School Bus Program Reaches St. Charles County

[Mitch f]

Wow, heated debate in town over Normandy school district that lost their accreditation is now bussing kids 45 minutes to Francois Howell school district in St Charles.

My friend attended a very long tension filled town hall style meeting where several people where escorted out by the police. The Normandy school district had metal detectors at all schools but obviously they don't have enough time to install them at FH schools. It cost the Normandy school district 12K per child per year to send them westward. The average scores at the Normandy schools for math were 20-30% where the average scores at FH were 90. Obviously it helps the Normany kids but what happens to the FH kids?

[gotmuddy]

wtf is wrong with the kids in normandy, lead in the water?

[moguy1973]

The riff-raff will get tossed in with the FH kids and their schooling and education will suffer because of it. We are getting at least 12 student transfers here in Kirkwood an I'm not real happy about that.

[joeD]

Nothing happens. Your basketball teams and football team will get better. But, there will be a bigger police presence at those games. Your average white suburban student will be generally unaffected. There will be more fights, and not just wimpy shoving matches. Many of those fights will be between black girls. Your school standardized test scores will decrease a little. There will be frustration among students, faculty, and parents.

Also, there will be many students who will thrive. From both schools. It may change their lives for the better.

This is not the fault of students. As usual, the lack of drive,direction,leadership,and common sense from adults who can make a difference are at the bottom of this travesty. Our government and educational leaders are especially guilty.

Let's not forget though, republican St Charles years ago was quite adamant about their and others freedom to choose a school of their(our) choice. Well students are choosing. I guess this wasn't the choice many had envisioned.

Bottom line. Welcome the new kids, and get on with it. You'll live.

[Mitch f]

It wasn't the decision of the students Joe, but Tyrone McNichols, I understand the kids have to go somewhere!

http://m.stltoday.com/STL/db_259737/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=qFcmIGTf

[Quillback]

I'm curious as to what happens to the teachers at the school that lost it's accreditation. Do they move with the students?

[Guest Brian B.]

We had a large inner city de-seg population at our school when I was in high school, Lafayette...

If you don't think it will effect your district you are a dreamer.

The first thing I thought was, that is the PRIMARY thing I. Look at when choosing where we will live, so let me get this. Straight, I would be expected to be OK with hundreds of kids from a dis-functional district to be dumped into my district? (Districts that, unless I am. Mistaken are already over-crowded?)

The communities where those kids are from are depressed for a reason, the schools are dis-functional for a reason. If I wanted my girls in school with kids from Normandy by. Gosh I would move to Normandy.

More political correctness destroying our country.

Attack away.

[Al Agnew]

Not political correctness...a lot of bad situations and bad decisions leads to stuff like this, and then you have to figure out what to do with the kids. What other choices do they have at this point? Dump them at another school that's in the same boat as Normandy? Yeah, I guess, but then that school finishes its slide down the tubes, too. Turn 'em loose in the street? You know that ain't happening. Probably the best thing for everybody but maybe the Normandy kids would have been to leave the school open and try to do something to turn it around. It makes little sense to close a school and thus create more overcrowding at other schools.

The problem with things like this is that we have neither the will nor the money to do what needs to be done with inner city schools. The funding system guarantees that the bad schools will only get worse, because being based upon property taxes, if the property isn't worth a crap in a school district and three fourths of the students live in tenement apartments instead of single family suburban homes to be taxed, there won't be enough funding to do anything to upgrade the facilities or the educational experience. People will say that you can't throw money at a problem, but gee...wonder how much more money FH has available per student than Normandy did, and wonder why FH was such a much better school...it was partly the societal problems of the Normandy district, but you can't tell me that better facilities and less crowding doesn't equate to better education.

[Quillback]

What is the dollars per student spent at the 2 schools. I'd want to see what that is before I'd say more funding is the answer. Maybe it is, but I've always thought motivation received at home is more effective at producing a better student.

[Old plug]

Well I am glad my grandkids will be going to catholic schools.