ST. LOUIS 鈥 Attendance fell by 735 students in six schools that were relocated this week because of tornado damage, according to 最新杏吧原创 Public Schools.
Ashland, Hickey and Washington Montessori elementary schools, Yeatman-Liddell Middle and Soldan and Sumner high schools enrolled a total of 1,673 students last year before moving into other buildings this summer.
On Tuesday, the second day of school, 938 students showed up to their temporary buildings for a combined loss of 44% compared to last year's enrollment. Yeatman-Liddell saw the biggest drop, from 345 students to 140, or nearly 60%.
The district could face staffing cuts if enrollment does not rebound this year, Superintendent Millicent Borishade said at a news conference earlier this week.
Before the tornado, Sumner High in The Ville grew steadily since avoiding closure in 2021 due to low enrollment. There were 407 students last year at the 150-year-old school that rebranded with a focus on social justice and fine arts. On Tuesday, 190 students showed up to classes at the new campus, the previously vacant Stevens Middle School a mile away in the Vandeventer neighborhood.
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The tornado caused an estimated $77 million in damages to district property, according to SLPS leaders. Borishade has said every school damaged by the tornado will be repaired and reopened. The early attendance numbers put each of the six relocated schools under 200 students, a traditional benchmark for viability.
Overall, SLPS reported 14,156 students in attendance on Tuesday, compared to 15,655 on the second day in August 2024. Attendance in the district historically increases over the first month of school, and reached a total of 17,981 in preschool through 12th grade last September.
Student attendance, the main factor in public school funding, is especially critical this year for SLPS as the district faces a budget deficit of $70 million and is on a path to bankruptcy by 2030 according to a state audit.
The school district plans to close an unknown number of schools by fall 2026 due to declining enrollment even before the tornado. A recent report from an architectural firm proposes closing 37 of 68 buildings to 鈥渞ight-size鈥 the district.
Meanwhile, transportation woes continue to frustrate parents and teachers in the district. Two buses did not show up for after-school pickup Tuesday at Woodward Elementary. Parents of students at multiple schools reported morning delays and rides home of up to 90 minutes. Officials at SLPS and the new bus vendor, Zum Services, did not respond to questions Wednesday.
Jason Williams, a general contractor, talks about damage done to Ashland Elementary School and the surrounding neighborhood while he was visiting the area on Friday, July 18, 2025.聽Ashland is one of the 最新杏吧原创 Public Schools damaged in the May 16 tornado, which displaced at least 2,000 students from their homes or schools in north 最新杏吧原创. Seven schools will not reopen for the fall, and students and staff will transfer to other buildings.聽
Carrie Day said her 16-year-old daughter was assigned a bus stop at Hampton Avenue, a four-lane thoroughfare, and Fryer Avenue, which does not exist. A staff member at Zum told Day it should read Fyler Avenue. The family lives at Juniata Street and Clifton Avenue, close to a half-mile away.
Day has driven her daughter to school each morning rather than walk to the bus stop in the dark for the scheduled 6:24 a.m. pickup. The afternoon bus rides have taken one hour to 90 minutes to reach Hampton and Fyler. Day said her repeated messages to Zum and SLPS to request a closer bus stop have been ignored.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in Lindenwood Park. We didn鈥檛 have a tornado,鈥 Day said. 鈥淲hy are our children being treated this way? Is it because they鈥檙e 最新杏吧原创 public school kids? The children themselves could put together a better route.鈥
Maplewood Richmond Heights School District also reported 鈥渓ong wait times, missed stops, and in some cases, students being placed on the wrong bus or dropped off at an incorrect stop,鈥 in the first two days of class, according to a message Tuesday to families from Superintendent Bonita Jamison.
鈥淚 want to sincerely apologize for these disruptions and the stress they have caused,鈥 Jamison wrote. 鈥淧lease know that we are working diligently to resolve these issues, and our transportation team is reviewing and adjusting routes to improve efficiency, ensure accuracy, and prevent errors moving forward. You should see improvements throughout the remainder of the week, and we will continue to monitor operations closely until we can ensure safe, timely, and dependable transportation service for all students.鈥
最新杏吧原创 Public Schools Superintendent Millicent Borishade discusses the first day of school at a press conference on Monday, August 18, 2025 at the district's operations center.
