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With $35M to Spend on Charter Schools, Opportunity Trust’s Plan Remains Blurry | St. Louis

Published

9 months ago

January 5, 2024

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click to enlarge PETER COHEN Protestors gather around the Delmar Divine in opposition to the Opportunity Trust, which has worked to expand charter schools in St. Louis.

Last September, Opportunity Trust, a St. Louis nonprofit that aims to support education reform initiatives, was awarded $35.6 million in federal money to expand access to charter schools in Missouri. Since then, the nonprofit has beenquiet about how they plan to use this unprecedented amount of money to improve education. The lack of details has fueled anger from local teacher unions and other advocates for St. Louis Public Schools who feel that charter schools undermine public education.

It’s the first time Missouri has won the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter School Program entity award grant, and the money comes at a pivotal time for St. Louis Public Schools. The number of students enrolled in SLPS has dropped nearly by half since the turn of the century, as students and their families continue to move out of the city. Although the grant will impact schools statewide, all eyes are on St. Louis as local leaders — including Keisha Scarlett, who is still in her first year as superintendent — attempt to reignite the school district.

The grant has drawn protests, including a recent press conference outside Opportunity Trust’s headquarters in the Delmar Divine. After I covered the conference for the RFT, Rachel Powers, partner for communications and community coalitions at Opportunity Trust, reached out with a strongly worded email saying critics did not understand the full picture.

In return, I asked for an interview with Eric Scroggins, CEO of Opportunity Trust. Powers said he was unavailable to speak, but offered herself instead.

“We have to really ask where are families going and why?” Powers asserts. “The schools we do have are failing our kids and test scores are not where they need to be. What is the district doing to have a comprehensive plan for their schools?”

Asked about the grant money and the process by which it will be allocated, Powers acknowledges that much of the specific implementation plan has not been figured out. “We are still in the planning phases with the Department of Education point person,” she says. As of now, she says, the plan is to spend money preparing charter school staff and faculty, improving charter school resources, renovating charter school buildings and boosting student transportation systems. She adds that the next step is to gain approval to start accepting applications for subgrants, but that implementation strategies will not be nailed down until at least February.

State law currently allows charter schools to operate in St. Louis City and Kansas City, and schools in those districts will have the opportunity to apply for funding from this grant. Powers says they could be joined by other Missouri public school districts that are motivated to sponsor their own charter schools. But district-sponsored charter schools are a fairly new concept. In fact, the idea has been actualized only once in Missouri, when the Leadership School opened in the Normandy school district in 2022. After just one year of operation, state regulators cited itas being financially stressed.

Teachers’ unions are among the biggest critics of charter schools, which receive public funds even as they’re exempt from certain laws governing traditional public schools. The American Federation of Teachers, Local 420, argues that the Opportunity Trust lied about a formal partnership in their grant application, stating in a recent press release that the organization “has reached a new low by falsely claiming collaboration with the St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) District.”

Powers believes that what they’re referencing is the St. Louis Public Schools Consortium Partner Network, or CPN. Formed in 2018, the CPN aims to create more autonomy for a few schools in the network in a way that models charter school structures. Opportunity Trust included CPN in their application.

“We looked at the application and it was filled with factual errors about the Consortium,” says Byron Clemens, spokesman for Local 420. “It was just one of many factually inaccurate elements of the application.” He adds that president of the school board, Antoinette Cousins, sees it in a similar way.

Ultimately, Powers emphasizes that in order to address students and their families leaving the St. Louis district, they must replace poor-performing public schools with “new schools that have proven results.”

Powers notes, “The research says that creating new schools,” as opposed to improving or expanding current schools, “is the most effective strategy to improve schools.” In this way, the Opportunity Trust believes St. Louis will be expanding student access to quality seats that offer a quality education. “We’ve got to put our kids first,” she says.

In response, Clemens points out that under U.S. News and World Report’s rankings, many of the top-performing schools in the state are public schools, including St. Louis’ own Metro and Collegiate high schools. He adds that charter school strategies to improve St. Louis education remain at best unclear — and at worst truly unsuccessful.

“They never define a quality seat,” Clemens argues, referencing a student’s access to the school. The lack of clarity may explain why since the year 2000, more than half of the charter schools in St. Louis have closed.

Powers says Opportunity Trust wants to work with the district. “We are 100 percent open to [collaboration] with SLPS and there’s no clear reason why we shouldn’t partner,” she says. Yet she falls silent when asked why collaboration efforts have yet to be successful.

“Why not make an equitable and comprehensive school system in our community that allows parents to choose what’s best for their children,” Powers asks. She adds that Opportunity Trust’s vision of a future St. Louis school system includes both charter and traditional public schools.

Clemens, for one, is skeptical.

“Maybe after they burn it down then they will be willing to collaborate with us,” he says.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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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

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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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

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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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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