St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Ready. Good evening and welcome to our regular business meeting of April 14, 2026. We will begin our board meeting now at 6:38 p.m. Miss Von roll call. Dr. Harvey present. Miss Foster present. Mr. Heights present. Miss Jones here. Mr. Marston present. Miss Huard here. Dr. Collins Adams

here. We have a quorum. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. Board of Education Norms. Mr. Morrison.

St. Louis Board of Education Norms adopted on April 9th, 2019. Decision making. We believe our first priority and greatest concern is the educational welfare of all students in St. Louis public schools. We align decisions, discussions, superintendent evaluations, district partnerships, budget allocations, etc. to the current transformation plan. We demonstrate respect for diversity of thoughts, backgrounds, and experiences, roles, and decisions once they have been made. We embrace healthy debate. We acknowledge board members with differing opinions during discourse in both open and closed sessions to gain clarity and engage in meaningful dialogues. Professionalism. We demonstrate engagement by thoroughly reviewing the board packet and other documents, arriving on time to meetings and work sessions, remaining on topic during discussions, and respectfully interacting with each other, the superintendent, staff, and all stakeholders. We demonstrate respect for diversity of thoughts, backgrounds, and experiences, and roles. Communication. We demonstrate professionalism and respect for other board members, the superintendent, the district and district staff by adhering to timelines and deadlines outlined in the workflow calendar and any other tasks as assigned. We conduct all official board related email communications using ours slps.org email accounts. We read and reply to all board emails within 72 hours. We conduct all official board related phone and text communications using district. Sorry, I got some notifications popping up from our our voting results from our close session. Um, we conduct all official board related phone and text communications using district issued phones. We conduct we check voicemail and return phone calls and texts within 72 hours. We are ambassadors in the community and as individual concerns or questions arise, we will seek to understand the information and gather pertinent facts in order to direct

stakeholders and staff to conduct to contact appropriate district personnel. We channel concerns or requests for information through the board president who will direct those requests to the superintendent in an organized concise manner. We recognize the importance of proactive communication and agree there will be no surprises. The board president shall be the official spokesperson for the board. The superintendent shall be the spokesperson for the district. Board members who receive requests for board issue positions shall direct the request to the board president or superintendent. Confidentiality. We respect and maintain the confidentiality of closed session items and the board's discussion on those items. We refrain from discussing confidential business in public with members of the press or with anyone else not privy to such information. And finally, if it is necessary to provide a statement to the public following a closed session, the board president and superintendent will agree on a unified response prior to making the statement.

Thank you, Bo Marston. Approval of the agenda. I move to appro approve the agenda for this evening's regular business meeting. Second. Discussion call for vote. Dr. Harvey, yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights? Yes. Miss Jones? Yes. Mr. Marston? Yes. Miss Hubard? Yes. Dr. Collins Adams? Yes. Motion approved. Approval of the minutes. I move to approve the minutes from our March 24th work session. Second. Discussion. Call for vote. Dr. Harvey. Yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. Miss Jones,

yes. Mr. Marston, yes. Miss Hubbert, yes. Dr. Collins Adams, yes. Motion approved. I move to approve the minutes from our April 9th special board meeting. Second. Discussion. Call vote. Dr. Harvey, yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights? Yes. Miss Jones? Yes. Mr. Marston? Yes. Miss Hubard? Yes, Dr. Thomas Adams. Yes. Motion approved. Announcements. The spirit of excellence, Dr. Barry.

Good evening, members of the board, audience, and listening community. It brings me great joy to recognize an important accomplishment across St. Louis public schools. Six of our schools have been removed from comprehensive status, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The removal of this designation reflects strong academic growth, effective school leadership, and a deep commitment to ensuring every student has access to highquality education. This is a direct result of focused, intentional work happening in our schools each and every day. To our principles, teachers, and staff, this achievement is a reflection of your leadership, your resilience, and your unwavering belief in students. You're helping to create the conditions where success is not an exception but the expectation. As we continue our work around increased performance and stability, this milestone reminds us that this is actually happening and there is excellence within our reach across our district. We are incredibly proud of these schools and grateful for the leadership that have made this possible. Please join me in congratulating the following schools and dedicated leaders. First, we have Gateway Science Math Technology Middle School, Dr. Dearus White. We have Jefferson Elementary, Dr. Leslie Bonner. Herszog Elementary. Dr. Yusei Foleren, Monroe Elementary, Principal Camille Simmons,

Marramac Elementary. Dr. Heather Collie and Peabody Elementary Principal Shantrice Garrett. Not only do they look amazing, they are amazing. Thank you leaders for your leadership and continued commitment to excellence. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. And that concludes our presentations.

