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St. Louis School Board Votes to Cancel College Kids Partnership | St. Louis

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click to enlarge BRADEN MCMAKIN City Treasurer Adam Layne, who inherited College Kids from Mayor Jones, faced questions at a previous aldermanic meeting.
The St. Louis Board of Education voted 5-1 last night to cancel its participation in the College Kids Savings Account program — a signature program for Mayor Tishaura Jones during her time as city treasurer.
The board voted to invoke the 60 days’ notice provision to cancel its memorandum of understanding with the St. Louis treasurer’s office, which has continued to run the program under Jones’ hand-picked successor, Treasurer Adam Layne. The board chose to end its partnership after months of questions about whether College Kids truly helps launch St. Louis Public Schools students on the path toward college or trade school.
Some of the biggest complaints have centered on difficulties parents and grandparents have reported in moving money in College Kids accounts to other college savings vehicles, such as 529 plans — a point that Matt Davis, the board vice president, made during a question-and-answer segment with Layne before the vote.
“And you look at other programs around the country,” Davis says, “and they’re invested in 529s. There’s a much easier way to transfer that money into 529 interest-bearing accounts.”
Layne denied that moving College Kids funds into 529 accounts is difficult. All families have to do is fill out a form provided by the treasurer’s office.
“So I don’t think it’s a complicated process,” Layne said. “It’s one form.”
The board voted without first engaging in public debate. The lone board member to vote “no”on the motion to cancel the MOU was Emily Hubbard. Natalie Vowell, the board’s at-large member, did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
The school board vote took place three months after the boardagreed to “pause” its MOU with the treasurer’s office while district administrators sought answers to questions about College Kids’ oversight and usefulness to district students.
Each year, the treasurer’s office automatically enrolls all the public- and charter-school kindergarten students in St. Louis city — 2,307 College Kids accounts were created in 2022 alone — providing them with savings accounts at Alltru Credit Union and “seeding” each with a $50 deposit. Money for these deposits comes from city parking fees and parking tickets.
College Kids accounts are expected to grow through city-funded incentives and charitable and personal donations. Participants can receive up to $100 in matching deposits and up to $50 for partaking in financial education. Once the student graduates from a public or charter high school in the city, the funds can be withdrawn for college or a trade school.
But does the school board’s vote Tuesday mean the death of College Kids?
Layne said after the vote that he will work to continue the program.
“So it would’ve been a lot easier with district cooperation,” Layne said. “But all we’ll do is do direct outreach to families. We’ll still go to events; the Urban League will still let us go to the fair. So we’ll still just do direct outreach to families. Enroll them that way. But it’s a simple process.”
Antoinette “Toni” Cousins, the board president, told a reporter that the board’s vote Tuesday night did not necessarily mean a permanent end to the school district’s partnership with the treasurer’s office.
“We basically voted to continue the pause,” Cousins said. “The pause is per part of the questions that Vice President Davis asked” pertaining to the treasurer’s office’s plans to make changes to the College Kids program in response to complaints about it.
“It was just like at this point we weren’t getting any adjustments that were needed in regards to that particular program,” she said.
Cousins said the biggest problems with College Kids was lack of evidence showing the program’s positive impact on families taking part in the program.
The other big problem was the lack of control that families enrolled in the program had over their accounts.
“It appears that Treasurer Layne is the one who had the power to oversee these accounts,” Cousins said. “So that’s concerning.”
The school board informally agreed during its meeting September 12 to pause its partnership with the treasurer’s office in large part because of a River City Journalism Fund investigation publishedin the RFT and St. Louis Public Radio on June 7. The story showed that only 15 percent of the more than 23,000 eligible students in the district were taking part, that the average account had only grown to $73, and that only the treasurer’s office was earning interest off nearly the $2 million in bank and investment accounts connected to College Kids.
Jones set up College Kids while serving as city treasurer in 2015 and the Board of Aldermen approved it in December of that year. College Kids became one of Jones’ signature achievements, touted during her successful 2021 mayoral run.
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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.
Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.
The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.
The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.
This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.
As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.
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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.
“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”
He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”
The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”
Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”
The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.
Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”
In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.
“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”
Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”
Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.
“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.
Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)
One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.
Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.
“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”
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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.
The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.
The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.
The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.
To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/
“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”
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