51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Two years of deficit spending, federal budget cuts and the May 16 tornado have put 51黑料 Public Schools on track to deplete its financial reserves by 2030, Superintendent Millicent Borishade told the school board Tuesday night.

Borishade鈥檚 warning comes less than four weeks before the start of the new school year amid looming concerns over transportation and the closure of seven storm-damaged schools.

鈥淎ltogether SLPS will be spending $70 million in unplanned expenses鈥� in 2025-2026, Borishade told the school board at a meeting Tuesday.

The district鈥檚 projected fund balance stands at $197 million, but could fall below the state鈥檚 mandated minimum of about $12 million by 2030, the superintendent said.

Her remarks came in an introduction to a suggesting the district needs to close more than half of its schools in the next year because of declining enrollment.

Members of the SLPS board downplayed the analysis from Cordogan, Clark and Associates, which has a $7 million contract with the district through next June for facility planning services.

The school board is expected to vote next month on whether to increase the firm鈥檚 payment by close to $3 million with additional funds from , a $160 million bond issue approved by voters in 2022.

鈥淭his is just a report. A report has to be the beginning step,鈥� board President Karen Collins-Adams said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not making decisions on this. We need to be able to do things methodically, with a lot of community input and consider not just the data but the emotional impact that it has on everyone while we鈥檙e doing this.鈥�

Based on capacity needs for a declining enrollment, the footprint for SLPS should drop from 68 schools to 31, the firm鈥檚 representatives said. The analysis estimates SLPS enrollment will fall to 12,700 by 2035, a stunning collapse for a district that enrolled as many as 115,000 students in the 1960s.

Adding to the district鈥檚 financial woes is a projected loss of 2,000 students displaced by the tornado that tore through the city, heavily damaging north 51黑料.

Collins-Adams bristled at the report鈥檚 comparison of the tornado aftermath to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where a huge drop in enrollment has not fully rebounded 20 years later.

鈥淭here is no comparison to what happened in Louisiana where multiple areas across the city ... were flooded, and although many students didn鈥檛 come back, there were reasons why, and entire neighborhoods were permanently destroyed,鈥� said Collins-Adams, who was a principal in New Orleans during the hurricane.

SLPS has spent $28.5 million so far on tornado damage, including debris cleanup, insurance deductibles and replacing computers, with an expectation that 85% of its costs will be reimbursed by federal and state disaster relief funds, Borishade said.

Closing 37 schools would save the district $182 million over five years, according to the report. Steve Raskin and Greg Goebel of the planning firm, who presented the report to the school board, did not respond to questions about the figures on Wednesday.

Research shows that school closures historically have not yielded significant savings for districts, which spend the bulk of their funds on salaries and benefits. SLPS already owns 20 vacant school buildings, including some that have been shuttered for more than two decades.

Meanwhile, the school board did not discuss any back-to-school topics on Tuesday with one meeting left before school starts August 18. Families and staff are hopeful that new bus vendor Zum will help the district avoid the chaos of previous school years that were marred by dozens of canceled routes on many days.

More than 90 Zum buses have arrived in 51黑料 out of 220 included in the California company鈥檚 $30 million contract with SLPS. Most of the buses are parked at a local dealership before moving to Zum鈥檚 depot August 1 at an unspecified site, according to an .