ST. LOUIS — The state board of education will take up the increasingly contentious topic of new charter schools Tuesday while facing a lawsuit over a proposed high school in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Believe STL Academy resubmitted its application to the state after the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools board sued the charter school for failing to notify the district of its intent to open in fall 2024, according to the lawsuit filed last month that also names the Missouri State Charter School Commission and the Missouri State Board of Education.
The state board approved the school’s application in October and will vote again Tuesday on the school’s revised application that includes a notification to SLPS.
“As a former SLPS educator and graduate returning home to serve families that increasingly demand a high-quality school for their children, I am eager to work with the district and community partners in ºüÀêÊÓƵ committed to ensuring children have access to our proven college and career preparation curriculum,†said Kimberly Neal-Brannum, executive director of Believe, in a statement Monday.
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The proposed school has spurred new opposition to charters in the city, where a group of public school educators, alumni, parents and labor organizers held a protest Monday outside the Delmar Divine mixed-use building that houses the Opportunity Trust, funder of Believe and other charter schools.
There are too many schools for a dwindling number of students in the city, said speakers including Gloria Nolan, parent liaison for SLPS. The city has 19 SLPS or charter high schools with an average enrollment of 384. By comparison, districts in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County with similar student enrollment, including Hazelwood, Parkway and Rockwood, have three or four high schools with an average of 1,500 students each.
“We are here to let the people know that more school choice will not save our most vulnerable students. School choice is a ploy to privatize public schools for profit,†Nolan said. “Our important work is to preserve democratically run public education by fighting against the expansion and opening of any new charter schools, starting with Believe STL Academy.â€
Believe school expects to have 440 students in ninth through 12th grades by 2027, according to its application. The school is an expansion of Believe Circle City high school in Indianapolis, which Neal-Brannum opened in fall of 2020. The average GPA at the school last year was 2.3, and more than 10% of students were suspended for fighting, according to .
Charter schools are publicly funded but operated by nonprofit boards. In Missouri, charter schools can open in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and Kansas City and in school districts that are continually underperforming.
Charters have had a mixed record since they first opened in ºüÀêÊÓƵ in 2000 with a goal of improving student performance and keeping families in the city. More than half of the 37 charter school operators that came to the city have folded due to financial or academic failures, including La Salle and Hawthorn schools this year. A new elementary charter school, Voices Academy, opened in downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ in August.
In the past three decades, 85 public schools opened and 104 schools closed in the city. As the student population has shrunk, the total number of schools has grown, creating a “chaotic and dysfunctional†educational system, said Dorothy Rohde Collins, former president of the SLPS board and co-author of a from the ºüÀêÊÓƵ University Prime Center.
In 1991, there were 14 district or charter high schools in the city for 9,962 students, according to the report. This year, there are 19 high schools for 7,288 students.
Enrollment in kindergarten through high school has declined by 400 students in charter schools and nearly 3,000 students in SLPS since fall of 2019.
“We’re in a situation where we have made the public education system in ºüÀêÊÓƵ so complicated that we are seeing people opting out of the city completely,†Rohde Collins said. “What we need to do is be strategic. How do we design a school system for the city we have now? We cannot do that by just opening new schools.â€
Students in ºüÀêÊÓƵ are missing out on fine arts, sports, foreign language and advanced courses that are offered in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County districts of similar size and demographics, parents said.
Most public high school graduates in the city do not meet the basic requirements for admission to the University of Missouri, including a minimum ACT score of 17 along with four years of advanced math and English, three years of science, two years of foreign language and one year of fine arts.
“We have so many needs in SLPS, what we don’t need are new schools,†said Tracy Spies, co-chair of the SLPS parent action council, at the protest Monday. “There are not enough kids to fill the schools we already have.â€
Josh Renaud of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.