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A letter from Superintendent Creg Williamsappeared in today's Oakville-Mehlville Journal. In the letter, titled "Which is worth more -- a building or 600 students?," Williams said he did not recommend closing Cleveland NJROTC High School -- just to move the students.
"This discussion is not about closing schools," wrote Williams. "It is about students who must sit in an environment that is not conducive to learning, and in classrooms that put their health at risk."
For just about everyone else, the debate is about SLPS moving to close Cleveland High -- without a clear plan for what to do with its students, or the building.
Williams just recommended moving Cleveland's students at the school board's May 2 administrative meeting (just three weeks before the last day of class), asking them to vote on the recommendation just seven days later. It is not likely that students would have been moved out of the building before the end of the school year.
Even now, four weeks later, questions still remain about where Williams plans to move the 600-plus students and what will be done with the NJROTC program. And the superintendent has offered no plan at all for what to do with the building.
Some have suggested that Williams, who openly supported the unsuccessful re-election campaigns of Darnetta Clinkscale and James Buford, has planned for some time to close Cleveland but held off bringing the proposal to the old board during the heated school board campaign.
A new group has been formed to begin organizing to keep the "old castle" alive. The Alliance to Save Cleveland High will meet tomorrow, June 1, at the Dutchtown office, 4204 Virginia Ave., to form a steering committee and "come together as a community to act now in unity, with one goal: save Cleveland High School!"
The Alliance will also be holding a press conference on Monday, June 5, to mark the official launch of the organization. That event will be in front of Cleveland High School at 10:00 a.m.
In a letter to its members, the president and the executive board of the St. Louis City teachers union called the 2005-06 school year one of the most frustrating, demanding, and exhausting that the teachers, paraprofessionals and secretarial/clerical employees have ever had to endure.
"The disrespect and disregard for the rights of the employees has proven unbearable," said the letter.
Mary Armstrong, the union chief, said that Superintendent Creg Williams addressed her members at their May 2005 meeting and asked them to give him one year to make a difference and to show his willingness to work with Local 420. "The last thing I want to do is pick a fight with the union," she recalled him saying.
"That year is finally over!" wrote Armstrong. She said Williams was invited to address the union again this year and "clarify some of the District's questionable actions." Williams declined.
In addition to the concerns about teacher rehirings after the announced reconstitution and restructuring of 13 city schools, the teachers union is also upset about recent shorts in pay.
"We have just been officially informed on Friday, May 26th, that due to another payroll mistake, 10-month employees' last payroll check will be for only 5 days!" wrote Armstrong.
The union has called an emergency meeting of its full membership for Sunday, June 4. A review of the 2005-06 school year will be followed by a question and answer session open to all members. The time and place will be announced later on the union's website and on postcards mailed to members.
Other school-related meetings coming up:
School Board Administrative Meeting, June 6, at 7:00 p.m., 801 N. 11th Street, Room 108.
School Board Regular Meeting Monthly Meeting, June 13, Carr Lane School Auditorium , 7:00 p.m.
As we reported yesterday, hundreds of teachers and staff at 13 city schools were given termination letters this week. They were offered the chance to reapply for their positions, but the president of the teachers' union says that the district is not being clear on what the criteria will be used to rehire employees.
Mary Armstrong told PUB DEF that the teachers have been told that they will be rehired based upon "certification and seniority." But Superintendent Creg Williams told the Post-Dispatch that seriority would not be taken into account.
Adding to the tension, Williams told the Post-Dispatch that many more teachers are getting termination letters than the number given to the union. Williams' representatives told the union that only teachers at the schools being reconstituted would have to reapply for jobs. There are seven of those schools, and they employed about 350 certified teachers this year. Williams told the Post-Dispatch, however, that over 1,000 teachers will have to apply for rehiring.
We tried for two days to get a comment from SLPS spokesmen Tony Sanders and Johnny Little, but neither provided one.
