ST. LOUIS聽鈥 An influential Black church in north St. 亚洲无码 will add public education to its mission next fall.
Friendly Academy elementary charter school received unanimous approval Tuesday from the Missouri State Board of Education. The school partner of church plans to open in fall 2025 with 100 students in kindergarten and first grade, adding a grade each year for a total of 400 students through fifth grade.聽
鈥淚鈥檓 excited and hopeful with Friendly Temple鈥檚 track record,鈥澛爏aid Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge, a board member from Pasadena Hills.聽鈥淓verything Bishop (Michael F.) Jones touches turns to gold.鈥澛
Westbrooks-Hodge said her support was tempered by two concerns聽鈥 charter schools can open without taxpayer approval and the city has a declining number of families.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e opening new schools when the population of St. 亚洲无码 continues to dwindle and dare I say, hemorrhage,鈥 Westbrooks-Hodge said.
Charter schools, which are publicly funded but independent from St. 亚洲无码 Public Schools, have a mixed record since first opening in the city in 2000. Half of the 32 charter school operators have folded due to financial or academic failures.
The city鈥檚 public school enrollment has declined by 400 students in charters and 3,000 students in SLPS since fall of 2019. The St. 亚洲无码 Board of Aldermen passed a nonbinding resolution in 2021 calling for a moratorium on opening new schools in the city.
"Unfortunately it is not a surprise that the state would approve another charter school," said Byron Clemens, spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers Local 420, which represents SLPS staff. "Willy-nilly opening and closing schools in areas with a declining population is clearly the wrong direction."
Missouri law requires that charter schools have no religious influence on curriculum and operations.
In 2021, the state school board penalized the University of Missouri for failed oversight of religious elements at Eagle College Prep charter schools in St. 亚洲无码, which were then run by Christian group Open Sky Education based in Wisconsin. Eagle schools, now called Momentum, are no longer affiliated with Open Sky.聽
The curriculum at the new charter school will focus on artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship and community service, according to the presentation at the state board meeting. Bishop聽Jones is a founding member of Friendly Academy鈥檚 board of directors and also sits on the board of Opportunity Trust, which helps fund the charter school.
鈥淔riendly Academy will also target families who are members of our partner faith-based institutions. These families have been demanding a quality school for over a decade,鈥 reads the school鈥檚 prospectus.
The presentation said the school plans to open at 5599 Ridge Ave. in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood, two blocks from Friendly Temple鈥檚 main campus on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
The building is the former Ford Branch school built in 1958. Friendly Temple bought the building in 2015 from SLPS to use for their Meals on Wheels program, according to the .
Friendly Temple counts Mayor Tishaura O. Jones among its high-powered members. The church sits in the city鈥檚 13th ward, represented by Alderwoman Pamela Boyd, whose daughter Antionette 鈥淭oni鈥 Cousins is president of the SLPS board. Bishop Jones is a board member at North City Community Partners redevelopment group, where Cousins is CEO.
Cousins and the other SLPS board members did not respond to a request for comment on Friendly Academy. Before she joined the SLPS board in 2022, Emily Hubbard wrote a letter to the editor opposing the involvement of religious groups in charter schools.聽
鈥淚 am deeply troubled that these groups chose to pursue their mission of Christian education by putting public money into religious coffers and weakening the public school district that must serve every student, no matter their needs,鈥 Hubbard wrote.聽
The SLPS board has historically objected to new charter schools and sued Believe STL Academy last year for failing to notify the district of its intent to open. The lawsuit was later dropped, and the school opened in August with 120 students in ninth and 10th grades.