Thank you, Dr. Perry. At this time, it gives me great pre pleasure to recognize Dr. Myra Berry with change in title from interim superintendent to superintendent of St. Louis public schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And now for the superintendent's report. We do not have any this evening. We will resume at our work session.

Thank you, Dr. Barry. We move now to our public comment section. Policy B9, excuse me, 9358.3, public participation at meetings. Good evening to our board, to our superintendent, Dr. Meer Berry. We will conduct public comments as follows. Out of respect for our board members and their mission to conduct district business by maintaining order and rules of decorum, we will continue to enforce guidelines for public comment. Citizens interested in commenting will sign in on the iPad between 6 and 6:30 before the meeting. Do not hand documents directly to board members. Give them to the secretary at the far left of the dime. Commenters may take an available seat in the room. Public comments will occur at the time designated by the board in the agenda published ahead of each board meeting. Each commenter will have up to three minutes to address the board. No speaker shall engage in any illegal or criminal activity. No speaker shall use obscene language. No speaker shall engage in conduct which poses a true threat or disruption. There will be time allotted for all comments in accordance with board policy 8 B9358.3. If you are not called to speak, you might submit your information in writing or return to the next scheduled meeting

with a priority number. First this evening, we will have Jordan Gordon.

Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Barry, board members, and SLPS community at large. My name is Jordan Gordon. I'm the VP of strategic operations for Zoom services, your transportation provider. And I wanted to stop in tonight to really affirm our commitment to service, our commitment to consistency, and our commitment to this partnership that we've established over this first launch year with SLPS. Over the course of this year, we've been able to identify several things to help us strengthen and improve and stabilize transportation operations so that we were we're able to remove any and all factors that create barriers to high quality teaching and learning. Uh accordingly, we've we've also I personally had the opportunity since the start of this calendar year to be immersed and interact with the SOPS community. I've been at schools. I've interacted with teachers. I've interacted with building administrators as recently as last week. We had an opportunity to come in and share and get direct feedback around our service, our partnership, but also areas of opportunities. We're fortunate and and and benefit from having modern technology that allows us to have um widespread contact with our families. Just this year, we've received over 97,000 impressions from our families where they're able to provide feedback regarding their individualized transportation services. We've benefited from a overwhelming 4.8 out of five stars uh from that factor. We've also had a unique opportunity to focus on on areas uh around on-time performance. So, our first tier has peaked this school year at 96% arrival to that first tier. We recognize that we have three tiers and we recognize that there's still work that's ongoing and we're working very closely with the district to ensure that we bring the proper levels of stabilization over the course of this year. And most importantly, what we what we also want to do is just recognize the progress. We say at Zoom, there is no finish line to progress. Our commitment stands with SLPS. Our commitment stands

with this board, our teachers, our staff, our faculty, our building administrators in our community at large. We welcome and encourage opportunities for future engagements with Dr. Barry, the board, and future stake, current stakeholders at future opportunities with everyone. And lastly, I just want to personally say congratulations, Dr. Barry. We are excited um for that announcements and most importantly um we're ready to align and continue this work of redesigning and rebuilding a system that serves all students consistently and on time. Thank you

William Monroe. Good evening and congratulations sister. Um, I'm Bill Monroe and I represent a nonprofit called Harriet Tubman and I represent a community effort to take and repurpose the Bowmont High School. There needs to be uh an allout effort, a a strong effort because summer is coming. Our children are homeless in the street. They're acting out. education, skills, and job training is really the key to what's going on in our community. I personally invited this chief of police, and for those of you that don't, I'm an ex- cop, and I know how violent these streets are. And I invited this chief of police to come to this board meeting on more than one occasion because here lies the real solution. Not more jails, not more penitentiaries, not downtown drag nets pulling these kids out. We need to take them and show them some love and some some compassion. There are homeless children in these streets and we got the facilities to reach out and take care of them and make this city better. And this education, skills, and job training, you can do it. This is the real answer to it. And I'm asking uh the board to uh allow Bill Monroe to take a visit into uh Bulmont very soon. We got we got to do something right now. We can't wait till next month. We can't wait to pull some pull some plan off the shelf and get it going 30 30 years from now. These kids need help right now and we can do something about it. And I think we got the right supervision here in the St. Louis public schools. Thank you, sisters.

