Normandy residents hold protest in Jefferson City over schools

But next spring, he could be playing baseball for another team, or perhaps for a school within a reconstituted version of the Normandy school system. As the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education works to determine the fate of his district, the direction it takes could deeply affect the 3,000 children who attend its schools — and Robert, a junior, fears the unknown.

“(We’re) struggling in a few areas,” he said. “You can’t make decisions solely based on that.”

So he and about 200 people — most of them parents, civic leaders and district residents — traveled by bus Wednesday to protest outside the education department’s offices to make sure their voices are heard.

They shouted “Respect our voices!” “Read our plan!” and “Normandy strong!” Their shouts carried down the street and into the Capitol building, and reverberated off the walls of the education department’s offices on Jefferson Street.

The protest was born from their distrust of state government, which has only grown this past year. Since the fall, district officials and parents have decried the fact that they’ve been forced to comply with the state transfer law, which is leading the north St. Louis County school system toward bankruptcy.

Normandy had been financially stable. But then, last summer’s state Supreme Court ruling upheld the transfer law and allowed children in Normandy and in other unaccredited school systems to attend better schools at their districts’ expense. For Normandy, the resulting $1.3 million in monthly tuition and transportation expenses for about 1,000 transfers has it close to depleting its savings.

The Missouri Legislature agreed to send the district $2 million to finish the school year – not enough for schools to reopen this fall.

A state-appointed task force is close to finishing its recommendation on what to do with the district, the worst performing school system in Missouri last year.

Its recommendation is expected to go to the state Board of Education on May 19 or 20.

As they protested outside the education department, Normandy residents said they’ve felt ignored. They accused state educators of dismissing the district’s reformation plan — written by Normandy school officials this winter as their road map to improvement.

Ella Shelton-Oatts, 69, fears Normandy schools could dissolve. She has lived in the district 29 years. Her grandson, Jeremiah Ward, is a third-grader at Jefferson Elementary School.

“We want DESE to listen to our plan and move our district forward,” Shelton-Oatts said, clutching a sign with “We are Normandy Strong” tightly to her chest.

Similar signs were held by dozens of the protesters.

In advance of their arrival, the education department issued a news release:

“We, too, want to keep Normandy strong,” it read. “We believe children in Normandy deserve access to high quality schools in their community. We are doing everything we can to ensure that can happen.”

The statement also said Normandy’s reformation plan was among several that state officials used to develop the new statewide plan for improving troubled school systems.

At the protest, Joyce McRath, Robert’s mother and a member of the Normandy School Board, said she didn’t believe state officials had taken their concerns to heart.

She recalled Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro’s being on her cellphone during a forum in February, when Robert had stepped to the microphone and identified himself as a student.

“It was a slap to the face when DESE came to our neighborhood and didn’t offer a Q&A and didn’t hear us or the students who spoke,” she said.

Meanwhile, later Wednesday the Missouri House voted to place limits on the private, nonsectarian school transfer option in a measure modifying the school transfer law.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 91-64 after about three hours of debate. The Senate passed its own version of the bill in February. Any differences between the House and the Senate version would need to be reconciled before the measure is sent to the governor.

Under the House-passed bill, only students in St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jackson County districts could transfer to a private school. Private schools are not required to accept transfer students, but, if they do, the public must vote on it. Local tax revenue would pay for the transfers.

Alex Stuckey of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.