School Closures

Washington Montessori Elementary, Yeatman-Liddell Middle and Beaumont High Schools all welcomed back hundreds of students this week for the first time since the tornado closed the buildings last May.

VaNetta Clark, a PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, curated an exhibit of artifacts collected by her former teachers at the Scullin School in the Penrose neighborhood. It was closed in 2003 and has fallen into disrepair as St. Louis Public Schools has struggled to sell it.

The three schools include Washington Montessori Elementary School, Yeatman-Liddell Middle School and Beaumont High School, which is home to some of the district’s career and technical programs.

In a letter shared with St. Louis Public Radio, Board of Education President Karen Collins-Adams listed a series of concerns about “an increasing pattern of unauthorized communications from you over the last several months.”

The American Federation of Teachers Local 420 offered alternative ideas to shutting down buildings in St. Louis Public Schools during a summit on Wednesday, but did not discuss how new programs and schools would be funded.

The Reimagining SLPS community events are meant to inform families, teachers and community stakeholders about the district’s effort to consolidate its buildings due to declining enrollment and high cost repairs.

The executive board of the American Federation of Teachers Local 420 unanimously approved a no confidence petition, and it was delivered to school board President Karen Collins-Adams on Monday.

Six of the 12 schools, including Gateway/Hubert Wheeler in St. Louis, had already been temporarily closed because of staffing issues.

The district has over $200 million in reserves, but Superintendent Millicent Borishade said the increased expenditures are “unsustainable.”

A report recommends St. Louis Public Schools close 37 of its 68 buildings for the 2026-27 school year due to declining student enrollment and aging infrastructure.