This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 10, 2009 - When a community group held a Save Our Schools rally Saturday in response to Superintendent Kelvin Adams' proposal to close 17 schools, only about 100 people showed up.
Whether the size of the crowd represented growing public indifference to the school-closing issue or the quiet before the storm may be known on Thursday when the Special Administrative Board votes on Adams' proposals.
Saturday's rally and march was in sharp contrast to the public outcry in 2003 when former school chief William Roberti shut down 16 schools. A former Brooks Brothers executive with a sharp tongue, Roberti became a lightning rod for criticism in the school closing controversy. He eventually quit, one of six men and women who have headed the school system since Superintendent Cleveland Hammonds' departure in 2003 from the job he held for seven years.
The public focus now in on what the SAB will do about closing schools. It has several options:
- Accept the recommendations of MGT, a consulting firm, that urged the district to close 29 buildings, mainly to help cover a $36 million deficit.
- Accept Adams' call for closing only 17 buildings for a savings of $7.7 million and look for other ways, such as federal stimulus money, to help cover the deficit.
- Choose schools from both sets of recommendations or come up with recommendations of its own.
During the board meeting where Adams' recommendations were discussed, Rick Sullivan, head of the SAB, suggested that the board would rely heavily on Adams' choices. Sullivan said recommendations from consultants from MGT were helpful because they offered the board and Adams an objective review of the options.
Adams, meanwhile, has helped to build goodwill by proposing that some popular schools be kept open, while stressing that community engagement would be one of his top priorities and supporting the transformation of some school buildings into full-service community schools.
While the audience applauded Adams more than once during his presentation, other school officials stressed that the superintendent and the board still must clear the unpopular hurdle posed by closing schools.
That hurdle was obvious during Saturday's sparsely attended SOS rally and march, which began at Shepard School. Adams wants to close the school and transfer the students to nearby Monroe about a quarter of a mile away.
Under Adams' recommendations, the district would close the following schools in June of 2009: Ashland, Baden, Clark, Des Peres, Mark Twain, Washington, Scruggs, Shepard, Simmons, Blewett, Stowe, Turner, Roosevelt, and Kottmeyer. Three others would close in June of 2011: Cote Brilliante, Mann and Sherman Elementary (pending construction of two new schools).
He also recommended that the following schools, which MGT had recommended should close, remain open: Gallaudet, McKinley, Gateway, Henry, Mallinckrodt, Ames, Shaw, Shenandoah, Hickey, Bunche, L'Ouverture, Langston, Stevens, Nottingham, Cleveland and Northwest.
The only school that Adams recommended for closing that MGT did not was Stowe.
Adams also added that some of these schools would remain open only if the district's aggressive recruitment and marketing programs boosted enrollment.
The marketing hasn't come soon enough, according to SOS supporters such as Alderman Craig Schmid, D-20th Ward. He argues that 552 children under the age of 5, along with 683 between the ages of 5 and 9, live within half a mile radius of Shepard. He says these numbers suggest the board needs to do more to promote its product and urge parents to send their children to public schools.
Instead, Schmid says, these parents are turned off by talk of closing buildings.
"If you were thinking of joining an institution, such as a church or a school, and someone told you they were shutting the institution, would that encourage you to join?" he asked.
