Five years ago today was a historic day in public education and politics. Not just for St. Louis but for public school districts everywhere. On July 1, 2019, governance of Saint Louis Public Schools reverted to a democratically elected school board after 12 years under appointed governance. The transition marked the end of a year’s worth of planning, professional development sessions, and mock meetings all designed to prepare the seven elected board members to lead the school district. The pressure to succeed was intense. The whole city was watching to see if we’d lead with integrity and professionalism or if we’d slip back into the old patterns of political infighting, conflicts of interest, and micromanagement that plagued previous SLPS boards.
I served as President of the Board of Education of the City of St. Louis the year before, the year of, and the year after the transition, a period of governance without precedent. To my knowledge, this is the only time power has transitioned from an appointed board to an elected board that was already in place. The seven of us serving then accomplished something no other school board had ever done before or has done since.
In addition to the transition in governance, I led the board through challenge after challenge — a fervent public pressure campaign to adopt new budget practices; a high profile employee termination; the launch of a local education policy non-profit with deep ties to national education reform organizations and a desire to tear down the school district; demands to end (then non-existent) contracts with the police following the murder of George Floyd; reopening schools during the on-going pandemic including protests by parents and staff; and permanent school closure accompanied by political theater. A lifetime of high-profile public school policy decisions in less than three years. Fans of The Wire might even apply the parable of the bowls of shit.
Those days and years were hard but the external pressure and accountability served a valuable purpose that’s integral to the very notion of an elected school board. That list of challenges exemplifies the beauty and the burden of democracy. Regular, everyday people exercising their right to participate in the policy making process and expressing their power to hold their elected officials accountable for their actions. Elected officials conducting their business before the scrutinizing eye of the public.
I sat behind the dais before a standing room only crowd at school board meetings. I witnessed my fellow board members be shouted down when they tried to speak and absorbed their concerns when they felt unsafe going to and from their cars at board meetings. I read and responded to hundreds if not thousands of emails from concerned citizens, scrolled through comments on livestream recordings, and reviewed responses to staff and family surveys. I felt public accountability target my back with pinpoint specificity and lay awake at night restless with indecision, desperately searching for solutions that didn’t exist.
These moments come back in flashes every time I write about the importance of democratic principles to effective school district governance. I relive these experiences from my seat in the audience at school board meetings. These memories are what push me to submit Sunshine Law requests, testify at government meetings, and pass out literature for school board candidates on Election Day.
People often ask me why I’m “still doing this” as if I should have walked away from my time on the Board of Education and never looked back. Sometimes that question is followed by accusations that I’m only still involved because I’m unable to accept that I’m not in charge anymore. This skepticism is an indictment of leadership, authority, and power for it assumes that the only reason someone would participate in policy making is for self gain and that the only reason someone would demand accountability from those who currently hold office is a desire to hold the seat themselves.
Power does not equal leadership. Individuals who hold power are not necessarily leaders and individuals who are leaders do not necessarily seek power. But power will tell you otherwise. Power lies to you. It tries to convince you that you alone have the answers, that you know better than the others. You can feel power taking hold over your brain, changing how you see the world and how you see yourself. Power wants to destroy everything you love about yourself. As I have told every aspiring school board candidate I’ve spoken to in the past few years, the only way to thwart the deceit of power is to wake up every day with a firm commitment to look at yourself in the mirror and say “Not today. Power will not change me today.”
So, let the record reflect that I’m “still doing this” because I know my work is not done. As I told the State Board of Education in January 2021, the transition back to elected governance isn’t over yet. It will take multiple election cycles to build the deep institutional knowledge necessary to create policies and implement procedures that persist beyond any one school board iteration or superintendent. Years of appointed governance eroded the relationship between the people and the school system and between the school system and City government. It will take sustained effort and intention to restore what was lost.
I’m “still doing this” because the years I spent holding the democratic beating heart of the school district were profoundly life altering. The weight of the role increased with every reminder that people were expecting the board to fail, with every warning that the state board would intervene at the first sign of distress, and with every insistent comment that the board had to present a united front to counter memories of the dysfunctional board antics of the past.
I know those statements still circulate. I hear them too. The threat of another state takeover looms large over Saint Louis Public Schools. Maybe it always will.
Saint Louis Public Schools administrators fought hard to regain accreditation. Elected school board members continued to serve during the 12 years of an appointed board, maintaining the space for democracy to move back in. All of those efforts will be lost, however, if we allow our worry to push us away from the transparency and accountability inherent to an elected school board. Our love for our school district cannot drive us to defend it at all costs or to be dishonest about its shortcomings. Our fears of another state takeover should not motivate us to cover up for district leaders who don’t fulfill their fiduciary duties. In fact, the opposite is true. Our collective pride about winning back elected governance in a state that does not value local control for St. Louis compels us to act in good faith and to require our elected leaders to act in good faith too.
To truly be democratically governed, a school district requires much more than just having an elected school board. The governance team must feel a deep obligation to be open and truthful to the community by regularly posting meeting agendas, minutes, recordings and presentations. They must hold themselves to the same standards they apply to partners and adhere to approved policies and procedures. Democratic principles must also be applied to the school board itself. All board members should have equal and free access to information that is provided in a timely manner to effectively inform decision making. Governance-level decisions and official positions should be determined by a public vote of the board. At no time can a democratically governed school district crowd out dissenting voices, engage in us-against-them tactics, or further fracture our City’s unstable education system.
Five years ago today, I stood before the Board of Aldermen Education and Youth Matters Committee. It was the very first meeting of the committee which was intentionally held on July 1 to mark the governance transition. I kept my remarks short, offering that the Board of Aldermen see the Board of Education “as an ally and a resource” hoping that the two governing bodies could work together to find solutions for our city’s most intractable problems. My fellow school board members spoke to this need too. Alders shared a desire to collaborate with us and support the school district. Members of the public testified to the importance of a public school district that serves all children. I had so much hope then.
Ward reduction led to a reduction of Board of Aldermen Committees and the Education and Youth Matters Committee was a casualty. Although it met only sporadically, the committee was a venue for education policy topics. The committee heard presentations about early childcare and student mobility. It held a four hour long hearing on the charter moratorium. For a brief moment, it offered a place for meaningful discussions about the purpose we want our school system to serve.
The seemingly defunct yet oft-cited Citywide Plan for Education also temporarily addressed this need but it fell off the agenda with no replacement.
The Mayor’s recent State of the City address included only a cursory mention of schools and her Office and Cabinet lacks a dedicated education expert, although children find some representation by the Senior Advisor for Children, Youth, and Families. However, in a city with an overly-complicated public education system which relies on choice for its continued existence there must dedicated involvement by someone in the Cabinet whose sole focus is schools.
The topics of the first Education and Youth Matters Committee meeting — school choice, tax incentives, struggling academics, inequality — are evergreen. The faces are still familiar as active participants in policy making. So, why does it feel like our city has actually regressed in its progress toward developing a shared municipal infrastructure between city government and school district leadership? We owe it to ourselves and to our city’s children to answer that question. But without that shared infrastructure, where do we direct it? Who can we compel to answer it?
Building a world class public school system that is seamlessly integrated into the City does not currently seem to the be priority of the three largest policy players in St. Louis. Five years was more than enough time to see if it would happen naturally. Since it hasn’t, we must take the opportunities we’re given and push for that to change. We can exercise our democratic authority and advocate for alders, school board members, and a mayor who will prioritize and invest in public education. We can set the expectation that city leaders will take an active interest local schools. We deserve to be represented by elected officials who work together in good faith for the betterment of our children, our schools, and our entire community.