ST. LOUIS — 5 On Your Side is learning more about the state of the St. Louis Public School District just days away from the first day of the 2024-25 school year.
On Tuesday, the St. Louis Public School Board of Education met for the first time since Superintendent Keisha Scarlett was placed on a temporary leave of absence.
We didn't hear anything about the superintendent situation in the meeting, but Interim Superintendent Millicent Borishade was there and made several statements. In our previous reporting, the district and SLPS Board of Education President Toni Cousins said they cannot discuss it because it is a "personnel matter."
Cousins started Tuesday night's meeting by responding to criticism and firmly stating she will not be resigning despite several calls for her to step down.
“Instead of working in silos, we have to come together and work together," Cousins said. "We cannot continue to fight, attack and use things for personal gain that doesn't take the city or the district to any other different level but low."
Cousins spoke directly to the crowd, saying the voters had control of who sat on the board and put her in the president’s seat.
“When we came on we had the opportunity to show people what democracy looked like. We were voted in by the people. Once we were voted in, we had to start making changes,” Cousins said.
Budget concerns
The SLPS Chief Financial Officer Angie Banks clarified budget numbers Tuesday night. She said going from a $17 million surplus to $35 million deficit are projections and proposals and not solidified. Banks said with the current state of the rainy day fund, they are not at all concerned about those numbers.
“We have planned deficit spending this year and next year," Banks said. "We know we've given some big raises, so if we're going to get back to a balance budget that means some belt-tightening and some hard decisions."
Banks said there were several reasons for the planned deficit, including competitive compensation for faculty and staff, transportation, new initiatives and internal capacity building.
“When we talked about the internal capacity building, that is really referencing that we have a lot of contracts, and we’re really looking to have our internal staff do a lot of the work that currently contractors are doing,” Banks said.
In a recent efficiency study, it stated it would cost $1.8 billion to get all of the district buildings into "good shape." Banks said at this point, the efficiency study said the district would need to close 20 buildings to be properly sized based on enrollment.
“We need more families in the district,” Banks said.
Audits
The Missouri State Auditor’s Office made a formal presentation to the board regarding the state audit called by St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.
Kelly Davis with the Missouri State Auditor’s Office explained what this process will look like. It will start with field work where state staff will conduct some surveys and get a broader understanding of the district. The auditors will then bring findings to the district staff to allow for comments and more details. They will draft the full audit report, bring it to the board and allow the district to respond. The last step will be a review and final signature.
Davis said their goals are to look at internal controls, overall efficiency and compliance with legal provisions. The entire audit is of no cost to the district, and Davis said they plan to work with the private auditor called for by the mayor as well.
Transportation
Transportation has been a big issue. After the previous vendor canceled its contract early, the Board of Education adopted an emergency transportation plan. In that initial emergency plan, the district would be relying on about 19 different vendors to get students to and from school.
SLPS Chief Operations Officer Square Watson said the district is busy ensuring all students will arrive at school safely.
Here are the latest numbers provided by Watson:
- 6,400 students will use yellow buses.
- 6,200 students will use vans, sedans, cabs and SUVs.
- 1,446 students will use public transit. All information students and families need to know is available on Metro Transit's website.
Watson said Metro, Bi-State Development, has been very supportive, especially regarding safety concerns.
“Metro has been committed to provide some visibility by patrolling routes. They also have security that will be monitoring routes during the service hours,” Watson said.
Watson said all of the vans and other vehicles used for student transportation will have clear decals and a number in the window to let parents know their child is being picked up by the right vehicle.
“They will be going door to door in some cases," Watson said. "They will be picking up students from their homes. We have about five companies that will be providing car seats or booster seats. By law, we don’t have to provide booster seats or car seats, but we are."
Currently, they have 47 bus stops that need a volunteer to make sure children are safe. So far, Watson said they have 20 volunteers.
“Is it going to look ugly? Yes," Watson said. "We got lemons, and we are making lemonade. And our goal is to make sure on Aug. 19, we are going to provide transportation through all of the modes."
He also asked parents and families to update their contact information and addresses as it is very important because of intricate transportation issues.
Important contact information regarding transportation:
- Customer service: 314-633-5107, slpstrans@slps.org.
- Security: 314-865-2020.
Before- and after-care
A district representative also released more information about the before- and after-care programs.
A slide presentation at the meeting highlighted these key points:
- All elementary schools will have both before- and after-care programming; the number of slots for each school site was based on previously offered programming. All new sites were provided with a minimum of 15 slots.
- Programs are a combination of SLPS-funded, 215 Century Grant-funded, partner-sponsored and paid programming.
- Families are responsible for transporting their students to and from before and after care programming
- Online registration survey opened on Aug. 6.
- Programming will launch on the first day of school and last until the last day of school.
For additional information, you can visit the district's website here.