By Antonio D. French
Filed Friday, May 19, 2006 at 8:00 AM
PUB DEF/SLS WATCH EXCLUSIVE
School officials are scrambling to fix the overcrowding problem that may threaten the district's most praised academic program.
From our sister site, STLSchools.org, home of the St. Louis Schools Watch:
Sources tell the Watch that officials from St. Louis Public Schools met with representatives from St. Louis University on Thursday to try to find a solution to the overcrowding problem that has resulted from Superintendent Creg Williams' controversial move to again increase the size of the freshman class at Metro High School.
Dr. Williams decided to admit 130 freshmen into Metro for the 2006-2007 school year, instead of the normal 75 students, raising enrollment to 380 total students. The school's enrollment had already been expanded this year by 25 students, to nearly 300.
For months, Dr. Williams has claimed the school could hold over 500 students. But the Watch has learned that two weeks ago, in a meeting with the executive board of the schools Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), Williams admitted that the original building plans and later facility assessments show the building has the capacity to house only 250-275 students.
"We have a problem," sources say Williams told the PTO board. He said the school does not have room for all the students who have been assigned there next year.
Williams asked the parents for help to solve the problem. He suggested that if they could just get through the next year, he could reduce freshmen enrollment to only 50 students in each of the following years to relieve the overcrowding.
One parent suggested that administrators contact nearby SLU to see if the district could teach some courses in University classrooms next year to relieve the overcrowding at Metro.
Administrators followed up on the parent suggestion and on Thursday a SLPS contingent that included Clive Coleman, the official in charge of public high school in St. Louis, met with SLU representatives, including Vice President for Community Relations Julius Hunter.
Keep up with what's going on with St. Louis City's public schools at PUB DEF's sister site, STLSchools.org.
2 Comments:
What happened to the idea of starting a "sister Metro". A couple years ago there was talk of opening another Metro to expand on the success of the current one. While I had some misgivings about it being a poor stepchild or having to go through several years of development to bring it up to the caliber of Metro, it looked like an opportunity to try to duplicate something that is really working for our district.
This is of major concern to me as a parent of a seventh grader who has been working to get into Metro in the 2007-2008 year. Suddenly reducing the number of openings could squeeze a bunch of kids out who don't deserve to be.
Plus I wonder about the numbers after freshman year. My understanding is that the size of sophomore and junior classes greatly diminish as kids who find the school is not for them or even too challenging go elsewhere. Is this being taken into account or for granted?
This is a very big deal and MUST be handled right.
5/19/2006 11:07 AM
Odd that there is overcrowding in the district just at the time when the School Board is fighting too-and-nail to close other city schools, such as Cleveland.
5/21/2006 1:57 AM
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