urbanSTL

^Have you invited any of your students to the poetry open mics or organizations? I assume you're already aware of the St. Louis Poetry Center, but just in case you should check it out. There were also some great open mics at least before the plague hit. I've shifted away from poetry and towards music lately, but there used to be some solid poetry at Stone Spiral and Hartford Coffee Company. I'm pretty sure there's at least one other that I'm forgetting, but I've been a terrible kid and haven't written a poem worth discussing in maybe a year. Glad to see you getting your students into it. Tennessee Williams once attended Soldan, before wandering on to University City, Wash U., and the world. And obviously T. S. Eliot and Maya Angelou both grew up in part or in whole here, even if they attended other schools. Along with music, we have poetry in the water. Keep up the fantastic work! Maybe one day your students can join Williams, Eliot, and Angelou on that august list.

By SeattleNative

NextSTL - Our future: It’s time for St. Louis to get behind St. Louis Public Schools

https://nextstl.com/2022/02/our-future- ... c-schools/

^That's a heck of a nice article. If my own circle of younger friends and relatives is any indication, things are very much going in the right direction. It's good to see the statistics to back that up.

symphonicpoet wrote:^That's a heck of a nice article. If my own circle of younger friends and relatives is any indication, things are very much going in the right direction. It's good to see the statistics to back that up.

Thank you! And to your earlier post, we try to push our students into as many extracurricular writing opportunities as possible.


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^I've sort of been a bad child and failed to write any poetry for the last . . . oh . . . I'd guess it's been a year. I've gotten some music written, so there is that. But I need to flex the poetry muscles again somehow. They atrophied a little too much during the plague.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Feb 19, 2022

^That's a heck of a nice article. If my own circle of younger friends and relatives is any indication, things are very much going in the right direction. It's good to see the statistics to back that up.

Mr. Poet, could you elaborate on this point? Are you finding that parents in your social circle are choosing SLPS/neighborhood schools over magnet/charter or private options? We're sending our three little minions to the neighborhood parochial school for a few "good" reasons (we're sometimes-practicing Catholics, we like the community that comes with it, the academics are good, and its still more diverse/inclusive than the schools I went to in the 'burbs 20-30 years ago), but also for the usual "bad" reasons, namely the perception that our SLPS neighborhood school just isn't as good, and that our special little snowflakes might have a tougher time there. 

I know that view is more-or-less wrong as a matter of fact, but it's hard to escape the perception that SLPS is inferior, especially within the PMC class logic that mandates I provide my child with every possible advantage or they won't succeed economically as adults.  Do you know people who are escaping that mindset? I recognize it absolutely must happen for the SLPS to thrive and the City to start growing its population again, but as a parent its hard to put it into practice regarding my own kids.

^I have a few friends who attended Roosevelt in the 90s and did fine. I have a couple of younger relatives who attended neighborhood schools in the 90s and got into magnet schools in the 00s. It's small sample statistics and it means bupkus. So all I've really got is feelings and opinions and crazy hare-brained larks. So it's nice to see some statistics in the article. But I'm not here to judge anyone. Where your kids go to school is up to you and your kids and I honestly believe under the right circumstances you can make a go of any of them and come out decent on the other side. There's doubtless good and bad people at all of them, so it'll end up being what you make of it.

StlToday - School board members resign from St. Louis, Parkway districts

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/edu ... 5311e.html

After hearing about the bus driver shortage leading to bus service for all high school students being suspended, I decided to look into how things are going to SLPS. The numbers attendance and reading/math proficiency are apocalyptically bad, and I suspect there will be further declines this year if reliable transportation cannot be sorted out for students. 

^At one time students rode ordinary busses. I should think that even now that ought to be possible at the very least for high school students. Give every student above a certain age a free transit pass. So very much more efficient than separate special bus systems.

I rode Bi State all four years of high school. Of course, in my case it was an easy shot straight down South Kingshighway to Arsenal. Problem is, lots of kids don't live near bus stops. 

