FACILITY RECONFIGURATIONS, PROGRAM EXPANSIONS, AND BUILDING CLOSURES RECOMMENDED TO BOARD COMMITTEE

Public forums to be scheduled in early March

St. Louis – An ad hoc committee of the St. Louis Board of Education heard preliminary recommendations from school administration on possible facility reconfigurations and building closures for the 2007/2008 school year.

“We have tough decisions to make,” said Deanna Anderson, interim Chief Operating Officer of the St. Louis Public Schools. “But what is clear is that we have too many facilities to house a declining student population,” she added.

The preliminary recommendations include the expansion of some school programs, including:

· the gradual increase of students at the popular McKinley Classical Junior Academy. By the 2008/2009 school year, McKinley would become a school for gifted students in grades 6 through 12;

· increased offerings at Clyde C. Miller Career Academy;

· a new early childhood center located at the recently closed Meda P. Washington facility;

· a merging of the District’s three international studies magnet programs resulting in additional students at both Soldan High School and Dewey Elementary.

The early plan also calls for students at several schools to be relocated to other facilities, including Madison Alternative, Kottmeyer Elementary, and Bunche Middle. Three buildings – Humboldt and Webster middle schools and the current Euclid Montessori building – would be closed under the proposal.

Public hearings on the proposals will be announced in the coming days.

NOTE: ATTACHED IS AN OVERVIEW OF THE PRELIMINARY RECOMMENDATIONS