Rhonda Broussard went out shopping in late 2007 for a building to house the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, a set of French- and Spanish-speaking public charter schools she plans to open this fall. Broussard pulled up in front of the old Hodgen Elementary School, a brick Italianate structure in the city's Gate District, hopped out of the car and said to herself, "I want that school."Jennifer SilverbergSt. Louis Language Immersion Schools founder Rhonda Broussard thought the old Hodgen buil
Last Friday, St. Louis Public Schools' Elected School Board member David Jackson Jr. sent a formal request to three city aldermen asking them to introduce legislation barring any more charter schools from opening in the city. "Currently charter schools in the city deflect approximately $75 million dollars a year away from the SLPS," Jackson writes. "This has put the SLPS in somewhat of a financial crisis, as it relates to providing quality education for its students, achieving accreditation and
Show-Me InstituteBevis Schock, plaintiff in a 1st Amendment case against the city schoolsMillionaire-about-town Rex Sinquefeld and attorney Bevis Schock filed a First Amendment lawsuit Wednesday against the St. Louis Public Schools' Special Administrative Board. Sinquefeld and Schock take issue with the school district's placement of a 100-year deed restriction in its sale contracts for shuttered buildings. The restriction prevents purchasers from using the buildings as any kind of school, grade
Rick Sullivan, Melanie Adams and Richard Gaines -- the Special Administrative Board (SAB) of the St. Louis Public School District -- last evening lifted the controversial deed restriction on the sale of its shuttered school buildings.The 100-year restriction was adopted by the SAB in December 2007 as a way to limit "competition" with the city schools, which have lost thousands of students over the last several years alone. The restriction limited charter, religious and private schools from purch