Dr. Lynn Spampinato's tenure as chief academic officer of the St. Louis Public Schools ended six months ago, but the effects of some of her controversial decisions are still being uncovered.
At a recent meeting of the school board, Elois Brooks, the district's new CAO, told board members that Spampinato failed to apply for a waiver from the federal government to pay for curriculum coaches out of Title I funds even though they were not certified in math or science as required. Cedric Lewis, the district's interim chief financial officer, said the result is that those coaches will now have to be paid for out of the general budget.
The cost of Spampinato's mistake: $1 million.
Lewis said the Title I funds budgeted for the coaches do not have to be paid back to the federal government. They can be used for other programs. However, the district has $1 million less than originally thought to use for other projects paid for out of the general budget.
Up to now, Title I funds had been used for reading and math instruction in elementary schools and middle schools. Next year, the district is going to spread them out to high schools, too.
These two hits are going to cost elementary schools upwards of half of their budgets for reading and math instruction for children who need extra help. Resource teachers, teaching assistants, parent liaisons, and curriculum coaches are expected to lose positions.
The Watch is investigating reports that the teachers and staff at Roosevelt, Sumner and Vashon High Schools received termination letters this week.
District spokesmen Tony Sanders and Johnny Little could not immediately confirm or deny these reports, but Little said that he was aware of the situation and would not characterize the actions as firings.
These three high schools are the ones that Superintendent Creg Williams targeted for reorganization at the last regular meeting of the school board. He has stated that the contract with Local 420, as well as provisions of the "No Child Left Behind" Act, allow him to move teachers at will.
Developing...
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The St. Louis Public School District will host the second in a series of public hearings regarding its proposed budget for fiscal year 2007 on Tonight, May 24, at 6:00 p.m. at Carr Lane VPA, 1004 N. Jefferson Ave.
A third hearing will be held on Saturday, June 3, at 10:00 a.m. at Carnahan Middle School, 4041 S. Broadway.
By Helen Louise Herndon St. Louis Schools Watch Contributor
A special board meeting took place Tuesday evening at Cleveland Naval Junior ROTC to allow community input relating to the closing of the school. Unfortunately, only three board members were in attendance: Board President Veronica O'Brien, Peter Downs, and Donna Jones. Superintendent Creg Williams and Kenneth Brostron, board attorney, also attended.
Though well-attended, several expressed the auditorium would have been packed had there been more than 24 hours notice. Some very angry people contained and restrained their anger at such short notice. Three alderpersons addressed the board: Dorothy Kirner, Craig Schmid, and Ken Ortmann.
Mrs. O'Brien politely announced they were there to listen and proceeded by opening up the meeting to public comments. Parents, school staff, a student, community leaders, business men and women, and local neighbors paraded one after another in disciplined manner to the microphone.
It didn't take long before it became apparent St. Louis and, particularly, South St. Louis--or even more provincially, Dutchtown South St. Louis, is blessed with extremely talented, articulate men and women. Nothing was said that didn't matter or that could be easily dismissed. Concern, content, dignity, respect, substance, sympathy, and even humor marked the host of comments. A bit of anger seeped through in several cases at the possibility such a beautiful and historical marvel and anchor in the community might be permanently closed or replaced.
The first speaker, Sheryl Davenport, a teacher at Cleveland spoke directly to the present problems that make the school an unhealthy and untenable environment for students and staff. Other staff members reiterated her concerns while admitting to the shame that maintenance negligence was to blame.
A student spoke intimating that, as one who had been homeless, Cleveland was to her a home. She repeated: "This run-down building is home."
She wants it to continue to be home but also recognizes how unhealthy it is. She said students can't stand to attention because their chests hurt, referring to a serious problem of mold.
Addressing board members and the superintendent, she said, "If you are not here everyday, then you will not know what it feels like to be at Cleveland. This neighborhood has been a beacon to us."
