ST. LOUIS — The University of Missouri-St. Louis will not renew its sponsorship of the Arch Community charter school in north St. Louis, potentially leading to its closure at the end of the school year.
The elementary school opened in 2017 and has 95 students enrolled this year. School leaders are pursuing another sponsor in an effort to stay open, according to Bill Schiller, head of the school.
“We still feel this is a neighborhood that needs good schools for the kids that are here,†Schiller said. “We have a couple of options that we’re working with to keep this community together.â€
The potential closure comes as city leaders focus on the fluctuating public school landscape, including a sharp population decline among school-aged children, which dropped to 45,000 from 60,000 over the last decade.
On Thursday, the Education and Youth Matters Committee of the Board of Aldermen will discuss a resolution to support a moratorium on opening new schools and the development of a citywide plan for public education. The resolution would amount to a symbolic ban on charter schools, which are governed by state law.
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Schiller called UMSL’s timing “ludicrous†because of the disruptions from the pandemic affecting all schools.
The UMSL charter school office, which sponsors seven schools in St. Louis, considered the challenges of the pandemic in its decision to end the sponsorship, according to Susan Marino, executive director.
But after looking at the Arch’s academic records, the school does not have the numbers and planning to meet students’ needs, Marino said.
In 2019, the most recent state data available, 3% of students at the Arch tested proficient or advanced in English and none in math.
UMSL’s decision about Arch follows the closure several months ago of Clay Elementary School, one-half mile away in the Hyde Park neighborhood. That was part of a St. Louis Public Schools downsizing. Enrollment below 200 students was among the criteria considered for closure, and Clay had dropped to 128 students last year.
The aldermanic resolution says: “The local, state, and federal support for school choice programs continues to create a system of schools and programs that fight over a declining population of children and a shrinking pool of resources, leading to duplicated services and system-wide inefficiencies.â€
Charter schools enroll close to 12,000 students in the city, while St. Louis Public Schools enrollment dropped below 20,000 last year. The district has lost more than 50% of its enrollment since the first charters opened in 2000.
Charter schools receive public funding but are operated independently of the school district. They can operate in St. Louis and Kansas City, and in other school districts that persistently fail to meet state accreditation standards. At least seven new charter schools are in the pipeline to open in St. Louis in the next few years.
The average annual performance score for local charter schools, which includes factors such as attendance, academic achievement, and high school or college preparedness, was 80% in 2018, the most recent figures available. St. Louis Public Schools scored 79%, according to state data.
Of the 30-plus charter schools that have opened in St. Louis since 2000, about half have been shut down for academic or financial failure. Carondelet Leadership Academy was the latest to shutter in June 2020, displacing 400 students and 50 staff members.
The Arch occupies the former Bethlehem Lutheran School, at 2153 Salisbury Street. A different charter school, Better Learning Communities Academy, operated there from 2011 to 2016 when it closed after the University of Missouri-Columbia dropped its sponsorship.
One new charter school plans to open in north St. Louis in fall of 2022, Voices Academy of Media Arts. The Missouri Charter Public School Commission voted Wednesday on sponsoring Voices Academy, which is backed by charter school funder Opportunity Trust.
“To start other schools and not support somebody who has a lot of the things in place, especially culture-wise, is short-sighted,†Schiller said. “Parents and students have come to trust and believe that we’ll be there for them.â€
