By Antonio D. French
Filed Friday, May 19 at 5:57 AM
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.
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.
5 Comments:
"School officials are scrabbling to fix the overcrowding problem"???
What is "scrabbling?" A Scrabble tournament?
Friday, May 19, 2006 8:57:00 AM
That's called a "typo." Thanks for pointing it out. My high school English teacher would also like to thank you.
Friday, May 19, 2006 12:08:00 PM
How very interesting ... SLU gets a real deal on Warring School and now it is ready to help Metro. Does this also mean that public tax monies will pay tuition at the Jesuit SLU?
Is there either an accountant or an ethicist out there?
Friday, May 19, 2006 9:37:00 PM
Let's look at the point of school. (I know this may seem a bit simplistic, but it's real.) The point is to give our children an education that prepares them for life. The high schools in our city have issues with accomplishing that. Studies (and my personal experience...though anyone who doesn't know me may dismiss that) show that students do better in smaller schools. (Cotton, Kathleen. School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance, for one)
Children are very socially and emotionally fragile in their teenage years. They need to have personal support for developing into healthy, happy and productive citizens. You simply can't do that in an assembly line, impersonal group of hundreds.
There's a lot of debate as to what is the perfect optimum size of a school. I suggest that the answer is influenced by the age and previous success of the students. I suspect that this school could be successful for it's students if the population were kept at about 250 - 350.
So what's important, the students or the money?
Sunday, May 21, 2006 7:42:00 AM
The suggestion to "fix" the problem by reducing freshmen enrollment to only 50 kids per year for a couple of years is completely unethical.
Those enrollment numbers wouldn't even cover the qualified McKinley students who are supposed to have continuity priority. Students who were promised the opportunity to attend Metro would be denied that chance because in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 several dozens of students who were NOT promised that continuity were admitted--thanks to Williams' refusal to listen to Metro parents and administration until it was too late.
I certainly have a self interest in this matter. One son will be a junior at Metro this fall, the other will be a 7th grader at McKinley - a prime target for getting squeezed out of a Metro spot.
Monday, May 22, 2006 10:58:00 AM
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