By Anonymous
Filed Wednesday, December 14 at 1:15 PM
December 13, 2005 -- The St. Louis Board of Education tonight gave the go ahead to Superintendent Creg Williams' plan to revamp high schools and middle schools in St. Louis.
Williams plans to create up to four new small high schools for the next year, and split Vashon into two schools-within-a-school.
Carnahan, Northwest, and Blewett Middle Schools will start a transition to becoming high schools with fewer than 500 students each. Carnahan and Northwest, which have seventh and eighth grades this year, will go to eighth and ninth grades next year, ninth and tenth grades in 2007, and then add one grade a year in each of the following years. Blewett, which has sixth, seventh, and eighth grades this year, will go to seven through nine next year, eight through ten in 2007, and so on.
Each of the new high schools will become home to a specialty program. Carnahan will house the "integrated technology" program. Northwest will house specialty programs in transportation, law, agriculture, and public safety (fire and police). Blewett will become the home of a teaching academy.
A fourth high school, called the Architecture & Design School, will be started if the district can find a location for it. That school will feature programs in architecture, interior design, and construction management.
An alternative high school for students with severe discipline problems will start up this year inside Pruitt School.
Pruitt currently houses a middle school military academy. Williams said he will bring the school board a recommendation in January or February for reorganizing Pruitt and Cleveland, the military high school. He said the MAP scores at both schools are unacceptable, and he said he is "very concerned" with how Pruitt "is run and operated."
Sources at district headquarters say that Pruitt will be merged into Cleveland in the reorganization.
Besides splitting Vashon into two schools next year, both Vashon and Roosevelt would get ninth grade centers. Sources say Vashon's ninth grade center will be at the old Williams School.
Vashon and Roosevelt both are overcrowded, having about 20% more students than they were built to hold. Both schools also might start operating on two shifts next year.
A "New Perspective Academy" for about 120 high risk students, many of them overaged, will be carved out within Roosevelt. Student would attend classes in the New Perspective Academy from 7:30 am to 12:17 pm, and then go out for service or work-study experiences in the afternoon.
Beginning in January, seniors at Vashon will be able to take dual-credit courses at UMSL and Forest Park Community College. Dual-credit courses are courses that fulfill a high school credit and get the student a college credit. Williams said the district has negotiated a reduced tuition rate with UMSL and hopes to do the same with the community college.
School board members Robert Archibald, James Buford, and Ron Jackson all questioned the cost of the plan, but ultimately voted for it. Williams said the plan is largely budget neutral, except that he is asking for $500,000 to start-up the alternative high school this year. Jackson said King Tri-A, the old alternative high school, was too expensive and the district cannot afford to spend that much on alternative education.
School board member Bill Purdy said, "I'm on board with small high schools. This is the right way to go."
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Williams Pulls Controversial Proposals
Superintendent Creg Williams pulled two controversial proposals from the school board agenda just before they were to come up for a vote.
One proposal would have authorized Williams to establish a nonprofit corporation to operate charter schools in the district. Eight of the 11 speakers during the public comment period had criticized the proposal, and noted that the suddenness with which it was sprung on public violated the board' recently issued "covenant" with the community. The large crowd repeatedly cheered the speakers, making clear their opposition to the surprise charter school proposal.
Williams also pulled a proposal to give a 3% raise to the building maintenance contractor, Sodexho. That proposal had come under fire on radio and television as an unwarranted increase to a company that was performing poorly. KSDK ran a news story questioning the raise on Monday night.
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