By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The Special Administrative Board of the St. Louis Public Schools is creating a new 3-5 year plan to fix the floundering urban district.
The S.A.B met with members of the old elected school board on Wednesday to ask where they felt the priorities lie.
According to the state's most recent report, St. Louis has the worst performing school district in the state, meeting only 2 of 14 accreditation points.
District Administrative Officer Darlene Jones said St. Louis lost 2 points over last year for ACT and elementary test scores.
"We were extremely upset about that, because in the past we had been very strong in elementary test scores."
Elected Board President Peter Downs claimed the S.A.B's motivation going forward is anything but improvement. He said that they take their marching orders from the state department of education.
"This is a charade," said Downs, "because I think they are directed by DESE and there's a whole history of actions by DESE to undermine and sabotage education of urban school children."
The S.A.B maintained they will succeed where other boards have failed because their board is stable allowing them to set clear and measurable goals.
Following confirmation by the state Senate in January and a court ruling upholding the S.A.B's legality, board member Richard Gaines said its time to create a measurable plan for improvement.
"It gives us a guideline, you know there are certain people that say it will take six years to get this school system to be 'a quality school district', that will be a real choice for people. We think it can be done in less time than that."
In a morning work session, the old elected school board listed the district's top three priorities as safety, teacher retention and parental involvement.
The S.A.B hopes to have its improvement plan formalized in about four months.