Parents of children attending McKinley Classical Jr. Academy also spoke. They heard rumors their children would be moved out of McKinley and replaced by the Cleveland student body and staff. They couldn't understand why Cleveland had not been kept up and was allowed to deteriorate so badly. They communicated it was wrong to make a successful school like McKinley move to make room for another school.
Several neighbors spoke noting the school was one reason they moved into the neighborhood, and one eloquently pleaded: "Take care of our children and the architecture of the neighborhood."
A retired teacher who remembered the desegregation of Cleveland said the closing of Cleveland would send a message that the desegregation program had failed. He remembered many students, black and white, who graduated from Cleveland to succeed in many areas of life.
Perhaps the most startling speech came from a man identifying himself as once president of the Cleveland Parent Congress. His talk was animated. He asked if the mayor or any of his associates were in the audience. No, they weren't.
He rhetorically and sarcastically demanded why the building wasn't kept up. He chastised the school district officials for not standing up and applauding the student who spoke so eloquently, saying her speech brought tears to his eyes.
He held up a recently-released book, "Recipe for Failure: One year of reform and chaos in the St. Louis Public Schools" by Marilyn Ayres-Salamon, a teacher at Carnahan Middle School who lived through and survived one of the worst years in the history of the Saint Louis Public Schools, the year of the turnaround management team. (My comment: A must-read for everyone.)
And then he made the most remarkable statement that brought a round of applause and laughter: "Father Biondi must want this building."
The meeting ended peacefully. School district officers appeared to listen attentively. More importantly, it showed how much a community can care not just about its self-interests, but about the problems faced by others. Personally, I came away thinking and feeling, "This is how communities should solve their problems and differences-directly, truthfully, and respectfully."
The school district has a powerful friend in the community if it is willing to treat it with respect and work with it.
Tuesday night at Cleveland, the proof was in the pudding, as offers of volunteerism and readiness to help were voiced. I hope the school board heard such voices clearly and profited from Community Relations 101.
The most moving speech as last night's special school board meeting came from an 11th grade student at Cleveland NJROTC High School.
"This run-down building is my home," said Beulah Foehner. She said she and her fellow Cleveland cadets breathe the mold in the 93-year-old building everyday. "This is all we have. This is all we are reduced to."
She said she would like to be able to walk across Cleveland's auditorium stage next year at her graduation -- but not at the risk of her health.
As a senior officer at the Naval ROTC program, she said she hears everyday from the students in her charge that their chests hurt or they have trouble performing basic military positions.
"We are all you have left," Beulah told the school board. The self-confidence and self-discipline taught at the school make Cleveland students a valuable asset to the City's public school district.
With barely 24 hours notice, the St. Louis Public Schools has called two special board meetings for Tuesday evening.
The first meeting will be held at its Administration Building, 801 N. 11th Street, at 5:00 p.m. This meeting will be closed to the public to discuss legal and personnel issues.
The second meeting will be held at Cleveland NJROTC High School, 4325 Louisiana Avenue, at 7:30 p.m. There will be some time allowed for public comments and then the board is expected to take some action on the issue of closing Cleveland.
UPDATE: Up to three board members may be out of town, making it unlikely that the Board will vote to close Cleveland tonight. Considering the short notice, sources tell The Watch the purpose of this meeting may be to get the public comment portion "out of the way."
After voting to table a motion to close Cleveland High School to allow time for public input, three members of the board appear ready to force a vote on the matter while some board members are out of town.
School Board President Veronica O'Brien has called a special board meeting for Tuesday, May 23, for the purpose of calling a vote on the question of closing Cleveland. Sources tell PUB DEF that board members Bill Purdy and Flint Fowler are out of town (Purdy is in Florida, not sure where Fowler is) and will not likely make the special meeting.
If O'Brien joins board members Ron Jackson and Bob Archibald, newly elected members Peter Downs and Donna Jones can only watch as the district breaks another promise with the public.
