Beginnings The act of the
United States Congress that created the
Missouri Territory in June 1812 also required that all land in the territory not belonging to private individuals or to the government for military purposes was reserved for schools. In January 1817, the legislature of the Missouri Territory voted to create a board of trustees to manage all land and property designated to be used for schools in St. Louis. The board also was given the power to employ teachers and create regulations for the schools. In his role as chairman, Clark repeatedly wrote to President
James Monroe requesting that Monroe identify land used for military purposes so that other land could be used for schools. After several exchanges between local military leaders, Clark, and President Monroe, in 1817 the federal government relinquished its claim to all land except for a small part, and further relinquished that area in 1824. Starting in 1817, the board of trustees began leasing its lands to provide income for future schools. This body, known as the Board of Education, continued to lease vacant land to provide income, although some of this money was mismanaged due to inaccurate boundary lines. In December 1833, the Board began to loan out money on interest, but up to that point, no money had been appropriated for the purposes of an actual school. For the next four years, the board continued to loan money and study school plans, but took no action to build a school. In 1836, the people of St. Louis voted to sell the city's
common land and to appropriate 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale toward the establishment of a public
school district. In December, the board met to purchase supplies and to interview potential teachers, and by March 1838, they had selected two candidates, David Armstrong and Miss M.H. Salisbury. The South School, later named Laclede Primary School, opened on April 1, 1838, with Edward Leavy and Sarah Hardy as co-principals. The North School, for which the board initially could not find a teacher, was abandoned and sold shortly after construction of Benton School due to the encroachment of a nearby market. Among these new schools was the first high school in St. Louis, which opened inside Benton School in February 1853. Approximately 70 students enrolled in the school, and its first principal was Jeremiah D. Low. After two years of construction, the first high school building, known as Central High School, opened on Olive Street in July 1855. In 1848
William Greenleaf Eliot, the
Unitarian clergyman in Saint Louis, was elected chair of the school board. He had a passion for creating schools. He and his congregants worked on a campaign to fund the expanding district. Only weeks after the
St. Louis Fire of 1849, St. Louis voters approved a 1/10 percent property tax to support the district, and three years later, the
Missouri General Assembly passed a school tax, which set aside 25 percent of state funds for education and provided schools with money depending on their enrollment. These early
field trips were more for recreation than for learning, but school administrators regarded them as healthy trips. The St. Louis Public Schools also opened the first public high school for black students west of the Mississippi,
Sumner High School, in 1875. St. Louis Public Schools opened the first public kindergarten in North America in 1873 under the direction of William Torrey Harris, then Superintendent of Schools, and
Susan Blow, who had studied the methods of
Friedrich Fröbel, the founder of the kindergarten system. By the end of the 19th century, the district had 95 schools and employed more than 1,600 teachers. During the
Great Depression, special programs such as free milk and lunches, and sewing classes were established to help families and conserve resources; teacher salaries were reduced, construction was postponed, and class sizes were increased. Students aided the war effort during both
World War I and
World War II by knitting scarves and socks for soldiers, raising poultry, cultivating
victory gardens, collecting scrap metal, and buying war stamps.
1950s to present By the 1950s a number of new schools were built to ease overcrowding, and in the 1960s, more attention was given to meeting the challenges of urban schools, including racial equality, poverty, overcrowded classrooms, and deteriorating school buildings. The 1956 film
A City Decides looked at efforts to desegregate schools in St. Louis, and was nominated for an
Academy Award for
Best Documentary Short. St. Louis Public Schools attained its peak enrollment of 115,543 students in 1967. The district enrolled 108,770 students in 1960 and 111,233 students in 1970. In 2007 the state of Missouri took control of St. Louis Public Schools and stripped them of accreditation. This decision was made due to the poor standardized test scores, graduation rates, leadership, and mismanagement of money. In 2006 SLPS was $25 million in debt and had a graduation rate of approximately 55 percent. Almost 19 percent of students were dropping out and over half of students were scoring below grade level on standardized tests. As a result, the state appointed a board to run the district for 6 years. Over the next decade the district worked to increase test scores, graduation rates and attendance. As a result, St. Louis Public Schools regained accreditation in January 2017. The district had a 72 percent graduation rate, over $19 million surplus, and continually improving test scores. In April 2025, St. Louis Public Schools president Antionette "Toni" Cousins lost re-election to the St. Louis School Board. ==Demographics==