Dr. Zachariah Davis. Good evening everyone. I showed up last week um to ask the board a question, but I had the wrong date. I'm sorry. Um and I realized uh it was the wrong Tuesday. But I am so glad I did not get an opportunity to ask the board the question that I wanted to ask the board last week. Uh I am really excited uh that we have a new superintendent and I want to say congratulations. I also want to say to this board, thank you for taking these decisive steps so that our school district can be better. I talk with a lot of people in our community on a regular basis. Outside of being a teacher, I'm a pastor, have about six other jobs, but um I talk with people all of the time. And because I have the privilege to help parent a current stakeholder in this school district, I really believe in the support that St. Louis public schools needs and I believe that this school district will be a success. And so I am really, really pleased by this appointment of our new superintendent. uh had an opportunity to hear her presentation uh via tape recently at the state board. It was an excellent presentation and I want to say to this board, my grandmother used to say something and I'll say it to you. When you're right, I'll always be with you. And I want you to say I want to say this to you. You all made the right choice and this community believes it as well. Thank you very much. This concludes public comment.

Thank you. We move now to our section of the consent agenda items. During our work session of March 24th, the board discussed the consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.36. The consent agenda is voted upon in its entirety. I move to approve consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.36. Second discussion. Call for vote. Dr. Harvey, yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Mr. Marston, yes. Miss Hubard, yes. Dr. Collins Adams, yes.

Motion approved. Section eight, any items for discussion. Section nine, items for information. We now move to the items for action. Item 10.1 to 27 2627 Otis elevator um inspections, maintenance, and repairs. I move to approve item for action 10.1 the contract with Otis elevator. Second discussion.

Um Marson. So just to give everyone uh here in the audience a sense of the scale of the district's elevator portfolio, which it tells you something about how big a district is that it has an elevator portfolio. Um, and it was sort of eye openening to me. So, I uh I'd like to hear how many elevators does the district have and of those how many are operational and how many are out of service and require full replacement?

Would you like like us to provide that information right now?

Yes, Chief Watson. So, good evening to the board. Um, President Dr. Collins Adams, Vice President Hub. So, we currently have 148 elevators um that for all of our schools. 14 134 of those are operational. We have three that are out of service and the remaining are due to repairs or obsolete equipment or items that we just can't purchase because these elevators are um they reached a the shelf life or the longevity of the of the equipment.

So that that leaves 11 I think that are not operational and not uh candidates for full replacement. So what what is the status of those 11? So we're currently getting repairs. I mean, we're currently getting proposals uh for those repairs. Um I don't have the cost, but we can't provide that cost. Um these repairs because of the the I mean, it's really hard to find parts. Um but they range um look at my director facilities. Mr. Anthony Graph may have a little bit more details just in terms of the extensive amount of repairs that are needed for these elevators. And then after that, can you also talk about the meeting we had recently?

Good evening, board. Dr. Barry, congratulations again. Um um just as Chief Watson alluded to, um these repairs average from a range of $10,000 to $50,000. And that's that's per per unit.

Yeah. And the the reason I even pulled this out for an item for action is it's a half million dollar contract with Otis Elevator. So it's a substantial amount of money and I just want some taxpayers to know where that money is going.

Thank you for that. Um I do have one question. When an elevator is just obsolete, it's just there you can't get parts for it. you have to replace it completely. Um does in replacing it with a new elevator, do we have to do any retrofitting in the building to be able to get that to be able and how does that work? And at generally no specifics to it because we don't really know because it's based on the building. But the cost of that over the expense of actually getting an elevator would be the contractor cost, right? installation, everything.

Thank you, uh, President. Um, yes, ma'am. Uh, to answer your question, uh, when you go into reconstruction or or construction with, uh, putting in a new elevator, you have to consider that you got to bring in professionals, architects, and engineers, which will drive the cost up. Um, when that being said, uh, just give you an example. I can upgrade this light bulb. I'm just give you an example, right? I could upgrade upgrade this light bulb with a LED light bulb

and you can get warranties. But if you want me to upgrade the fixture, once I remove the fixture, it exposes everything above that ceiling, right? So when you expose everything above that ceiling, you might have to bring the building up to codes that have changed over the years. Our elevators have been over 20 years old. So once you start looking into construction, now you're looking into having to bring the building up to codes that have been in place over the years and it drives the cost up. My my greatest concern is that we have to have the elevators to be able to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act and some of the other compliance issues. So I just needed to know. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am. And we did um have a meeting with Otis Elevator recently this week just to figure out where we are, where we need to go, and what we can do. you can give us a high level overview of the meeting and the next steps. Thank you, Dr. Dr. Barry. Um, just to get a little bit more clarification on that meeting, uh, when you bring in a elevator provider uh, to a district of this magnitude, um, you have we had we put together a three-year contract. The first year of bringing the elevator provider into this u this district, you have to pretty much do an assessment of the of the elevators.

