First day of school arrives with calls for a boycott

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis' cash-strapped city schools rang in a new school year under tight security Monday as demonstrators, some carrying children in fake coffins, called for a student boycott over a move to shutter 16 schools.

Despite the parading protesters and a visit from Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton, the district reported the best opening-day attendance rate in at least five years, with 76.4 percent of enrolled students in class Monday. Last year, 74.4 percent of enrolled students were in class on the first day.

At Vashon High School, where only 37 percent of students attended the first day last year, Monday's attendance was 76 percent attendance.

Still, school board members said they would not be satisfied until 100 percent of students were in school.

Importance of attendance

"Attendance is important because students cannot learn if they're not in their seats," assistant superintendent Charlene Jones said. "If they fall behind, it's hard for them to catch up and achieve the success that we wish for every student in our school system."

Interim superintendent William Roberti said he hadn't known what to expect Monday.

"I wasn't sure where this was going to go," Roberti said. "And obviously, I'm pretty pleased, to be honest with you. I think over the next week we're going to see the numbers climb."

At dawn, more than 100 marchers turned out and converged on the school board's headquarters, then on to City Hall in a mock funeral procession featuring a boy and girl carried in separate faux caskets. "Shut it down!" marchers chanted, a dozen of them children toting tombstone cutouts bearing the names of the closed schools.

Sharpton told marchers "our fight is for the children" -- and that they should stand strong in the state's largest school district, plagued in recent years by opening-day truancy.

"I think that any parent would be irresponsible not to make sure their child is protected and that their child is serviced," said Sharpton, who walked a few blocks with the marchers before being driven away and not returning.

An interim management team and the school board have come under fire because of their decision last month to cut 1,400 jobs and close 16 schools -- many of them in largely black neighborhoods. Officials with the New York-based turnaround management firm Alvarez & Marsal have said the moves were necessary to help eliminate a $90 million deficit. The firm said it picked which schools should close based on occupancy rate, the building's physical shape, whether the site is air-conditioned and academic achievement.

Before Monday, the firm -- running the district through at least this school year -- has identified first-day attendance as a key measure of success. Last year, one in four students did not show.

Funding also is an issue, given that state dollars are based partly on attendance. Roberti said it was early to estimate the budget impact of the attendance figures. Roberti said the budget would be "secure" when all enrolled students attended class.

Administrators said the attendance figures were pulled down by lower attendance at schools accepting students from the closed schools, which they blamed on parents and students not knowing the location of their school or bus stop. Attendance at schools not receiving additional students was 83 percent.

Some boycott organizers said they would urge students to stay away from school until the closed buildings are reopened and the management team is fired, fueling concerns by some officials that a boycott could prove costly for the district.

"What these (demonstrators) need to think about is what's in the best interest of the kids," Mayor Francis Slay said Monday.

More than a dozen churches set up safe havens Monday for boycott supporters to take their children.

Protester Donna Jones took a vacation day to keep her three children, ages 14, 12 and 5, out of school in what she touted as their firsthand lesson in civic involvement -- standing up against a school district she believes ignored the public and "spent their money very unwisely."

"Who knows better than children, parents and teachers? They should have asked us how we felt," Jones, 46, said before joining in the march that made its way to City Hall and Slay's second-story office, where 10 police officers, some with wooden batons, kept protesters from entering.

Monday's march was a bit much for David Klaus, who exchanged words with protesters after seeking them out to show them he was walking his 12-year-old son to his bus stop.

"I'm sure many of them are doing what they think is right," said Klaus, 48. But "to deliberately deprive the district and its children of more money (through a boycott) is counterproductive at the minimum -- stupid, to be more blunt."

On Sunday, Roberti visited a local Baptist church and stressed the importance of getting students to class.

"We want your children, your grandchildren, your family, your friends' children, to be at school the first day," he said. "The real issue is education. It's your children. It's the outcome. It's closing the achievement gap here."