Less than two weeks ago, O'Brien voted with Purdy, Downs, Jones, and Fowler to allow more time for public debate. Before the vote, Purdy proposed at least one public meeting be held at the high school and that the public be allowed to tour the building to see for themselves the physical challenges facing the 93-year-old building.
No public meeting has been held and no public tours have been given.
School officials are scrambling to fix the overcrowding problem that may threaten the district's most praised academic program.
Sources tell the Watch that officials from St. Louis Public Schools met with representatives from St. Louis University on Thursday to try to find a solution to the overcrowding problem that has resulted from Superintendent Creg Williams' controversial move to again increase the size of the freshman class at Metro High School.
Dr. Williams decided to admit 130 freshmen into Metro for the 2006-2007 school year, instead of the normal 75 students, raising enrollment to 380 total students. The school's enrollment had already been expanded this year by 25 students, to nearly 300.
For months, Dr. Williams has claimed the school could hold over 500 students. But the Watch has learned that two weeks ago, in a meeting with the executive board of the schools Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), Williams admitted that the original building plans and later facility assessments show the building has the capacity to house only 250-275 students.
"We have a problem," sources say Williams told the PTO board. He said the school does not have room for all the students who have been assigned there next year.
Williams asked the parents for help to solve the problem. He suggested that if they could just get through the next year, he could reduce freshmen enrollment to only 50 students in each of the following years to relieve the overcrowding.
One parent suggested that administrators contact nearby SLU to see if the district could teach some courses in University classrooms next year to relieve the overcrowding at Metro.
Administrators followed up on the parent suggestion and on Thursday a SLPS contingent that included Clive Coleman, the official in charge of public high school in St. Louis, met with SLU representatives, including Vice President for Community Relations Julius Hunter.
Kristen Hinman, of The Riverfront Times, is reporting that all but 8 of Vashon's 60 teachers gave passing grades to 101 students who skipped anywhere from 25 to 67 days of school during last year's fall semester. Not a single teacher has been disciplined. The St. Louis Public Schools district plans to launch an investigation into the matter.
Superintendent Creg Williams distributed the below repair list for Cleveland High School to school board members. It was later made available to community members.
There are 33 items on the repair list, including air conditioning and a new heating plant, which would be paid for with the air conditioning bonds.
Alderwoman Dorothy Kirner has sent Williams a letter asking him to prioritize the repairs and itemized the cost estimates. While some of the repairs are urgent, others could be put off without interfering with the use of the school. Those include the running track, motorizing the bleachers, and replacing the auditorium seats with upholstered seats.
Kirner said that she and the Cleveland Alumni Association can beginning raising money to pay for the repairs if they have a priortized list of expenses and a three to five year plan for repairing and reopening the building.
Williams estimated that it will cost $22 million to complete all the repairs on his list, with the new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system accounting for $10 million of that. Of the remaining $12 million, he said that $7 million is really for "modernizing" the facility, which includes such elements as the running track and new auditorium seating.
Williams said it would cost only $20 million to build a new facility the equal to a repaired and modernized Cleveland. But the new Clyde Miller Academy cost $30 million to build, without a football field or running track. Vashon cost $44 million to build, also without a football field or track.
Here is the list of repairs and upgrades:
1. Replace existing windows throughout the building [Editor's note: the majority of windows were replaced in the 1980s and appear to be tight fitting and in good condition. Only the windows facing the interior air shafts are rotting, ill-fitting, or in need of replacement]
2. Waterproof north, south, and west exterior walls around the building [Editor's note: may be unnecessary or ineffective. According to the maintenance staff at the school, the building's sewer lateral broke last year. Every time it rains the water from the school's drainage system floods the boiler room because the sewer lateral is blocked. The blockage also causes water to back up in all the drains around the building's exterior, and back up the downspouts, which may be the real cause of water damage to those walls].
