This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 2, 2013: Missouri Education Commissioner Chris L. Nicastro raised questions Friday about the financial survival of the Normandy School District in the wake of the decision by more than a quarter of its students to transfer to schools in accredited districts.
In a wide-ranging telephone discussion with reporters about the student transfer law, Nicastro said it was becoming clear that Normandy would need additional state funding to get through the school term. She said the Riverview Gardens district, also unaccredited, would need financial help at a later date.
Both Normandy and Riverview are losing more than 2,300 students and about $30 million in school funding because the state's funding follows the student. The districts are required to pay tuition and, in some instances, transportation cost for students who leave to attend schools in accredited districts.
“In the case of Normandy, we have some concerns going forward regarding their ability to meet their financial obligations,” she said. “We need to work very closely with district officials to identify what additional funds might be necessary to meet those obligations.” The budget for the Normandy school district is $50 million; the district is expected to spend $15 million on the transfers.
The other concern, she says, involves educating kids who choose not to transfer. The department already has programs in place to coach teachers, improve instructional strategies” underwritten in part through “significant amounts of federal funding to assist in school improvement efforts. Most of these efforts will continue.”
Asked at what point Normandy would be unable to survive following the transfer of an estimated 28 percent (or 1,151) of its 4,500 students, Nicastro said, “We are working closely with the district to try to determine when that is, to get projections in place, to anticipate when they will run out of money.”
Once that is determined, she said, “we will work with the (Missouri) legislature to secure the necessary funding to cover tuition cost (for transferring students), the transportation cost, and the cost of providing programs for their remaining students through the balance of their school year.”
The objective, she says, is to “make sure that the receiving districts are compensated for the children that they are accepting in good faith and that the children in Normandy have the resources necessary to complete the school year.”
Nicastro took issue with claims that the incoming transfer students would have an adverse impact on test scores of the receiving districts. She said the transfer numbers represent a relatively small percentage of students.
“The overall impact of children from Normandy and Riverview Gardens coming into the districts is not going to significantly alter their total district performance,” she said.
Nicastro also said the receiving districts “have the opportunity to gain credit, if you will, for showing individual student growth.” These districts can also “demonstrate the efficacy for their educational program for children” from the incoming districts. “I am confident that the children will benefit and that the schools and the districts in many respects may in fact benefit as well.”
Nicastro said the controversy over the transfers has had racial overtones.
“I am concerned about the racial implications of this. I think that we need to ensure that we are not impacting the ability of children to choose where they want to go to school and restrict them unnecessarily to a district just because of race or socioeconomics.”
Every child deserves to attend a decent school “irrespective of race, ZIP code," said Nicastro. "We have to focus on what’s best for children, not necessarily on some of the adult issues and the arbitrary labels that we place on geographic areas.”
Missouri and the nation, she says, must “come to grips with what we are going to do about our urban school system and … make sure that our children are going to be well served irrespective of all the other things that we bring into that issue.”
It’s time to start thinking “regionally about what we do to support our districts that are struggling without creating more disruptions for children who in many cases already have serious disadvantages, be it in a family, a community, socially or whatever.”
Nicastro praised Normandy Superintendent Tyrone McNichols and Riverview Gardens Superintendent Scott D. Spurgeon, both of whom took their jobs during the period when the disarray stemming from the transfers began to unfold.
”I have to say the two new superintendents in the districts really are in very difficult situations, and I think they both have handled it very well. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go in a district and have this thrust upon you immediately upon your arrival,” says Nicastro, who is a former superintendent.
She added that both “have told their communities that they are interested in keeping their kids and have urged parents to give them a chance to make improvements. I think some parents are choosing to do that. We’ll continue to be encouraged by their efforts to make a positive difference for their kids.”
