A key education organization is attempting to galvanize support around a proposal that school superintendents hope could sidestep a thorny state statute that has allowed 2,200 students to transfer from unaccredited school districts.
The proposal by the Missouri Association of School Administrators seeks to render that statute moot by proposing a complete overhaul of the way Missouri rates its 520 school districts.
Under the proposal, failing systems would no longer be rated “unaccredited” but “academically stressed.”
Dropping any reference to unaccredited school systems could defuse the student transfer situation.
That’s because the statute that authorizes such transfers applies only to children living in unaccredited districts, such as Normandy and Riverview Gardens.
But supporters of the plan say it is as much about transforming the state’s approach to struggling schools as it is about stopping the school transfers.
“It’s a proactive effort, not a reactive effort,” said Mehlville Superintendent Eric Knost, one of about 25 superintendents from the St. Louis and Kansas City areas who helped write the plan. “It’s an attempt to get out in front of issues at school districts that are headed in the wrong direction.”
The proposed four-tiered model of accreditation would offer more help to troubled districts much sooner — a drastic departure from how the state currently addresses struggling schools. Last week, Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis — an umbrella organization that oversaw the transfer process — drafted a more detailed position paper that builds on the framework.
Under the proposed system, Missouri education officials would intervene as soon as a district slips into the provisionally accredited range. This designation is given only after a district scores between 50 percent and 69 percent of available points in its annual performance review.
In those districts, students in low-performing schools would be allowed to transfer to accredited schools within the same district, if they exist and if space allows. A state-appointed review group would develop improvement strategies for the district. Eleven districts in the state have this status.
The hope is that additional support would stop their decline. A district that slips even further would be deemed academically stressed. The Missouri education commissioner would review the district, and potentially remove its school board, superintendent and teachers, and void all contracts. All unaccredited schools within that district would be assigned to an “Achievement School District” — a recovery district of sorts that would be charged with getting those schools back on track.
An academically stressed district that doesn’t improve after five years would lapse. The Missouri education department would assign students and district property to another school system.
The two-page position paper is part of a growing effort by school administrators to drive the conversation surrounding struggling schools, particularly in light of the transfer situation that has given children the chance at better schools elsewhere, but at the expense of those who remain in Normandy and Riverview Gardens schools.
Superintendents throughout the St. Louis area have stated their opposition to further school transfers, saying that moving students around the region does nothing to help struggling schools and districts get better.
Under the law, children in unaccredited districts may transfer to higher performing schools at their home district’s expense. Last month, the Normandy School Board approved $3.5 million in budget cuts to offset the $15 million in transfer expenses. They also voted to stop making tuition payments, even though the state has assured receiving districts it will withhold Normandy’s state funding and make the payments if the district falls two months behind.
About 3,000 students remain in the district. Unless it gets $6.8 million in additional funds from the state, the district is expected to go bankrupt by spring.
“It’s almost a point of no return for a school district,” said Paul Ziegler, superintendent of the Northwest School District in Jefferson County, and president of the Missouri Association of School Administrators. “Financially, it’s unsustainable.”
Riverview Gardens has a larger reserve fund than Normandy and can afford to finish the year.
The association supports allowing current transfer students to remain in their new schools.
On Monday, the Missouri education department will hold its first of two hearings to discuss the accreditation status and options for Normandy.
Members of the school administrators organization are hoping to avoid relying on the Legislature to change the law. Rules concerning accreditation are set by the education department, they point out. Changing them as the association has proposed may involve no more than a vote from the Missouri Board of Education.
In the past, efforts to alter the statute have resulted in a broader and more contentious debate about school choice. Lawmakers who advocate a fuller implementation of the law want it to include tax credit scholarships for parents who send their children to private schools. As a result, attempts to change the law have stalled. The school administrators association will be trying to garner support for its proposal in all corners of the state.
“This is such a hot political issue right now that anything that moves ahead is going to have to have a broad base of support,” Ziegler said. “There’s a lot of interest in how we’re going manage the system moving forward.”