3. Repair plaster walls throughout various locations of the building
4. Waterproof two auditorium stairwells
5. Replace third floor skylight roof windows in the art room, south side, and room 300
6. Replace all necessary flooring areas in basement corridors
7. Replace all necessary ceramic tile in bathroom floors
8. Replace all necessary ceramic wall tile in bathrooms and swimming pool
9. Replace outdated and obsolete plumbing fixtures in restrooms
10. Replace worn carpeting in library
11. Paint various locations throughout the building
12. Install motorization system for bleachers
13. Repair exterior steps at two entrances
14. Replace main entrance and corridor floors in main gym
15. Replace railing at loading area facing street
16. Replace outdated water fountains (editor's note: they still work)
17. Install concrete paving over present brick parking lot behind loading dock
18. Repave parking lot behind new gym
19. Resurface parking lot in front of new gym
20. Repair concrete wall at street near loading dock
21. Replace exterior light fixtures above all entrances
22. Replace three exterior double door sets and frames
23. Replace three single exterior door sets and frames
24. Replace three single interior doors and frames
25. Replace carpet in music room
26. Install bituminous and cork running track around football field
27. Replace stair treads throughout building
28. Replace lockers throughout building
29. Replace roof sectors A, D, F, and G per Tremco roof report
30. Replace existing boilers
31. Replace existing piping and heating units throughout the building
32. Add air conditioning to the entire building
33. Replace wooden auditorium seats with upholstered
Starting this week, there are going to be three public meetings on St. Louis Public Schools' 2006-07 district budget. Officials say presentations are designed to provide parents and the general public with more information about how tax dollars are being spent to educate the city's children.
The first meeting is Wednesday, May 17, at 9 a.m. at Soldan High School. The next meeting is on Wednesday, May 24, at 6 p.m. at Carr Lane Middle School. The last meeting is on Saturday, May 27, at 10 a.m. at Carnahan School.
St. Louis Public Schools took a moment at Tuesday's school board meeting to honor one of its brightest stars.
Brandi Latrice Scott Cross, a 15 year-old Vashon High School student, was recently selected as one of just 150 students from across the country to attend the prestigious Simon’s Rock College of Bard in the fall.
Located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Simon's Rock is the nation's only college of liberal arts and sciences designed expressly for students of high school age. Most students enter Simon's Rock after completing the 10th or 11th grade, and follow programs leading to Associate in Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in liberal arts.
With a perfect 4.0 grade point average, Brandi is the recipient of the college’s W.E.B. DuBois scholarship.
Brandi said she aspires to study political science and become America’s first female African American president. She keeps up with current events and prides herself on being knowledgeable about local, national and world affairs. She has been nominated for the National Honor Society, the Community Education Center’s Student of the Year award and is a proud member of Vashon’s JROTC program.
Brandi was recently featured in the St. Louis American as a student with many gifts and talents. Click here to read the story.
The president of the St. Louis teachers union addressed the school board and the district's superintendent last night to defend her members from what she said were unwarranted attacks.
Mary Armstrong, president of Local 420, reminded Superintendent Creg Williams that the average number of teacher absences, which he publicly has complained about, still falls within the number allowed by the their contract.
"We had warned the district that PTOs (time allowed for personal time off from work) would cost the district more than sick days ever would," said Armstrong. She said that under their old contract, sick days were tracked and monitored. Under the contract, the district opted to reduce the number of sick days allowed and instead allow for PTOs, which allow teachers a certain number of days to take off for any reason.
Byron Clemons, vice-president of the union, said that attacking teachers makes it more difficult for the district to attract quality staff.
"Few districts (in the region) have a less friendly policy than St. Louis Public Schools," said Clemons.
Bob Archibald, one of the two remaining members of the board majority backed by Mayor Francis Slay in 2003, has made a habit of leaving school board meetings early.
After questioning the district's financial officer early in the meeting on his grim budget forecast and later pushing for a $2.5 million contract with a local firm to manage the district's construction projects, Archibald once again disappeared from the stage.
