Normandy schools face uncertain future

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Students in the unaccredited Normandy School District face an uncertain summer as a state-appointed board prepares to take over the struggling St. Louis County system.

Nearly 500 Normandy students were able to attend schools in the Francis Howell district in the academic year that ended Friday under a state law which requires the failing Normandy district to pay its former students' transportation costs. Normandy also pays more than $11,000 in annual tuition per student to the St. Charles County district.

But Gov. Jay Nixon has said he will veto legislation that would revise the transfer law and no longer require unaccredited districts to pay for transportation. And the Normandy district is suing over the new state law.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (bit.ly/1o6dpRH ) reported Friday that 350 students who live in the Normandy district want to transfer to Howell schools next year. That group includes 12-year-old Naomi Goodloe, a sixth-grader at Saeger Middle School.

Naomi endured 22-mile bus rides of nearly two hours each way, a schedule that she said kept her from joining the school band. Her friends who stayed behind in Normandy schools called Saeger a "white school." A new friend asked if Normandy was in "the 'hood," she said.

But after getting poor grades and being bullied at her previous school, Naomi made the school's honor roll and received an award from teachers at an end-of-year school ceremony for overcoming challenges.

Lorrine Goodloe has tried to let her daughter know a lot could change during the summer.

"I told her, 'I'm sorry, it's really out of my hands," said Goodloe, a single mother who also has a son with special needs. "She said, 'I'm going to miss all my friends.'"

Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro said she will make a recommendation on Normandy's accreditation status in June, just before the district is officially dissolved. A special task force commissioned by Nicastro has said it would like to see the students who transferred this year be able to continue in their new schools.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

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