Sumner High made big gains. Neighbors worry the tornado could undo them

Four years ago, the storied Sumner High School nearly closed, with St. Louis Public School leaders citing low enrollment and the high cost of renovating its historic building. 

But in the years since, the school has increased its enrollment by 60 percent, from 221 students to 361. The school’s graduation rate for African American students is 92 percent, significantly higher than the SLPS system as a whole. 

That’s according to a new report by the Sumner Advisory Board, a group of students, alumni, educators, residents and nonprofit workers who put together a plan to save the school in 2021. Its chairman, Aaron Williams, wrote that the milestones speak for themselves and are in large part thanks to the school’s new model of integrating arts education and collaboration with outside entities into the curriculum. The report has been sent to SLPS Superintendent Millicent Borishade and the Board of Education.

Situated in the heart of The Ville neighborhood, Sumner holds the distinction of being the first high school for African Americans west of the Mississippi and counts as alumni Arthur Ashe, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and Dick Gregory, to name a few. Fitting of that legacy, in the past four years the school has re-introduced dance, drama, theater, fashion and an array of music programs. The school has intertwined itself with the broader arts community, with students having available to them internships at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Students have worked the lights at The Muny and competed in Lindenwood University’s fashion show. 

This is all in large part thanks to a recovery plan for the school put together and executed by the advisory board, which raised $1 million from its members and affiliated arts organizations for its recovery process. 

In 2021, as part of the school remaining open, the advisory board entered into a memorandum of understanding outlining goals the system wanted Sumner to hit—a 5 percent enrollment increase year over year, the creation of elective programs. Four years since the signing of that MOU, those goals seem incredibly modest compared to the school’s actual achievements.

Despite all this, though, the spectre of closure hangs heavily over Sumner. 

For years, the St. Louis Public School district has put off closing school buildings, even as enrollment has declined precipitously. Leaders have warned that the district simply can’t sustain so many buildings (most of them older) with the staffing and maintenance each requires—but neighbors have bitterly opposed closures.

Then on May 16, a tornado ripped through St. Louis. North City—and The Ville—were hit hard.

Pastor Charles Norris, who preaches at the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church across the street from Sumner, says that the high school’s vibrancy is more important than ever in the wake of the tornado’s devastation. “Sumner is one of the last anchor institutions in this neighborhood,” Norris says. 

But questions about Sumner’s future are now more urgent than ever. Earlier this month, Borishade listed seven schools that would not be open this fall due to tornado damage, Sumner among them. The closures were framed as temporary, with students doing their learning elsewhere until plans for the buildings’ restoration and reopening could be finalized. “This decision allows us to provide stability and continuity for our students while we meticulously work through the complexities of rebuilding,” Borishade said in a statement at the time. (Sumner students are being sent to Clyde C. Miller Career Academy High School in Grand Center.) 

In a statement to SLM, Borishade says that SLPS remains committed to Sumner. Its temporary closure is solely due to the tornado. “As I have shared on multiple occasions, there is no plan, nor any list, indicating a permanent closure for the school, as no such plan or document exists,” she wrote. She lauded the school’s increasing enrollment and graduation rates. “We consider Sumner one of our district’s great success stories.”

“Let me be unequivocally clear: our plan is to reopen Sumner High School as soon as the building has undergone the necessary repairs and has been deemed entirely safe for reentry by all relevant authorities,” she continued, adding that the community would remain informed “every step of the way.”

A recent visit to Sumner showed the building looking largely unscathed. A portion of the roof in the center of the building had tarps over it, but its windows were all intact, the trees around campus rooted in the ground, its brickwork showing no noticeable damage. 

Norris says he still worries the relocation could slow the incredible progress Sumner has made. 

“It’s a little suspicious, and people are a little concerned,” he says. “Are you sure we couldn’t work out another solution?” 

Norris says that when he first started at the church nine years ago, Sumner only had about 100 students. Now, enrollment for August was projected to be 435. Norris worries that if Sumner’s closure were to become permanent, it would portend bad things both for the neighborhood around it and for the entire city public school system.

On the latter point, he compares the tornado to Hurricane Katrina and is quick to note that in the years after Katrina, New Orleans went to what is essentially an all-charter school system. 

For The Ville, Norris says, losing the Sumner would mean much more than just losing a school. 

“You got some real momentum going now. And now we have something that doesn’t look like the damage is that significant?” Norris says. “Factor that in with other schools in North St Louis [having closed] and it’s like, wait a minute, that’s a death blow.”

As Williams himself wrote in the report sent to Borishade, “As goes Sumner, so goes The Ville.”

CORRECTION: This article previously misstated the name and neighborhood of Clyde C. Miller Career Academy High School.