As a result, two items that Superintendent Creg Williams had been pushing for failed to get enough votes.
A proposal to spend $325,000 to purchase cubicles and build out offices in the administrative headquarters of St. Louis Public Schools died after a 3-3 vote. Voting in favor were Board President Veronica O'brien and board members Flint Fowler and Ron Jackson. Voting against were Donna Jones, Peter Downs and Bill Purdy.
Purdy said he didn't think it was a priority. "I have a real problem with voting to put money into the downtown headquarters when we have needs galore all over the district," he said.
Near the end of the meeting, Dr. Williams tried to put back on the table his proposal for a summer jobs program that was voted down last month. That motion again drew a tie vote.
Archibald is likely to have to supported both measures, but his early departure meant that Williams would have to wait another month before he could try again for board approval.
The St. Louis School Board again voted down a proposal to hire a local private firm to oversee the district's construction projects.
The one-year contract proposal came from Superintendent Creg Williams, who last month proposed virtually the same deal as a two-year agreement. Williams wanted to see the Board hire Kwame Building Group, a black-owned construction firm based in downtown St. Louis, to manage the district's air conditioning projects. The price tag for the firm's services in near $2.5 million.
Board member Bill Purdy, who has long pushed for a return to in-house maintenance, said that he'd like to see the district get the "best bang for our buck."
"We would be best to build our own in-house team to manage the HVAC," said Purdy. He said his objections to the deal was in no way a reflection upon the particular firm selected.
Recently elected board member Peter Downs, who had been criticized by another board member last month for requesting an itemized district budget, called attention to an item in that 4-inch thick document.
Downs noted that one of the schools budgeted to be air condition was Cleveland NJROTC High School, which the superintendent was now requesting to be closed. Downs asked if the district wasn't getting ahead of itself by contracting these services before the next round of school closings was announced.
The Board once again voted down the contract. The vote was 4-2, with Ron Jackson and Bob Archibald voting in favor. Board President Veronica O'Brien abstained.
The St. Louis Board of Education voted last night to table a proposal to close Cleveland High School to allow time for more public debate. They also requested that Superintendent Creg Williams provide more details on what problems are facing the building and exactly where the students will be moved next year.
Dozens of people showed up to Carr Lane Middle School to defend the "Old Castle" -- parents, aldermen, and white-haired alumni who could remember better days for the Dutchtown landmark.
"The torch has passed to you," Ald. Craig Schmid (20th Ward), a Cleveland alumnus, told the Board. "Future generations will benefit, or not, from the fiduciary decisions that you make."
Schmid toured the building Monday along with Ald. Dorothy Kirner (25th Ward), in whose ward the school resides, and three school board members. While conceding that he is not an engineer, he said that the damage he saw appeared to be the result of years of neglect.
"I know enough to say that anyone that tells you that this school should be closed before a detailed assessment is done, is wrong," he said.
Kirner also addressed the Board. "I cannot have that school closed. It's too dear to me," she said.
She said that the community and the alumni are ready and willing to help. They just need to be told what the needs of the building are and how much needs to be raised.
Public comments came near the begining of the meeting. The decision on Cleveland came near the end of the three-hour session.
Board member Bill Purdy said that he felt that the board needed more information before they could make an informed decision. He said that the public also needed more time to ponder the options.
Purdy proposed at least one public meeting be held at the high school and that the public be allowed to tour the building to see for themselves the physical challenges facing the 93-year-old building.
Board member Peter Downs seconded Purdy's motion to table the decision until next month's meeting. The vote was 5-1. Only Ron Jackson voted against tabling the motion. Bob Archibald left the meeting before the vote.
The St. Louis Board of Education tonight voted to table a proposal to close Cleveland High School to allow time for more public debate. They also requested that Superintendent Creg Williams provide more details on what problems are facing the building and exactly where the students will be moved next year.
