St. Louis schools lose reaccreditation appeal

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's education commissioner said Monday he will not reconsider a decision that allows a state takeover of the St. Louis public schools beginning Friday.

The matter's not over yet. A separate lawsuit on the issue will be heard Wednesday in Cole County Circuit Court.

Commissioner of Education Kent King denied an appeal, requested by the St. Louis public schools, asking the State Board of Education to reverse its decision to strip the school district of its accreditation.

The decision to remove accreditation set the stage for the state to intervene in the city's public school district. A three-member appointed board is to begin running the district, though only one of the three has been publicly named. Gov. Matt Blunt named homebuilder Rick Sullivan, who lives in a St. Louis suburb, to lead the board.

St. Louis superintendent Diana Bourisaw had argued the state wrongly determined the district failed to meet enough standards to maintain provisional accreditation.

State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff have said the St. Louis school district had failed to meet academic and financial standards. The district met only four of 14 performance standards set by the state.

To remain provisionally accredited, as the district had been, St. Louis schools needed to meet six of the 14 standards.

Bourisaw argued in a written appeal that the district has met six standards, including necessary levels related to college placement.

The school district said state officials unfairly required more data to prove it had met some requirements and did not give enough time for the district to gather the information before voting to strip its accreditation.

King wrote that the district hadn't made its case with the information submitted to him May 29.

"Accordingly, I conclude that you have not submitted sufficient new or corrected information, demonstrated any errors of fact upon which the State Board of Education relied, nor otherwise shown cause, for me to request the State Board to reconsider the classification of the St. Louis Public Schools," he wrote.

The St. Louis school district was reviewing the commissioner's decision and had no immediate comment, spokesman Tony Sanders said.

Five members of the St. Louis School Board are asking a judge in Cole County to block the state's plan to take over the ailing urban school district.

The board members called the state's involvement "unlawful, arbitrary and capricious" in their suit.

They charge that the State Board of Education violated the state constitution when it voted to strip the district's accreditation and install a transitional school board.

St. Louis has the state's largest school district, with 32,000 students. The district has struggled to meet educational standards set by the state. The school board has been in upheaval, with six superintendents having served over the last four years.