Sumner High School has a new lease on life, backed by a commitment from arts groups and its passionate alumni base.
The St. Louis school board voted Tuesday evening not to close Sumner after this school year as part of a district-wide consolidation plan and instead endorsed a plan to improve the school鈥檚 enrollment.
鈥淚 am ecstatic,鈥� said Warice Blackmon-Davis, a Sumner Bulldog alumna, Class of 1980, after the board vote. 鈥淲e have the spirit of the Bulldogs in us, and Bulldogs do not give up.鈥�
Sumner now will have an arts and activism theme that proponents hope will entice more students to enroll and reinvigorate the school. The board gave the school at least three years to make improvements.
Next school year, several area arts groups, including COCA and the Black Rep, will begin teaching courses in drama, music, dance and visual arts. In year two, the school will integrate an activism curriculum and courses on the Ville鈥檚 history.
鈥淲e have tried other things at Sumner. They have not caught on the way we鈥檝e wanted to,鈥� said Superintendent Kelvin Adams. 鈥淚n this particular case, there is some degree of organization that鈥檚 coming to the table in a very real way that gives me the impression there鈥檚 a real likelihood that something positive can occur here.鈥�
Sumner opened in 1875 as the first high school west of the Mississippi River to give diplomas to Black students and has anchored the Ville for nearly 150 years. But as the former hub of Black culture and population has declined in recent decades, so too has the school鈥檚 enrollment.
Sumner鈥檚 graduates include big names, such as rockers Tina Turner and Chuck Berry, opera singer Grace Bumbry and comedian Dick Gregory.
鈥淪umner has given so much to the arts over its long history,鈥� said Tom Ridgely, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival鈥檚 artistic director. 鈥淎nd so, the least that we can do as the arts community is to try to invest in it.鈥�
SLPS already has an arts-themed high school, but Sumner will not require an audition or portfolio review for admission, as Central Visual Performing Arts High School does. Sumner will not compete with Central VPA. 鈥淚 think it just raises the bar,鈥� Ridgely said.
Sumner wound up on a school closure list this winter, along with a dozen other school buildings, as part of . A strong community outcry first persuaded the school board to delay the consolidation vote and then give Sumner鈥檚 alumni and other backers an extra . Eight other schools will still close after this school year.
Sumner will also have its own advisory board, a model that has been successful at the district鈥檚 biosciences-themed Collegiate high school. Advisers could include Charles Berry Jr., son of the late Chuck Berry.
In the mid-20th century, Sumner educated more than 2,000 students. Enrollment in recent years has hovered around 200. The district proposed closing it in 2010 when enrollment dropped to about 500, yet alumni persuaded the district to keep the school open then, too.
The district aims to increase Sumner鈥檚 enrollment by 10% each year, but its future success will require it to swim upstream from severe demographic challenges for the city and school district. When Sumner鈥檚 halls were overflowing, the district had about 100,000 students. Today, its K-12 enrollment is below 20,000. The city鈥檚 population has also fallen from more than 850,000 to 300,000.
Aaron Williams, board chairman of 4 The Ville, a tourism and arts organization, said the community has the power to rebuild both the Ville and Sumner鈥檚 brand in the future.
鈥淭he one thing about Sumner鈥檚 legacy and Sumner itself is it is bigger than any demographic challenges that the neighborhood faces,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he story of Sumner is bigger than that.鈥�
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