The vote was 5-1. Board member Ron Jackson voted against tabling the motion and board member Bob Archibald left the meeting before the vote.
Three members of the St. Louis school board and two city aldermen took it upon themselves to tour Cleveland NJROTC High School on the eve of a vote on whether to close the 93-year-old school.
Superintendent Creg Williams, who has proposed closing Cleveland and moving its students to Madison Elementary, took several representatives of the media on a tour of Cleveland last week. He did not, however, invite all the members of the board of education or the alderman representing the ward in which Cleveland is located.
A day before the board is scheduled to vote on Williams' request, board members Bill Purdy, Peter Downs and Donna Jones went to the high school to see for themselves the state of the "Old Castle."
The board members were joined by Aldermen Dorothy Kirner (25th Ward) and Craig Schmid (20th Ward). Schmid graduated from Cleveland in 1977. Kirner, whose ward the Cleveland is in, said she would like to see the school remain open -- or at the very least, not abandoned and left to further decay.
Click here to see more photos of Cleveland and of today's tour.
The St. Louis Board of Education will have its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 9, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Carr Lane School, 1004 N. Jefferson. Several hot topics will be on the agenda, including the closing of a high school and more than $9.5 million in spending.
As the Watchreported earlier, Superintendent Creg Williams has proposed closing Cleveland NJROTC High School. In an administrative meeting last week, Williams suggested moving the students to Madison School. Many have wondered just how the superintendent plans to squeeze Cleveland's nearly 800 students into Madison's building.
There are also question about what will happen to Cleveland's ROTC program. There are rumors of it being moved to McKinley Classical Jr. Academy. If that's true, what happens to the successful academic program at McKinley? No doubt many people attending Tuesday's meeting will be looking for answers to these questions.
Also on the agenda is a proposal to spend up to $325,000 to build out offices and cubicles on the second and third floors of the district's administrative building located at 801 N. 11th Street. The superintendent told board members that it is a necessary part of his plan to consolidate several district services downtown.
In addition to moving special education counseling services, which require a certain measure of privacy, Williams also plans to move employees of building maintenance contractor Sodexho and several food service personnel. Some question the longterm effects of the latter two moves.
Some board members have recently expressed a desire to move away from subcontracted services back toward in-house maintenance and food service. Moving these divisions downtown may clear the way for reassigning, or even selling, their current bases of operation. That would make it more difficult to go back to the old way of doing things.
Other big ticket items on the agenda include: an amended $2.5 million contract with Kwame Building Group to manage several contruction contracts for the district. The Board voted down a similar contract last month. This version of the contract is basically identical except it is for half the term (only one year) and for half as much.
The board will also be asked to approve $3 million for replacement of textbooks; nearly $700,000 for laptop computers for 26 schools; $300,000 for library books; $255,000 for new science lab equipment; $65,000 for Palm Pilots from OfficeMax to be used for "literacy programs;" and $465,000 in professional development for the district's 90+ curriculum coaches (all of whom were recently asked to reapply for their jobs).
The following letter appeared in the May 3 edition of the Post-Dispatch:
Criticism is Unwarranted Over Teacher Absences
As members of the St. Louis Board of Education, we are concerned deeply that Superintendent Creg Williams' unwarranted attack on teachers will cripple our efforts to educate the children of St. Louis ("Teachers have to show up, too. The absentee rate is unacceptable," April 27).
Children need teachers in order to learn. The St. Louis School District long has had trouble attracting qualified teachers to teach our children. At the last school board meeting, we voted to reorganize four schools where shortages of qualified teachers had doomed the students to low scores on state tests. As many as 40 percent of the teaching slots at those schools had to be filled with substitute teachers because the school district could not attract enough qualified teachers to fill those positions permanently.
