Unprinted Letter to the Editor

The following letter from school board Vice President Bill Purdy was sent to the Post-Dispatch as a letter to the editor in response to an earlier editorial. The editors of the Post chose not to publish it.

Re: “Chaos Continues” (September 28). Let me assure your readers that any chaos exists primarily in your editorials. The St. Louis Public Schools are on a sound road to recovery after three years of plummeting performance that began in 2003. Further, the system is now firmly embarked on a plan to regain full accreditation.

My first suggestion would be for your editorial writers to take an arithmetic tutorial. Diana Bourisaw is the first superintendent hired by the current board majority, after four superintendents put in place since June 2003 by the former majority. To get to the six referred to in your editorial you have to go back to 1996 when Cleveland Hammonds, Jr. was hired and whose retirement created the 2003 opening. In just two years the old board majority first hired Bill Roberti who was neither certified nor experienced as an educator and next Floyd Crews for a few months, followed by Pamela Hughes and then Creg Williams. (Now that wasn’t too difficult, was it?)

In 2003 the schools were on a steady path toward full accreditation. Since then, the path has been downhill toward total loss of accreditation. Further, there was no plan in place to regain accreditation. Missouri State Achievement scores are falling. The high school graduation rate is dropping, reaching a modern record low of 55.1 percent in June.

Let’s review the facts. Six weeks ago when Dr. Diana Bourisaw was appointed Superintendent after the sudden resignation of the previous superintendent, very little had been done to prepare Missouri’s largest public school system for the first day of school, August, 28. The new board majority and its new superintendent and staff had a lot of work to do that had not been started.

Many major improvements are already in place. The heavy reliance on substitute teachers has been virtually eliminated. Schools opened on time and smoothly, and student attendance rates are excellent (92% attendance rates for the first four weeks among all enrolled students.) There are more certified teachers in classrooms this school year. The central office has been streamlined with more money going into classrooms. New principals and assistant principals were hired for vacancies the previous administration failed to fill. Textbooks were ordered and delivered ensuring they were in the classroom on day one.

Parents were notified regarding where their child would be attending school and buildings were prepared for the opening of school. Our facilities required a lot of work that had not yet begun on July 17, including general maintenance and construction work on reconfigured schools. To add insults to injury, several buildings were severely damaged by the July storms.

We are pleased that our newest major corporate citizen, Macy’s, chose the schools for its special week of employee service, deploying hundreds of employees to schools across the city.

Could your view of the schools be jaundiced by the fact that only one of the candidates your page endorsed for the four vacancies since 2003 was elected in fiercely competitive and highly funded elections?

William Purdy
Vice-president, St. Louis Board of Education