Fate of Wellston School District Could Be Decided Today

Missouri’s only unaccredited school district faces the executioner today. The State Board of Education is expected to decide if the Wellston School District in st. Louis County will continue to exist. The District has been unaccredited for two years. If the Board finds the District has failed to properly reach state standards again, the district could be taken over by a special board appointed by the state, or it could be consolidated into a neighboring district. The District is in debt. Enrollment has dropped twenty percent in the last two years. Its student achievement scores have not met state standards, and improvements in the scores in the last year have been questioned because of allegations of cheating in the testing. And the State Education Department says the District’s dropout figures are contradictory.