Rick Sullivan, the CEO of St. Louis Public Schools, appointed by then-Gov. Matt Blunt
The Special Administrative Board of the St. Louis Public Schools will hear recommendations by MGT of America, Inc. on the future use of district schools during the board meeting on Thursday, January 29, 6:00 p.m., at Vashon High School, 3035 Cass Ave.
All community members are invited to attend this open meeting to hear this much-anticipated report firsthand. However, due to the anticipated length of the MGT presentation, there will be no public comments taken at this meeting.
The District will hold two special community forums for public comments – Wednesday, February 4, from 6:00p.m. – 8:00p.m. at Roosevelt High School, 3230 Hartford St., and Saturday February 7, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Vashon High School, 3035 Cass Ave.
Public comments may also be submitted via the Internet starting Friday, January 30, by visiting www.slps.org. The District will accept comments on the MGT presentation via the Internet through February 8.
For more information, please call 314-345-2367.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:10 PM
Hmm, a completely separate forum for feedback only? That strikes me as counterproductive – then you only get the people who can make time for two different evenings, or from people who didn’t even attend the presentation.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:22 PM
One week seems insufficient for submission of comments.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:27 PM
What’s the status of Cleveland?
January 27th, 2009 at 4:36 PM
I think it is ill-advisable for the SAB to hold these meetings so close to election time. But then again, maybe they feel they need to cause as much damage as they can while they are still here?
I hope Rick Sullivan is booted by Nixon. I heard he was lobbying hard to keep his job in Jeff City.
Mr. Allen, have you been to a SAB meeting? They know what will happen if they let the public have any meaningful input!
Doug, I think Cleveland is kind of in limbo. However, there have been whispers about using deseg funds to renovate it into a “green” building. Guess we’ll wait and see?
January 27th, 2009 at 4:48 PM
TF, it seems ironic that they would seek to keep public input out, except for one week later. I mean, the majority of the people who will likely be committed enough to go to the feedback meeting will probably be those most angry about the situation.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:54 AM
I think you’re starting to see what we’re dealing with here, Clark.
February 14th, 2009 at 9:47 AM
The Tower Grove South neighborhood is holding a public meeting at Mann Elementary, 4047 Juniata, one of the neighborhood schools the shortsighted, unimaginative consultants’ Report Review proposes to close and consolidate. We would love for you, Antonio, to be in attendance. All are welcome, the more the merrier!
Andrew Gondzur
39xx Conn
Andrew Gondzur, TGS Block Captains Coordinator
TGS Block Captains Meetings are open to ALL
You do NOT need to be a block captain to attend
Meetings are on the LAST Monday of the month
7:00 p.m.,
Tower Grove South = Grand->Arsenal->Kingshighway->Chippewa
http://towergrovesouth.org/
February 20th, 2009 at 1:36 AM
Peter Downs is so automatically dismissed by so many people—it is a shame, because he brings a lot of truth:
A Failed Policy, A Flawed Report February 19, 2009
MGT of America’s final report on St. Louis Public Schools paints a grim picture of a failed education policy. But when it comes to telling what to do next, MGT’s assessments of current facilities are so flawed as to be
worthless.
That was the conclusion of the elected St. Louis Board of Education, a conclusion that the school board relayed to the state’s appointed board (SAB) and its members. MGT is the highly paid consulting firm that the SAB selected to reassess facilities for at least the third time in five years.
MGT revealed in its report just how disastrous the mayor’s “school choice” policy has been, although perhaps it did so unwittingly. MGT showed that by 2002, enrollment in St. Louis Public Schools had stabilized and even increased that year. In 2003, Mayor Slay’s handpicked slate of school choice
advocates got control of the school board. As they began their self-styled program of “dramatic change” to promote charter schools and re-form public schools along a business model, enrollment began to plummet.
MGT reported that since 2002, enrollment in St. Louis Public Schools has dropped 37 percent for a loss of 15,300 students. Catholic schools got hurt in the stampede, losing 20 percent of their students, more than 2,000 in number, as families fled from the destruction of city schools.
Yet, fleeing students mainly did not go to charter schools. MGT reported that during the time that public and parochial schools were losing about 17,500 students, charter schools picked up only 1,500 of them. Robbyn Wahby, Mayor Slay’s education liaison, has referred to the discrepancy between charter school enrollments and falling public and parochial school enrollments as “missing students.” Where did the other 16,000 go?
MGT gave a clue as to what happened. Following the estimates of the U.S. Census Bureau, they reported that during the eight years of the Slay administration, the population of school-age children, women, and African Americans in the city fell. Masking that decline in the total population figures was a large increase in the population of whites, especially men, aged 55-65.
In other words, the “missing students” and their families probably just left the city. In the face of a policy of running down public schools and promoting charter “choice,” thousands of families simply said “no” and moved out destabilizing neighborhoods and possibly the whole city. One shouldn’t blame families for leaving, however, one should blame the policy that forced them to leave. (By almost any measure, 2002 was a watershed year. Student performance had been increasing steadily for several years, the district was
nearing full accreditation, the dropout rate was way down, and enrollment was increasing. After 2003,however, everything fell apart.)
