By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Roberti defends his decision last summer to close 16 city schools that he and his consulting team say were underutilized.
He says the more than 90 remaining buildings are appropriate to the district's current enrollment.
But Roberti says because enrollment drives revenues, the district may have to consider more closings:
"And if enrollment continues to decline - which it has done each year for the last seven to 10 years -- you're going to have to address this issue again," Roberti says. "And you'd be better off addressing it on an annualized or semi-annualized basis than trying to do it every 10, 15 or 20 years."
The enrollment of the St. Louis public schools is currently just below 40,000.