The St. Louis Board of Education was set Tuesday night to discuss the future of its partnerships with the city treasurer’s office in connection with both the College Kids Savings Account and the Guaranteed Basic Income programs.
But a boisterous and unruly audience of dozens of St. Louis Public Schools parents led the school board to cut the meeting short amid a cacophony of people shouting at board members about a variety of issues and concerns.
The issues they shouted about so angrily covered a wide range, but all were tethered to the same underlying complaint: the school board refuses to listen to them. The parents were organized by a group called Coalition with STL Kids, which sent a media alert before the meeting highlighting the low literacy rate among district pupils and demanding personalized reading plans for each student, among other action items.
Problems began after the criticism exceeded the designated 30-minute time period for public remarks.
“That concludes our public comments,” announced Antoinette “Toni” Cousins, the board president.
Immediately a man in a gray shirt rose from the audience.
“Point of order,” he said. “There are parents and grandparents who’ve come to express their concerns. And for the board to allow (others) to speak, then to deny them to speak is blatant disrespect. As a matter of fact, it’s despicable.”
For the next 10 minutes, an angry chorus of shouting, cross-talking voices rose from riled audience members.
“The board should be willing to listen to every parent and grandparent who came down here,” declared a second man. “I’m a grandparent.”
At that point, Matt Davis, the board vice-president, spoke.
“Madam, president,” Davis said, “I’d like to make the motion to adjourn.”
“Second,” Cousins said.
The meeting adjournment — which might not have occurred legally since there was not a roll call vote of members — did not end the audience interaction.
“Can’t none of these kids read,” a woman shouted. “What business are you all conducting?”
The same woman called out to Keisha Scarlett, the school district’s newly hired superintendent, who sat next to Cousins.
“Scarlett, I feel sorry for you coming into the school board like this,” the woman said. “They set you up to fail.”
The futures of both the College Kids and guaranteed basic income programs have been in limbo since Sept.15, when Scarlett sent a letter to city Treasurer Adam Layne containing questions about the effectiveness of the College Kids program, an 8-year-old program that earmarks city parking revenues to special bank accounts set up for city kids to use for college or trade school.
Scarlett’s questions track closely to the ones raised by a River City Journalism Fund investigation published in the RFT and St. Louis Public Radio on June 7.
The story showed that only 15 percent of the more than 23,000 eligible students in the district were taking part, that the average account had grown to just $73, and that the accounts are not interest-bearing.
As for the $5 million Guaranteed Basic Income program, which the city kicked off on Tuesday, Scarlett’s letter contained a demand that the treasurer’s office financially compensate the school district for the work employees will put in to oversee and manage records on behalf of the program.
Speaking during the public comment section, Layne urged the school board to end its suspension of involvement with College Kids. The program is an important way for low-income families with kids in the district to save for college and develop financial literacy, he said.
“I can’t overstate the importance of this program in a district that has the population demographics that we have,” Layne said.
Layne noted that the oldest group in the program — students in eighth grade — represents “over 2,000 extremely engaged families that have an average of over $200 in their accounts.”
Layne did not address the issue of whether the treasurer’s office would comply with Scarlett’s demand that his office reimburse the school district for employee time spent on the Guaranteed Basic Income program.
The only other person to speak about the College Kids program was Joe Miklovic, the grandfather of a former student at a district grade school.
Miklovic stated that the boy had not received cash incentives he should have received for good attendance under program rules. For more than four years, Miklovic said, he had complained repeatedly to people in Layne’s office, and the offices of Mayor Tishaura Jones and various members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen — all to no avail.
“In summary, the College Kids program urgently requires an internal review of its operations,” Miklovic said.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story contained information about the College Kids accounts that may have been misleading to some readers. The accounts that students are set up with are not interest-bearing. We regret any inference to the contrary.
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
