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The district’s board will vote Tuesday on Kelvin Adams’ recommendation which, if unchanged, would close Clay, Dunbar, Farragut, Ford, Hickey and Monroe elementary schools; Fanning Middle School; Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC, Northwest and Sumner high schools. Carnahan High would be converted to a middle school.

At the board’s Dec. 15 meeting, Adams invited the community to come up with concrete solutions for the district’s plunging enrollment and half-empty schools. Seven of the 11 schools on the closure list are in north St. Louis.

Adams and board members have since met with at least 20 groups about the closure process, but any ideas to save schools “are largely in the formative stages and would require substantial financial backing to implement,� said Dorothy Rohde Collins, board president.

One group interested in the future of Farragut Elementary is the Tabernacle Community Development Corp., which is converting the former Farragut building two blocks away into a community center called the Hub, which Superintendent Adams toured earlier this month.

Andre Alexander, president of the development group, wants the newer Farragut to stay open to help attract families to the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood, where Tabernacle buys and rehabs old homes.

Closing Farragut would represent “a blow to hope,� Alexander said. “It impacts morale. It makes people ask the question, ‘What’s next?’�

Tabernacle is on track to receive a redevelopment designation from the city for a large area around Fairground Park, where the development group has plans for 91 homes. The designation would keep property taxes low in case home values increase.

That means less money for the school district, which is primarily funded through property taxes. But Alexander still sees a benefit for the district in the trade-off.

“If we can bring families back, if we can create space for business, not to mention employ a lot of people from the neighborhood, then we can have people who are generating tax dollars,� Alexander said.

Even if Farragut doesn’t grow significantly from its current enrollment of 158 students, Tabernacle could offer financial support to keep the school open with small class sizes. If the school does end up closing, Alexander said, the group would be interested in converting its current building for community use.

Others involved in meetings with school district leaders include members of the city’s Board of Aldermen, which passed a resolution last month to oppose school closures. That vote has generated discussion about the board’s role in school funding.

In 2019, the city approved $35.8 million in tax increment financing and abatements that would otherwise have gone to SLPS, according to the district.

“The School Board members have a very good defense when we have the audacity to say we don’t want them to close our schools when we’re doing all this tax abatement,� 1st Ward Alderman Sharon Tyus said Wednesday at a committee meeting.

Alderman Megan Ellyia Green, 15th Ward, , including tax incentive reform and adding St. Louis to the Special School District, which oversees special education in most St. Louis County districts.

“We have to figure out how to get middle-income families to opt back into the district,� Green said.

This year, 18,248 students are enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, down from a peak of more than 115,000 in the late 1960s.

Green also called on corporations such as Square that have received large tax breaks to donate to save Sumner High from closure. The school dates to 1875 and is considered the first African American high school west of the Mississippi River. Enrollment has dwindled to fewer than 200 students this year.

Green and other aldermen have also raised concerns about the growth of charter schools, which are publicly funded but governed by private boards separate from the district. One charter school will open next fall in Midtown, and at least five more are in the works for the 2022-2023 school year. Several others including Kairos Academies and City Garden Montessori plan to expand in the fall. About 11,400 students now attend charter schools in the city.

“We need an overall strategic plan for the city on how many schools we need and where they need to be located,� Green said.

Corey Bradford, new president of Harris-Stowe State University, is an SLPS graduate who says he wants to renew the university’s relationship with the district and help keep schools open. Harris-Stowe was originally founded by the district in 1857 as a teachers college that later included a branch at Sumner.

“The community has to rally together on a public agenda for improving St. Louis,� said Bradford. “We have to make a greater investment on the communities on the northside, bring back the population base that we have lost.�

Blythe Bernhard • 314-340-8129 @blythebernhard on Twitter bbernhard@post-dispatch.com