The chairman of a Bayless School District task force and a pastor by trade, David Woodard summoned his rhetorical skills to capture the complex state of the south St. Louis County school system in two succinct and telling sentences. "We are diverse and we are committed to families," Woodard told the district's School Board Wednesday night. Woodard, the father of three, paused for effect before continuing: "And, we are growing."
Are they ever.
Between now and the end of the next decade, Bayless projects a gain of one-third over its current enrollment.
To Bayless, the jump to some 2,200 students in 2019 from today's 1,662 will require a major re-shuffling of space and priorities to respond to a seismic shift in the ethnic makeup and character of the community it serves.
Attracted by relatively low housing costs, working-class immigrants have flocked to the Bayless district in unincorporated South County.
The newest students come from countries like Vietnam, Haiti and Bosnia, to name a few.
Today, nearly 40 percent of the district's students double the number of just four years ago are English-language learners.
St. Louis University professor William Rebore, an authority on educational issues, says Bayless is an example of a "nesting cycle," triggered by blue-collar families purchasing affordable homes from older residents, many of them senior citizens.
Earlier this year, the School Board turned to the Student Success Task Force a 30-member committee which, in turn, reached out to 30 community leaders and organizations to study how to address the population boom.
Top on the list was "competitive compensation" for teachers, whom the task force praised for adapting their instruction for students learning English as a second language..
A close second was finding space for those teachers to teach.
Therein lies the district's dilemma.
The district's entire facilities administrative offices, elementary and intermediate schools, a junior high and a high school line the 4500 block of Weber Road.
"What you see is what we have," said Superintendent Maureen Clancy-May. "This is all the land we own."
The influx has already stretched the district's buildings to the limit, forcing school nurses, counselors and English language mentors into oversized utility rooms.
"We take advantage of every closet we have," said Clancy-May, acknowledging that, soon, even that won't be enough.
The superintendent and the School Board have ruled out the most obvious solution to the space squeeze.
Bayless is not about to embark on a building binge.
Doing so in a district that lacks a revenue-producing commercial tax, said Clancy-May, "is just not practical. And we're not about to become impractical as we move the district forward."
As it stands, "Bayless has performed miracles with nothing," said parent Kenneth Ennis. "I can't believe how well we do with what little we have."
In the coming years, everyone acknowledges, the district will have to find a way to somehow do it a little bit better.
Clancy-May and the board are turning first to a comprehensive five-year facilities plan.
Much of the plan addresses routine maintenance needs as well as mandatory upgrades to meet state standards in classroom technology.
But tucked in the details are proposals to construct a two-story addition to the high school, to open space by reducing the size of junior high lockers and to convert parts of a junior high kitchen into office and meeting areas.
Modular classrooms are another option, said School Board president Michael Hickey.
"It's something we haven't looked at yet, but it's definitely a possibility," said Hickey. "It would give us some flexibility because, if we get this bubble of students in the lower grades, we can move the modulars (through the system) with that bubble."
Identifying the potential for crowding early, Woodard said, gives the district an advantage.
"If we were to hit a 33 percent increase next year, it would be tough," he said. "Fortunately, it will be spread out for some time."
sgiegerich@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8172