^I understand. But if we moved some of our school bussing budget into transit we could make busses more frequent and more efficient. And with students on busses they'd have better ridership. Win win. If you can sell such a thing in today's atmosfear.

Drove by Classical Junior Academy (formerly Kennard) and they are either tearing out the playground "levels" or removing the sweet gum trees. Anyone in the know have the skinny on what's going on? Good memories of that place, but not the gum balls on a playground.

MarkGroth2020 wrote:Drove by Classical Junior Academy (formerly Kennard) and they are either tearing out the playground "levels" or removing the sweet gum trees. Anyone in the know have the skinny on what's going on? Good memories of that place, but not the gum balls on a playground.

I read on Facebook that the trees were diseased and will be replaced.

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I would like to make a difference one student at a time in St. Louis City Public Schools. I tried reaching out for volunteering opportunities but all of them are during week days and during working hours. Are there any other opportunities that can have positive impact on city students? 

What areas need improvement?

stlurbanist wrote:I would like to make a difference one student at a time in St. Louis City Public Schools. I tried reaching out for volunteering opportunities but all of them are during week days and during working hours. Are there any other opportunities that can have positive impact on city students? 

What areas need improvement?

There are several organizations that support city kids (many of which are SLPS students). Better family life, Boys and Girls club. They may fit your schedule better.


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SeattleNative wrote: ↑

Jun 17, 2023

stlurbanist wrote:I would like to make a difference one student at a time in St. Louis City Public Schools. I tried reaching out for volunteering opportunities but all of them are during week days and during working hours. Are there any other opportunities that can have positive impact on city students? 

What areas need improvement?

There are several organizations that support city kids (many of which are SLPS students). Better family life, Boys and Girls club. They may fit your schedule better.


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Thank you! I will look them up.

The74 - St. Louis Schools Face One of the Steepest Post-Pandemic Climbs Anywhere


https://www.the74million.org/article/st ... -anywhere/

Was reading the 2023 SLPS ACFR and saw this part that says 17 of the closed buildings are being held for sale under a listing agreement. Does anyone know which ones those are?

Sarah K wrote: ↑

May 12, 2024

Was reading the 2023 SLPS ACFR and saw this part that says 17 of the closed buildings are being held for sale under a listing agreement. Does anyone know which ones those are?

2023ACFRSLPS.png

The listings are here:
https://www.drpartnersllc.com/?page_id=1109

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/edu ... 588e1.html
https://archive.ph/ZDOMk

The details in this reporting are genuinely shocking and disturbing. The bottom line is that SLPS is being used as a jobs program/piggy bank to enrich a cabal of failed administrators from the Seattle Public Schools. The State needs to step in immediately and take back control of SLPS from the elected board, who have been totally derelict in their oversight duties. There also needs to be investigations by state agencies (DESE, Auditor, Attorney General) and prosecutions of wrongdoing.

This is definitely terrible and it is a good thing that Scarlett is out as superintendent, but I certainly don't think that state control is the solution. What makes you think that will help?

The State run Special Administration Board did a much more competent job running SLPS from 2007-2019 than this elected board has over the past 5. After Adams retired they got to choose a superintendent and somehow picked an obvious grifter. By whatever metric you want to look at the performance of SLPS is disgraceful, it is losing money hand over fist, and it is the children and community as a whole that is suffering.

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Jul 28, 2024

The State run Special Administration Board did a much more competent job running SLPS from 2007-2019 than this elected board has over the past 5. After Adams retired they got to choose a superintendent and somehow picked an obvious grifter. By whatever metric you want to look at the performance of SLPS is disgraceful, it is losing money hand over fist, and it is the children and community as a whole that is suffering.

Couldn’t agree more. I don’t trust the Jeff City ghouls to do a damn thing to help the city or SLPS long term, but I do expect they can at least clean house and right the ship in the short term. Clearly the current board can’t tell their a**holes from their elbows.