McKinley Students Organize Against School’s Proposed Closure

What will be the fate of St. Louis’ McKinley High School? Will it close in May of 2027? Will its present 9th, 10th, and 11th graders get to graduate from the school? Or might it stay open even longer? Facing mixed messages and an uncertain future, McKinley Students recently went to the school board to advocate for their school and their desire to attend McKinley until their graduation.

The St. Louis Board of Education is considering the adoption of the Future Ready SLPS plan. If passed by the board on November 10th, it will close at least eleven St. Louis public schools, with more under consideration. Among those considered for closure is McKinley High School, a magnet school which, according to US News and World Report, is the 19th best high school in Missouri.

At the time of their admission last spring, students who elected to go to McKinley had no knowledge of any closure plan. Once the school year began, students and parents were informed by the school that the district was planning a phased closure for the school. Under that plan, this year’s 9th graders could study at McKinley until graduation. All existing students would be able to complete their studies at McKinley, though no new high school students would be enrolled. Under this plan, the building itself would remain open, even after 2030, as the McKinley Middle School is housed in the same building.

Believing that they already understood what their future at the school would look like, students were surprised when they recently learned that this future was not set in stone. During the past three weeks, top district officials let students and teachers know that they are now strongly considering shutting the high school next May and sending the students to Central Visual and Performing Arts beginning in the fall of 2027. This included a meeting for parents on Monday, October 19th, and a school assembly for students on Monday, October 26th. Both parents and students made it very clear that there was an overwhelming desire to keep the school open next year. Despite the wishes of McKinley parents and students, officials made it clear that they were still strongly considering closing the school in May of 2027. The district also sent this survey to McKinley parents asking if they wanted to continue the phased closure or close the school next May.

In response to this uncertainty, students took part in a protest on the evening of Tuesday, October 27th at the St. Louis Board of Education meeting. Ninth-grade student Eddie Berg (disclosure: Eddie is my son) organized the protest. When asked why he organized the action, Berg told me he organized the protest “to make sure that me and every other McKinley student were able to graduate at McKinley. Myself and a lot of other ninth graders probably would not have applied to the school if we had known that it might be closing down next year.”

The students and parents eventually went into the Board of Education meeting. During that meeting (as reported by St. Louis Public Radio), “school board President Karen Collins-Adams asked Superintendent Myra Berry to amend the McKinley proposal.

Collins-Adams said she would support delaying the closure of McKinley for two years if the parents and the school community could increase student enrollment. McKinley currently has 240 students. She did not specify the benchmark McKinley would have to reach to remain open.”

This proposal introduces yet another possibility for the school, one that would allow students to study their for at least two more years and possibly longer. But it is just a proposal. A final decision on the details of Future Ready will be made at the November 10 school board meeting.

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I talked to some other students who participated in the protest. They shared their reasons for joining the demonstration:

Gabriel Brown, McKinley 10th grader

I’m here because of the closing of McKinley – it makes no sense. Whenever we’ve asked them why they are closing McKinley they’ve completely evaded the question, gone off on tangents, and been rude to us.

Mathew Brown, father of Gabriel Brown

When they first started this Future Ready process, they were telling us that we needed to move quickly because it was urgent to save money and close the budget deficit. But as the plan has shrunk, it’s now only closing about a fourth of the budget deficit they were talking about, and there has been no clarity on why McKinley is being closed. A lot of the other schools are very low-utilized elementary schools, whereas at McKinley, the high school and the middle school, is pretty well utilized, and it has a very unique place in the SLPS high school ecosystem. It’s the third-ranked school in the system, and it provides a mix of good academics, AP classes, etcetera, and music, arts, dance – so it’s a really well-rounded school.

Quinn Davis, McKinley 9th grader

At the assembly, I didn’t say anything, but I feel like all of the questions were just kind of blown off, and a lot of questions were left unanswered, and I’m kind of upset about that.

Simon Oliver 9th grade

I’m here because my school is being closed with this new program, and the administration has been particularly deceitful about it. They have lied to our faces. They have delayed, they have postponed, and they have done all types of shady stuff… and it’s just frustrating.

Elodie Uren, McKinley 10th grader

Currently, we’re really feeling just disregarded because they’re showing us that our education doesn’t matter as much as other kids’ and that we have to sacrifice our high school experience for “the greater good”, as they said at our meeting at our school. Even though this is going to affect my high school years and possibly my college years, it doesn’t matter because of “the greater good”.

Lanae Brown, McKinley 11th grader

I am out here to protest for my school. I think that the board and the people who are in charge of this decision are being very inconsiderate to the students, and I feel that we have very clearly voiced our opinion and exactly what we wanted, and now it feels like we are just not being heard, and they want us to think otherwise.