After 12 Years Away, St. Louis School Board Gets Ready To Regain Control
For more than a decade, the St. Louis Board of Education met every month in a school library, gym or cafeteria across the city with only the most diehard public-education watchers in attendance.
Despite keeping up appearances, actual control of the city’s public-school system had been forcibly handed over to another body more than a decade ago. The board has been disenfranchised since a 2007 state takeover of St. Louis Public Schools amid rising deficits, falling academic performance and revolving superintendents.
But the school board kept at it, holding elections and conducting meetings. Those meetings are taking on new importance as the district is on the verge of getting back local control. They’re now held at district headquarters; the superintendent and other district leaders attend.
Two new members will be elected to the board Tuesday. They’ll join just a few weeks before reinstitution of its power to oversee the education of more than 21,000 students.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/after-12-years-away-st-louis-school-board-gets-ready-regain-control