Ben Clockey, a local teacher and educator of the year for secondary math, holds his sign while picketing for collective bargaining between the school board and teachers outside of the ӣƵ Public Schools building in ӣƵ on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
ST. LOUIS— The plan to relocate seven tornado-damaged schools by mid-August is on hold without the approval of the ӣƵ Board of Education and facing demands from the teachers union to open negotiations.
The plan from Superintendent Millicent Borishade to combine campuses did not consider safety concerns, particularly for middle and high school students and staff, say union leaders and some board members.
“I would really prefer that you listen, that this administration, this board listens to what (American Federation of Teachers Local 420), the teachers and the people who are on the front line have to say because it’s very, very dangerous out there. It’s dangerous in the classroom,”said longtime board member Donna Jones at a meeting Tuesday. “It’s different here in ӣƵ. I’m very worried about mixing kids together.”
Union leaders representing teachers, principals, nurses, bus drivers and other staff said they were not consulted about the indefinite closures of seven ӣƵ Public Schools buildings after the May 16 tornado blew out windows and damaged roofs.
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Denice Porter, a member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 420, speaks with other members of the union while picketing for collective bargaining outside of the ӣƵ Public Schools building in ӣƵ on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. The union is pushing for negotiations over relocating tornado-damaged schools.
The SLPS board declined to vote on the relocation of Sumner, Soldan and Beaumont high schools plus Yeatman-Liddell Middle School to other campuses across the city. They also rejected an amended relocation plan that only included Ashland, Hickey and Washington Montessori elementary schools.
Borishade has not provided any details about the plan including classroom sizes and staffing levels at the combined schools. The cost of consolidating the buildings has also not been revealed, although the district has reported an estimated $77 million in damages from the tornado.
While the district has submitted insurance claims for the repairs, there is no timeline for reopening the tornado-damaged schools.
Staff and community members have voiced fears that the school closures could become permanent as SLPS looks to reduce its footprint of 62 buildings by fall 2026.
There are early indications of that scenario, with posters in the SLPS boardroom that pair the mascots for Sumner and proposed host school Clyde C. Miller along with the motto “Stronger Together United for Excellence.”
The school board’s president Karen Collins-Adams set a deadline of Friday for a compromise on the relocation plan between the administration and the unions.
An initial meeting held Monday with union leaders and two of Borishade’s cabinet members was a “one-way conversation,”according to Carey Cunningham, president of the Administrators Association of SLPS Local 44.
Borishade said she did not attend the meeting because union leaders have been “disrespectful”in the past.
“I’m going to say that it becomes extremely difficult to hear people when they are cursing at you. It becomes extremely difficult when people are yelling at you,”she said.
After the meeting, teachers union president Ray Cummings denied cursing at Borishade and said she “played the victim” in her comments to the board.
Cummings emailed Borishade early Wednesday to ask for a meeting in the next couple days “to negotiate an agreement on moving students from tornado damaged schools to schools that were not damaged.”
“Local 420’s primary concern is the safety of our students and staff, not what is cheaper or easier. Be reminded that the #1 cause of work-related injuries to the folks represented by Local 420 is breaking up fights,” Cummings wrote.
Sharon Taysi, who teaches English for speakers of other languages, fixes her sign while picketing for collective bargaining between the school board and teachers outside of the ӣƵ Public Schools building in ӣƵ on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Union leaders are pushing for negotiations over relocating tornado-damaged schools.
Ray Cummings, president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 420, says Superintendent Millicent Borishade of ӣƵ Public Schools disrespected the unions by not negotiating the plan to relocate schools damaged by the May 16 tornado. Cummings spoke at the union’s headquarters at a press conference on Monday, July 7, 2025. Video by Blythe Bernhard of the Post-Dispatch.