As she was alluded to, we have 14 pieces of equipment, right? And then we have to uh be able to assess the elevators, know the condition, the age of the elevators, um as well as um inspections, so to speak. Um little nervous so it's it's it's a healthy task. Uh during that meeting, what we did was we put Otis on on notice. Uh we do thank you for everything that you've done. Uh the contract is basically does not cover the obsolescence what we spoke about. Those are parts that are outdated and things of that nature. However, it does cover small minor repairs. Um with that being said, during this contract, we found out a lot of our elevators are outdated and they need extensive repairs, right? So the contract it does stabilizes us but it doesn't fully fully align with the the needs of our our elevators at the pan to the age and the conditions

and in the capital planning. And so with the I'm sorry I was just saying that I just wanted like M board member Marshian said to have the public know that you know when we look at contingency funds that something if there's something that we didn't expect to replace that must be replaced because it in complies with the law then it becomes it's an expense and it but it's an expense we have to have. So yeah, I'm just making that public. Absolutely. And um just being compliant and making sure that we provide everything we need for our ADA uh staff members and students and uh visitors is a is our priority with the district. So we do what we can.

Yes, ma'am. is going to say the same thing. And we asked for a proposal to make sure that we can outline um each building and what it's going to cost us if we have to replace it and figure out um how we can begin that process of replacing it, whether it's from any additional Prop S funds um which is or if we have to go into the contingency to figure out how we can get those elevators up and running, especially buildings that have been down for um a very long time. Got it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Call for a vote. Dr. Harvey, yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Mr. Marston, yes. Miss Huard, yes.

Dr. Collins Adams, yes. Motion approved. Item 10.2, school bus transportation services. I move to approve item for action 10.2. Second. Discussion. Call for a vote. Dr. Harvey, yes. Mr. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Mr. Marston, yes. Miss Hubard, yes. Dr. Collins Adams, yes. Motion approved. Item 10.3, NCAA relocation.

I move to approve item for action 10.3. Second. Discussion. Call for a vote. Dr. Harvey, yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights, yes. Miss Jones, yes. Mr. Mor, yes. Miss Huard, yes. Dr. Thomas Adams, yes. Motion approved. Section 11 of our agenda, board reports. Are there any board reports tonight? We will continue to have our board committee meetings. I believe there are a few that are coming up end of April and the beginning of May. We'll have those posted. I've got a couple updates from real estate. Please, Mr. Morrison.

So, I just wanted to mention that the request for proposals for the demolition of Stow, Gundlock, Scullan, Uklid, Hempstead, and Walnut Park are posted at slps.bonfirehub.com. So, if you're the sort of person who attends schoolboard meetings or watches them on YouTube, you might want to bookmark that site. It's where we post all of our RFPs. Uh, and again, it's sps.bonfirehub.com. Of those schools that I just listed, all of them except Hempstead are also listed for sale. Uh, the listings are on Key Westpropy Partners.com. And I think my preference, I think most people's preference would be to see those schools renovated and in use again rather than demolished. But to make that happen, we need to find developers who have the wherewithal to do that. Um, so just uh the district is not a real estate developer. We're not equipped to convert buildings to affordable housing or nonprofit incubators, find tenants for them and operate them operate them for those purposes. So a lot of times people say they should do this or that with the building. Um the they in this case starts with having a developer um to rehab the building and then probably a nonprofit organization to operate it going forward. Um also on that RFP site, the RFP for the renovations at Central Visual and Performing Arts and Collegiate are posted.

Thank you, board member Marson, Dr. Barry. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Just an u reminder, we have two budget forms. This is the budget uh process for the 2627 fiscal year. One will be held this Thursday, April 16th from 4:30 to 5:30 at Vashan High School. The second will be held on Tuesday, April 21st. That's a virtual online platform. Information did go out via email. You can find this information online. Reminder is for the 26 27 year. We'll have a glimpse into following years, but right now we're working on the 26 27. So, thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Barry. Board member Hubbert. Um, I have a report from Jefferson City where I went today for a class field trip. Um, I got to see our lobbyist, Steve Carroll, and he reported to me that Jefferson City, Missouri legislature is very pleased with our appointment of Dr. And I'm I'm so glad to see, you know, our local community affirmation, but also the people who make laws about us and only us. They're happy, too. So, thank you.

That means a lot. Thank you so much. Are there any other board announcements? Well, this was quick. We've reached that magical moment as we get to section 12, our adjournment. Is there a motion on the floor? Don't all run out of here at the same time. I move to adjourn this evening's regular business meeting. Second discussion. Dr. Harvey, I'm sorry. Did Dr. Harvey have a discussion? I'll call for a vote. Okay, great. Sorry, Dr. Harvey. Yes. Miss Foster, yes. Mr. Heights? Yes. Miss Jones? Yes, Mr. Marston. Yes, Miss Hubard. Yes, Dr. Collins Adams.

Yes. We are adjourned at 7:10 p.m. That's a record. Thank you.