A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Sharon A. Dolan Records Center Supv./Archivist

The first Public Schools in St. Louis opened in 1838 with an enrollment of 175 pupils. From 1840 to 1850, the population in St. Louis more than quadrupled, so that by 1860, the city had twenty-three elementary schools, plus a new high school. By the end of the 1860-61 school year, the enrollment was 12,166; school closed six weeks early that year due to a lack of operating funds and the outbreak of the Civil War.

The St. Louis Public High School, later known as Central High, opened in 1853, and was the first public high school west of the Mississippi; the St. Louis Public Schools also opened the first public high school for Black students west of the Mississippi, Sumner High School, in 1875.

St. Louis Public Schools also opened the first public Kindergarten in North America in 1873 under the direction of William Torrey Harris, then Superintendent of Schools, and Miss Susan Blow, who had studied the methods of Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten system.

By the turn of the century (1900), the population in St. Louis was 575,238. Public school enrollment was 62,797, employing 1,665 teachers in ninety schools.

Another St. Louis 'first' was the Educational Museum, which featured articles purchased from the 1904 World's Fair Palace of Education. The Museum opened in 1905 and later (1943) evolved into the first audiovisual department in the United States.

The public schools continued to grow with the city, opening special 'Open Air' schools for children at risk for tuberculosis, schools for deaf children and those needing individualized instruction, as well as children with orthopedic disabilities.

The first vocational school had opened in 1868, with two more opening in the 1920's.

During the Great Depression of the 1930's, special programs such as free milk and lunches, and sewing classes were established to help families and conserve resources; teacher salaries were reduced, construction was postponed, and class sizes were increased.

Students aided the War effort during both World War I and World War II by knitting scarves and socks for soldiers, raising poultry, cultivating Victory Gardens, collecting scrap metal, and buying war stamps.

By the 1950's a number of new schools were built to ease overcrowding, and in the 1960's, more attention was given to meeting the challenges of urban schools, including racial equality, poverty, overcrowded classrooms, and deteriorating school buildings. St. Louis Public Schools attained its peak enrollment of 115,543 students in 1967.

Since then, efforts have focused on programs such as magnet schools and the Voluntary Interdistrict Transfer Program which were initiated to provide students with the opportunity to attend racially mixed schools.

Current enrollment (2006-2007) is 32,833 pupils in 93 schools under the leadership of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Diana Bourisaw.