We believe negatively stereotyping teachers, which Dr. Williams did, will construct an image of the St. Louis Public Schools as a district that teachers should avoid. Dr. Williams' campaign would be ridiculous if not potentially damaging. He criticizes teachers for following orders to attend professional development seminars during class time. It was the superintendent, with school board approval, who scheduled the seminars during class time and made attendance mandatory. There is no excuse for that kind of criticism.
A previous school board stripped teachers of accumulated sick days, instituted the most restrictive time-off policy in the area and told teachers that if they did not use the time off available, they would lose it. If there is a problem with the policy, Dr. Williams should come to the board with proposals for changing the policy instead of criticizing those who follow it.
Dr. Williams is criticizing teachers for following policy. Such criticism is unwarranted and injurious to the district and efforts to attract the qualified teachers our children need and deserve.
SLPS Board Member Peter Downs SLPS Board Member Donna Jones SLPS Board Member William Purdy
Effective May 1, Antonio D. French has taken over as managing editor of St. Louis Schools Watch.
French, a former editor of the St. Louis Argus, has also covered education in north St. Louis County for the Suburban Journals. He also is publisher of PUB DEF Weekly, an alternative weekly covering St. Louis politics and government.
St. Louis Schools Watch is on the radio Wednesdays at 7 a.m. on The Lizz Brown Show on WGNU 920 AM. Programs are archived at www.whiterosesociety.org.
The next regular meeting of the St. Louis school board will be Tuesday, May 9, at 7 p.m. The meeting will be in the auditorium of Carr Lane School, 1004 N. Jefferson.
The brief tenure of former Chief Academic Officer Lynn "Spam" Spampinato continues to cause the St. Louis Public Schools heartburn.
Last Thursday, the district's 90+ curriculum coaches were all told that they have to reapply for their jobs. It turns out that federal regulations require them to have certification in reading and math if they are getting paid with Title 1 funds, and many of them don't.
It turns out that Spampinato never lived up to the agreement that let the school district use federal Title 1 funds to pay the salaries of curriculum coaches. The funds are supposed to be used for programs to improve the performance of disadvantages students in reading and math.
Now the school district is under the gun to fix the problem or risk having to repay the misused money.
The Election Was Just the Beginning. School board member Donna Jones wants your help, and she wants you to have fun, too.
Jones, is throwing a party to thank everyone who supported her in the school board election -- and to ask them to get involved today with helping to turn around our public schools.
The party is this Friday, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., at the Carpenters' Building at 1401 S. Hampton.
After weeks of rumors, the St. Louis Board of Education has placed a resolution on the agenda of next week's regular meeting to close Cleveland JROTC Academy.
At an administrative meeting tonight, Superintendent Creg Williams told board members and the public that the conditions at Cleveland have become unbearable for students. He showed photos of exposed electrical outlets, peeling paint and deteriorating brickwork.
"Everyday we allow our children to be educated in this environment is detrimental to those students," said Williams.
The district's plan would call for moving the students to Madison School, located downtown on 7th Street.
Ald. Dorothy Kirner (25th Ward), in whose ward Cleveland resides, addressed the board briefly. She said the school was an anchor for her southside community and closing the school would be "really tough."
Board member Bill Purdy, who had expressed doubts about the move, said that Williams made a compelling case.
Williams said that the building would need $15 million to repair and another $7 million to remodel. The whole school could be rebuilt for $2 million less, according to the superintendent's figures.
He spoke to Purdy and Kirner's concerns by pledging that the building would not be abandoned.
"I'm not saying close it, board it up," said Williams. "I think that would be devastating to that community."
He said that the district would examine alternative uses of the building, including putting it up for sale.
The St. Louis Board of Education will hold a special board "study session" and an administrative board meeting on Tuesday, May 2, at its administrative center, 801 N. 11th Street.
The public meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. Prior to the open meeting, the Board will hold a closed executive session meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the Foundation Room.
For just about everyone else, the debate is about SLPS moving to close Cleveland High -- without a clear plan for what to do with its students, or the building.
