WELLSTON • Normandy High School students passed a gauntlet of alumni and civic leaders waving pompons, holding “Go Vikings!” signs and cheering from the sidewalk as the teens returned to class Monday.
It was a symbolic pep rally of sorts for the high schoolers, as well as all 3,000 or so children remaining in the unaccredited Normandy School District. About a fourth of the school system’s enrollment transferred this summer to higher performing schools under a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling.
But the supporters’ presence spoke to something much greater. They’ve always been with the Normandy district in spirit, they said, but now they were pledging to do anything they could to help it get back on track. The exodus of about 1,100 Normandy students to schools in 20 other districts this month came as a jolt. As a result, improving this north St. Louis County district has risen to a level of urgency in the 24 municipalities that feed into it.
“This woke up the whole community,” said Vinita Park Mayor James McGee, holding a sign.
“This is our school,” said Connie Taylor, a 1984 graduate who now lives in Hazelwood. “St. Louis city and county need to get rid of all the differences that divide us. We cannot allow there to be another failing school.”
To that point, a regional and statewide discussion is well under way about how to support struggling schools, and how to turn around entire school systems that have failed.
That discourse will continue today in Jefferson City as the Missouri Board of Education at its monthly meeting discusses the transfer situation and broader issues. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is looking to hire a firm to help design a different approach to provide children in struggling schools the kind of education that will allow them to thrive after graduation.
“That is not an easy thing to do,” Board President Peter F. Herschend of Branson said in an interview. “The way it has been done here before is OK. But we believe there is a better way ... . If I knew the answer, or if the department knew the answer, about what is the correct form of education management … we’d be already on it.”
This week, the department will release standardized test results and school district performance ratings for the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts, as well as school systems statewide. They will indicate how much work there is to be done in the most-troubled districts, which include Kansas City. The results also will signal whether the region’s two provisionally accredited districts — St. Louis Public Schools and Jennings — are improving or sliding toward unaccredited status.
State law allows students in unaccredited districts to transfer to higher-performing school systems at the expense of their home district. The law had been tied up in litigation for six years before the Missouri Supreme Court upheld it on June 11.
In Normandy, the estimated cost of tuition and transportation for transferring students this year is about $15 million of its $50.1 million operating budget. Superintendent Ty McNichols said budget adjustments, including staff reductions, will come after enrollment stabilizes in late September. Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro has predicted that the Normandy schools won’t have enough cash to finish the year. She has said she will ask the Legislature for additional money for the district when it approaches insolvency.
For now, McNichols said his focus is regaining accreditation. That will require laserlike attention on attendance and learning, he said.
“It starts with effective instruction and curriculum in the classroom,” McNichols said. “It starts with boosting morale of our staff and our students so they feel committed. It starts with having a clear plan, and by focusing on a few things and doing them well.”
There will be greater emphasis on literacy this year, McNichols said, as well as STEM education — short for science, technology, engineering and math.
McNichols started leading the district on July 1.
“Every situation that I’ve walked into has been tough,” he said. “I see this as a continuation of that process.”
‘I AM READY’
Nearby, parents and alumni chanted Viking cheers and clapped each time a student set foot on campus. Senior Makayla Smith, 17, gave her mother a high-five as she and her brother walked from the parking lot.
“I am ready,” Makayla said. “We want to make a fool out of what’s been said of our school.”
Other returning students talked of friends who won’t be there this year — friends now attending schools in districts such as Francis Howell, Ritenour and Hazelwood. “I would help my school before I’d leave my school,” said Aaliya Rash, 17, after getting out of her mother’s car.
On the opposite end of the parking lot, Derrick Mitchell, the new principal of Normandy High, watched as buses and parents dropped off students. He stood beside William Humphrey, president of the Normandy School Board.
Mitchell comes from Vashon High School in St. Louis, where improvements in academics and behavior in recent years caught the attention of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who visited the school last year to highlight reform efforts.
Mitchell said he is working with staff at Normandy High to boost morale among teachers, and to get staff focused on using test data to determine in what areas students need more instruction.
Improvement is doable, Mitchell said. “I truly believe that if I help Normandy, I help the St. Louis region,” he said.
Behind him, more students arrived. Parents and alumni cheered.
