ST. LOUIS • In summer 2010, Imagine Schools officials devised a plan to fill a vacant downtown high-rise with a school for gifted and talented children — one intended to draw the brightest kids from Imagine's three elementary schools and from other schools in the city.
Twenty-one days later, 378 kindergartners through fifth-graders walked into Imagine Academy of Cultural Arts at 1509 Washington Avenue, on the west side of downtown's loft district.
Imagine officials say the rush to open shows their company can satisfy demand for educational options — and quickly. But to critics, the blitz has more to say about a charter school management company they say values enrollment and revenue over quality.
The school opened in a fraction of the time it takes many other charter school organizers to order textbooks. Teachers brought in for interviews said they were hired on the spot. Imagine also quickly picked its principal, hiring the former head of Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy — a closed charter school once run by Imagine.
People are also reading…
Despite Imagine's claim that the school is for gifted children, there was no gifted education instructor the first year, according to regulators. For months, classrooms were without math books, a former administrator says. The art room had few art supplies, aside from construction paper. Most teachers had never taught before, and they had no planning guides.
The rush to open in three weeks was "crazy," said D'Anne Shelton, head of school. But she added, "It can be done."
Rather than take another year to plan, Imagine officials pushed for the quick opening, partly to capture students who had attended Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Academy and Paideia Academy — two charter schools that had lost their charters due to financial or academic failure. Neither were Imagine schools when they closed.
Parents from those schools were calling Imagine asking to enroll, said Sam Howard, executive vice president for Imagine Schools Inc. "We knew it wasn't right to have those students nowhere, basically."
And Imagine had quick access to a building — the same high rise where Ethel Hedgeman Lyle had operated.
Imagine agreed that the school would pay $60,000 a month — $720,000 a year — renting seven floors of the building from a corporation co-managed by Samuel Glasser, the real estate investor who helped Imagine expand in St. Louis.
Minutes from Imagine schools governing board meetings from 2009 and 2010 lack any mention of a need for the new gifted Cultural Arts school. Nor did board members with oversight of the school return calls for comment.
Midway through the first school year, several of the teachers and staff members left Cultural Arts out of frustration, they said. Compounding the textbook shortage, a pipe had burst on the 10th floor of the building in November, causing some ceiling tiles to collapse and ruining classrooms on several levels of the building.
Teachers had to share classroom space. Some held classes in hallways, they said.
Teachers say they faced disruptive behavior on a daily basis, in part, because the school has no playground and the children get no recess.
"It was called a school but I didn't see much education going on," said Elaine Missler, an education consultant at the school last year.
Just like traditional public schools, charter schools receive state money based on the number of hours students spend in classrooms. As a result, some former employees said attendance and enrollment carried more weight than academics.
"It was all about the almighty buck," said Kathy Smith, the curriculum coordinator who came to the school from the Parkway School District but resigned in January. "We were there to put butts in the seats and keep kids in the classrooms so we could make money."
By last spring, the vast majority of children at Imagine Academy of Cultural Arts were behind. Just 5.4 percent of students passed the reading portion of the Missouri Assessment Program. And 8.1 percent passed the math section.
Krystal Bell withdrew three children from the school after one year there. She put two back in St. Louis Public Schools and enrolled one at KIPP Inspire Academy. Her fifth-grade daughter "is behind this year," Bell said. "The grades at Imagine weren't reflecting what was happening."
But Shonette Conner liked Cultural Arts enough last year for her daughter to return. "It's a good school," said Conner, whose daughter is in first grade. "They're doing what they need to do."
This fall, teachers say the school is running more smoothly. A gifted and talented coordinator is in place. About 400 children are enrolled.