So, what should be done?
MGT, of course, never blames Slay or his policies for the collapse of St. Louis Public Schools. On the contrary, they are full of compliments for Slay, whose staff acted as minders of MGT and accompanied them on all their visits. Instead, they recommended closing more schools, 27 in total. Mayor Slay and a handful of charter school advocates have embraced that recommendation and called for turning closed schools into the kinds of schools that few people want charter schools.
Over a month ago, the elected school board approved a resolution calling for a new policy: a partnership of the city, State, and school district to create community schools that will strengthen communities and provide more than education services within their doors. Since then other organizations, such as AFT Local 420 and the American Institute of Architects, have added their voices to the call for community schools. Although the details of their proposals differ, they share the common idea that schools are essential anchors of communities and partnerships between government agencies and public/private partnerships that increase the services offered in school buildings can help keep school buildings open and keep communities alive.
MGT estimated that the renovations to accommodate moving all the programs and students it recommends moving could cost in excess of $387 million. Presumably, the SAB would ask city voters to approve a tax increase to pay for a bond to pay those costs. The savings in operating costs to the district if it follows all of MGT’s recommendations, however, would come to only $23 million a year. Including interest on the bond in the costs, it could take decades for the expected savings to pay for the cost of implementing MGT’s recommendations. Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to close schools and move students and programs, why not spend it on keeping schools open and strengthening their communities? Peter Downs
President, St. Louis Board of Education
pdowns@speakeasy.net
February 20th, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Dusan Turk agrees with Downs on the 22 million dollar a year savings, which will require 387 million a year to implement. They are not the same person, are they?
One Clear Message “Don’t Close Our Schools!”By Susan Turk February 10, 2008–St. Louis–During the past week, two public meetings have been held at which the message has been consistently clear. Given three minute segments to speak their minds, parents, students, teachers, alumni and citizens of the City of St. Louis repeatedly told SAB Members Rick Sullivan, Melanie Adams and Richard Gaines that they do not want their schools closed. The Comprehensive Facilities Review which was unveiled on January 29th has been overwhelmingly rejected by the community. Between the two meetings, which were held to gather public comments on the plan, Wednesday, February 4 at Roosevelt HS and Saturday February 7 at Vashon HS, close to 1000 people attended and 192 people spoke. It must have been quite an eye opener for the appointed SAB members. Their own bi-monthly meetings which, are held at the administration building downtown, are sparsely attended. Consequently, they do not hear from the public as often as the elected board, which met in Carr Lane VPA’s auditorium when they were in power, did. The SAB public forums were scheduled to last 2 hours but both exceeded 4 hours in length. SAB Member Richard Gaines moderated the meetings. He stated that MGT’s Facilities Review was, “not a done deal…. No decision has been made yet.” He said they were, “open to your plans,” if audience members have alternative proposals. But he insisted, as he has for some time, that “We agree (meaning the SAB members) on the responsibility to right size the schools because of a $36 million budget shortfall and 10 years of declining enrollment.” He said they intend to use our resources more effectively. The SAB plans to vote on the facilities plan at their March 12 meeting. Before then they will collect proposals from groups with plans for programs or neighborhoods which want to buy schools. They held a work session on Tuesday, February 17 to go over all the public comments and alternate proposals submitted by that time. Neighborhood groups were still emailing proposals to save their schools to SAB members on Tuesday. After reviewing all the community input, SLPS Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams will present revised recommendations to the SAB at their February 26 meeting. This meeting has been relocated to the Gateway School complex at 1200 North Jefferson to accommodate public interest. The SAB also held a work session on Thursday, February 5, at which they discussed the estimated annual savings if they decided to follow the MGT plan in full. The full amount of the estimated saving is $22,198,752. They estimate an additional $3 million saved in transportation costs. So, implementation of the plan will not erase the entire $36 million budget shortfall. At their February 5 work session, SAB Member Richard Gaines remarked that they could distill the comments made by the 98 speakers who addressed them the previous evening at Roosevelt into 10-15 concerns. ON February 10 meeting, the Board of Education reviewed MGT’s recommendations. They noted that given the $387 million cost of implementing the plan, it would take nearly 20 years to justify the annual $22 million in savings.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:02 PM
oops—it is Susam, not Dusan, not sure if it is 22 or 23 million, but it is 387 million over a lot of years to implement.
(just testing to see if anyone was paying attention).
January 9th, 2010 at 1:28 AM
All community members are invited to attend this open meeting to hear this much-anticipated report firsthand. However, due to the anticipated length of the MGT presentation, there will be no public comments taken at this meeting.
January 26th, 2010 at 4:43 AM
Over a month ago, the elected school board approved a resolution calling for a new policy: a partnership of the city, State, and school district to create community schools that will strengthen communities and provide more than education services within their doors. Since then other organizations,