The St. Louis Board of Education is asking voter approval of a $4 million school bond issue April 7.
The bond issue, according to the Board, will necessitate no tax increase over the present school tax. The $4 million will be financed with revenue brought in by an increase in the assessed valuation of the real and personal property.
In other words, the Board is telling voters that they can build additions to six overcrowded elementary schools, and multipurpose rooms at seven schools FOR FREE.
This is all well and good except that the Board is basing its plea for approval on the overcrowding of schools in North St. Louis, where, they say, there has been a sudden population increase caused by people moving from the housing projects and the inner city. The Board cites the increased bussing of pupils from these schools—the worst of which is bussing out 250 pupils a day—as sufficient reason for the building of additions at these schools.
However, our Hamilton School parents are asking how is it possible that any of these schools can have a worse bussing situation than exists at Hamilton today. Hamilton must bus out 395 pupils per day. Not one school in the bond issue is bussing out that many children, according to figures in the Board’s own report.
Just how does the Board of Education determine what is an emergency situation? In a report of the Board’s building committee, they mention the plight of Hamilton School but seem to throw up their hands at being able to do anything about it. The school already has three branches, they say (failing to mention that two of these “branches” are eight classroom buildings called Rooms of 20 built with federal funds and that the classrooms are limited to 20 pupils per classroom). Taking a defunct argument further, the Board says that building an addition at Hamilton would only “encourage a continuing abnormal massing of residence” and that until something is done about the housing code violations that is nothing that the Board can do. What kind of ostrich reasoning is this?
How is what is happening to the Northside schools any different than what is happening to Hamilton? The new people moving in are even from the same areas. The Board, by its own admission, admits that the Hamilton situation is bad—but not bad enough to do anything about it evidently. According to the report, the situation at the school may become even more critical next year when a new apartment complex near Mitchell School is opened. The 105 Hamilton students now transported to Mitchell will have to be bussed elsewhere—undoubtedly much further away.
Hamilton parents argue: if room to build could not be found in the Hamilton area, then the Board should build an addition at a neighboring school and redistrict the unusually large Hamilton school area.
It is true that in the other school bond issues which were rejected by voters, a new school at Dozier School would have solved Hamilton’s problem and the Board does say it intends to include Hamilton in a larger bond issue which, of course, would include a tax increase. So some parents may vote yes on the bond issue in the hope that Hamilton’s needs will be met in a bond issue yet to come—and one that will be undoubtedly harder to pass taking into consideration St. Louisan’s allergy to bond issues.
No doubt our schools, both public and private need more money and more concern from the citizenry. We would not rob them of a single penny especially when it would cost us nothing. In fact, voters in the 28th ward gave the issue a two-thirds majority in the last bond issue election. However, in the case of this particular bond issue, residents in the West End should consider both sides of the question. At least, if parents do vote yes, they should take necessary steps to see that Hamilton is not by-passed next time around.
