Our Choices for St. Louis City Schools

[Gina Kopp]

We'll be sending in our Magnet School Application for St. Louis city schools soon. After visiting four of the magnet schools, here are the ones we're listing on the application:

1. 1st Choice: Wilkinson Early Childhood
2. 2nd Choice: Mullanphy Investigative Learning
3. 3rd Choice: Shaw Visual & Performing Arts

The one we didn't put down but that we still visited was Stix Early Childhood. The teacher there that gave our son and I the tour had been working there for years yet could not describe the Project Construct curriculum in any detail (in fact, we seemed to know more about it than she did). Another strange thing was she didn't know about the "Resource Room" there at the school. She knew it was there, but she didn't seem to know that there were resources available for children with learning disabilities or other developmental diagnoses. In fact, she didn't even know what the room was called! She also appeared to treat our son's shyness as "bad behavior" rather than a personality trait, which rubbed me the wrong way. She also didn't know how to answer a question regarding discipline in the classrooms and also seemed to be very familiar and friendly with the other African-American teachers and students, but didn't seem to know the white ones as well. But her demeanor completely changed when I recognized a young African-American girl that we knew and said hello to her. The school is also huge with a lot more students than the others. Overall it just had a very negative, strange vibe.

At Shaw, the kids are exposed to all of the creative arts (dance, music, drama, art). And at 3rd grade, they get to pick which two they'd like to focus on more. The staff was personable and the kids (two 5th graders) that gave us the tour had a positive attitude about the school. It's on The Hill, and is an old school (over 100 years old) yet is clean and well kept. Their map test scores are a little lower than the others and the school is a little more out of our way than Mullanphy. Plus, it'd be easier for us to find classes for our son to supplement art and music (such as Coca) early on rather than math and science, which would be more difficult for us to foster.

At Mullanphy they go to the Botanical Gardens quite a bit for science, have a greenhouse with birds where the younger kids can go and care for plants and things, a nice computer lab, and a very nice library that we liked. In one of the classrooms the kids were making prisms, so they were doing something artistic but using a math perspective (creating something using math and art together). This tour was also done by 5th graders, so we got their explanations of things, as opposed to Stix. They also have a fence around the school that could really use a fresh coat of paint, but otherwise was in pretty good condition.

Wilkinson was the definite first choice for us, though. The staff was very warm and friendly. Most of the teachers there have master's degrees. They have a more positive approach to discipline, too, it seemed. They also appeared to be really following Project Construct, from what I saw in the classrooms. The tour guide, Diane Taylor, told us about the two curriculums, Open Court (which they appear to be trying to phase out) and Project Construct. When I asked her to explain, she went into one of the preschool rooms and the teacher came over and explained it all pretty articulately and she also said that with preschool they try to make it play oriented because their natural state is play (which goes along with my own personal philosophy). Old, well-kept buildings with two new playgrounds on a really quiet, tucked-away street off of Arsenal. UPDATE: Wilkinson ECC moved and is now located in the old Roe Elementary building in Dogtown. The new name is Wilkinson ECC at Roe.