will fight as hard as they can to make sure the school is repaired and reopened for students.
“We're not going down without a fight, and we believe that we're going to stand, that our school will stay open and they will release the funds that's allocated for our schools to get it back together so our kids can go to Sumner High School,” she said tearfully.
SLPS Superintendent Millicent Borishade visited Sumner’s temporary location Monday morning and rode the bus to the school with some Sumner students.
She said FEMA has completed its walk-throughs for all the damaged schools, and she is working through the reports for next steps. She understands that Sumner parents will be apprehensive about the changes, but encourages them to visit Stevens Middle School.
“We had our alumni come back when we pivoted and moved over here to Stevens, the alumni were right here to help the staff prepare for today,” she said. “I want our families to know that our staff here really do care. This is not just a today thing. This is an all-day, every day, all year thing.”
Sumner’s principal, Ronda Wallace, danced and held students' hands as she walked them into the new school Monday morning. She said changing schools is hard but believes her students will quickly acclimate to the new building.
“We're just here temporarily,” Wallace said. “This is our Airbnb, but you watch them, they are not going to miss a beat.”
Before school started at 7:15 a.m. Wallace let the alumni know the school will be welcoming 150 freshmen, 90 sophomores, nearly 100 juniors and 100 seniors this year. Inside Stevens, 80-year-old Jacqueline Vanderford also welcomed students. Vanderford, a 1963 Sumner graduate, chaired the school’s 150th celebration planning.
“You were surrounded by people who had great success and great goals,” she explained of her time at Sumner, which included “stalking” tennis great and 1961 graduate Arthur Ashe. Ashe became the first Black man to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.
But Vanderford stressed that the school’s legacy is larger than any single graduate — or even the pantheon of notable Black people who went to the school.
“Legacy is to be carried on. It's not to stop,” she said. “And so that's our future, and we understand that. … You know, I'm 80 years old so I'm on my way to rest. I fought my battles, but I'll never stop fighting for Sumner. I'll never stop.”
That fight has defined the school from the start.
“[Black St. Louisans] were fighting to get a high school, and they gave them the worst school, at Washington School on 11th and Spruce. So the parents were fighting then for a better school. The next school was just as bad, and they fought to have that school built. So it's been part of our tradition. We will keep fighting no matter what the issue is.”
Vanderford, who is working on a book about the history of Sumner, said it is crucial that the school not just be remembered but continue to live on.
“Because we're Black, and St. Louis has a way of not honoring the history of Black people in St. Louis,” she said. “I want [people] to know the history, the story — and it's so emotional. The story of Sumner will make you laugh, cry. It'll make you angry.”
See more photos of the first day of school by St. Louis Public Radio Visuals Editor Brian Munoz:
