Earlier this week, the Board of Education voted to close seven* schools:
• Clay Elementary
• Dunbar Elementary
• Farragut Elementary
• Ford Elementary
• Fanning Middle School
• Northwest Academy of Law
• Cleveland NJROTC Academy
• Convert Carnahan from a high school into a middle school
• Delay a decision on closing Sumner high school until March 2021
* The proposed closure list had originally also recommended Hickey, Monroe, and Sumner for closure and was a consent agenda item (12-15-20-01).
After fielding constituent calls/texts until nearly midnight after the meeting, and reviewing every comment on the SLPS YouTube channel livestream, it became clear that the Board did not go about this vote via the most efficient path and that there is some confusion surrounding the procedure and the vote itself. Here is what happened and how.
The original consent agenda item stated:
(12-15-20-01) Approval and to adopt the Superintendent’s 2020-2021 Consolidation and Closure Proposed School Action recommendations based on Transformation Plan 3.0, which includes the consolidation of schools: Clay, Cleveland, Dunbar, Fanning, Farragut, Ford, Hickey, Monroe, Northwest, Sumner, and Carnahan [for the 2021-2022 school year]
An amendment to the original motion to approve Item 12-15-20-01 was offered to remove the names Hickey and Monroe and to delay the decision on Sumner until March 2021.
The amendment received no second, and therefore could not be voted upon.
Another amendment was offered which would remove the names Hickey and Monroe, delay the decision on Sumner until March 2021, and add these three action items to the motion above:
• Pass an aldermanic resolution on a moratorium on any new schools until there is a city-wide plan
• Create a plan to address TIFs and tax abatements
• Collaborate with the new mayor to create a city wide plan for schools and implement it by Fall 2021
I had two concerns with the proposal to obtain a moratorium on new schools (effectively, charter schools):
1. Alderpersons have no actual direct authority over charter schools; this is something that requires action by the state legislature.
2. Even if alderpersons had authority over charter schools, an aldermanic resolution is non-binding and wouldn’t result in an actual moratorium, and there’s no guarantee the Board of Aldermen would even pass such a resolution, simply because the school board requested it.
I proposed a motion to add a fourth action item which would instruct our District’s lobbyist to contact state legislators directly to push for legislation that would institute a moratorium on new charter schools in urban districts until there is a city-wide plan to address education needs of all St. Louis students.
My amendment was not seconded, and therefore could not be voted upon.
At that point in the process, parliamentary procedure required that the main motion (as amended) on the table must be voted on. No further (main) motions—such as a motion to leave all schools open—could be proposed, unless this motion failed.
The full amended motion now read:
Approval and to adopt the Superintendent’s 2020-2021 Consolidation and Closure Proposed School Action recommendations based on Transformation Plan 3.0, which includes the consolidation of schools: Clay, Cleveland, Dunbar, Fanning, Farragut, Ford, Northwest, and Carnahan [for the 2021-2022 school year], to delay the decision on Sumner until March 2021, and to commit to the following three actions:
• Pass an aldermanic resolution on a moratorium on any new schools until there is a city-wide plan
• Create a plan to address TIFs and tax abatements
• Collaborate with the new mayor to create a city wide plan for schools and implement it by Fall 2021
Then the Board voted to approve the motion to make the proposed school changes and take the three recommended actions. The vote was 4-3, and the motion passed.
I voted NO.
I voted NO in the hope that the motion would fail, allowing the opportunity to offer alternative motions for consideration.
I agree that there are undoubtedly some schools on the list that are beyond saving. The students in these schools deserve the best SLPS can offer, and that includes upgrading them to a school building in better condition with more academic opportunities and services. However, the spirit and culture in some of the schools slated for closure in this vote are uniquely irreplaceable, and the impact of their closure is simply immeasurable to the students inside and the communities that surround them.
In my opinion, removing Hickey and Monroe from the closure list and delaying the decision on Sumner did not go far enough for our students—particularly northside students. If the motion to approve Item 12-15-20-01 had failed, I had hoped to propose a new motion which also included the concepts I have previously offered for discussion at public board meetings:
• Keep Dunbar Elementary open. Since before I was elected to the Board, a strong community of supporters have rallied around Dunbar. This elementary school, so near the NGA development site and SLPS Vashon High School, could remain a hopeful anchor for the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood as it looks optimistically toward an upswing, or possibly even dedicate some of its unused space to accommodate middle schoolers in the neighborhood.
• Keep Carnahan High School as high school, at least for now. In their emails to myself and other board members, Carnahan students have shared profound academic turnaround experiences. They feel strongly that it should remain a high school so that other high school students who come behind them may have the same inspirations and opportunities they have enjoyed.
• Commit to preserving the social justice programs and restorative justice practices unique to Northwest Academy of Law, even if the building itself is closed. As a trauma-informed school district which emphasizes equity, I believe we can find a way to offer Northwest’s curriculum to equip our students with the foundation they need to become effective advocates in the greater community beyond school grounds.
I appreciate the Superintendent and administrative staff who put in the time and research to compile data for the Board to consider as we weighed this decision. I thank and empathize with the teachers, staff, and families who suffered the anxiety of waiting for a final outcome while we delayed the decision an extra month. And I applaud the organizations, activists, elected officials, community members, and students who weighed in and offered concrete solutions and resources, whether it was early on in the process or up to the final hour.
With this difficult decision behind us, the Board must take concrete steps to ensure that we don’t find ourselves two years down the road, once again asking, “Which schools should we close?” To stay out of such a grim situation will require more than just the school board. Our neighborhood schools have suffered under years of disinvestment and neglect from the City and active attacks by the state legislature. It’s time for a true coordinated effort with City and State officials to address some of the underlying issues which got us to this point, such as:
- Millions of dollars of revenues diverted from our schools by unregulated TIF/tax abatements
- 12,000 untaxable properties held by the Land Reutilization Authority
- Unfairly assessed/enforced property taxes, particularly on the northside
- Unhealthy and combative competition with charter schools
- Over-policing of poverty
Public schools are always expected to absorb the trauma inflicted on our families by all other branches of government and society. I am eager to work with any and all other entities to address and eliminate the root causes of that trauma, and I once again call on any and all elected officials or community advocates who want to collaborate in that effort. Please continue the conversation or join in now so that we can save not only Sumner but all of our remaining Saint Louis Public Schools.
Link to live-streamed meeting video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuxcMP6jt6g