St. Louis Public Schools Responds to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

(ST. LOUIS) The Superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools has submitted written information to the State Board of Education questioning its decision to remove the district’s accreditation effective June 15, 2007. (Included in the information is a presentation of materials of appeal, a copy of which is attached.)

This presentation explains why the State Board’s determination that the District is unaccredited is unlawful, arbitrary and capricious.

The presentation explains that:

The District met sufficient resource and process standards as well as six performance standards to be provisionally accredited;

There is no valid rule which establishes the MSIP criteria being used to unaccredit the District;

The State Board acted arbitrarily and capriciously in applying standards to the District because the same consideration and actions have not and are not applied to other similarly situated Missouri School Districts;

The current financial condition of the District is not a basis to change its accreditation status “off cycle;”

The action taken by DESE and the State Board is unconstitutional;

There are many uncertainties and ambiguities relating to the Transitional School District statute.