School Closures

St. Louis Public Schools will not close any schools during this school year, according to district officials. To repair and maintain school buildings over 20 years would cost the district $1.8 billion, according to an architecture firm that is reviewing school buildings in the district.

“I believe in Catholic education,” Bishop Michael McGovern said. “Of all the different ministries we have, I think education is something we’ve done very well, especially in the United States.”

Notre Dame Academy in Belleville and St. Ann in Nashville, Illinois will both close at the end of the school year, citing declining enrollments.

The cost-saving measures enacted by the private Clayton-based university will reduce the next two fiscal year's budgets by more than $2 million combined.

The school was still calling for new students to enroll on social media as recently as last week.

The document cost more than $600,000 to develop, $225,000 of which was paid by St. Louis Public Schools.

La Salle Charter Schools, a middle school in St. Louis' Carr Square neighborhood that serves a predominantly Black student population, will close at the end of the year. Leaders said low test scores caused the school to lose the confidence of its academic sponsors.

St. Louis Archdiocese leadership said feedback from the community highlighted the need to postpone plans to close schools.

Belleville is using tax increment finance money to close the deal even though Mayor Patty Gregory said the city would use a state grant to pay for the property.

City Attorney Garrett Hoerner said the city is in “preliminary planning stages” of what it would do with the campus.