An article submitted to Amerikaner by Renegade Royalist. If you would like to submit articles or any other content, please email amerikanercontributions@proton.me
Seated a few miles north of Delmar Boulevard, the informal dividing line between White and Black Saint Louis, is Normandy High School. In many ways Normandy is unremarkable, even its mascot, a Viking (an irony given its distinctively non-Scandinavian student body) is shared with at least 2 other schools in the area, but for a few years it was the locus of racial politics in Saint Louis, and a microcosm of the trend many of us are personally familiar with: failing Black schools and their consequences.
Established in 1923 on property purchased from the Eden Seminary, Normandy began its life being quite blessed. The campus featured a forest and lake, and outbuildings provided some housing for staff. The school was noted for having one of the first academic pools in the area, and some of its buildings, such as the curved seating amphitheater were renowned for their architecture. The academic programs of Normandy did not fall behind the architectural achievements, and collaborations with universities and opportunities for advanced education abounded. Normandy developed a reputation as one of the best schools in the state of Missouri, a distinction which would only serve as a greater height from which to fall in the future.
The neighborhood surrounding Normandy high school, much like large swaths of north Saint Louis county in the 60’s-80’s, underwent a rapid demographic transformation. White flight to western STL county and even further afield into Saint Charles county left much of the Pagedale, Ferguson, and other nearby municipalities to the incoming Black population, who arrived either from the inner city, or outside the metro region entirely. This is a story told again and again in cities across America, but in the case of Saint Louis the state government was less amenable to allowing “slipping standards” to continue in schools like Normandy. Most state governments, particularly those run by Republicans, make a point of blustering about “failing inner city schools,” and some go as far as trying to expand private school offerings for Black students. But in Missouri the well-meaning, probably liberal, employees of the Department of Education opted for a different approach in 2013: revoking the Normandy school district’s accreditation, and taking direct control of the district’s operations in 2014. This decision effectively declared Normandy “not a real school,” and, in conjunction with a Missouri Supreme Court ruling, allowed students in the district to be bussed to “affluent” (White) schools deeper in the county.
The prospect of thousands of Black students from a failing school flooding nearby White districts triggered immediate reactions from parents and students, many of whom would probably identify on the political left. “I deserve to not have to worry about my children getting stabbed, or taking a drug, or getting robbed,” one mother reportedly said. Francis Howell, a supermajority White school district across the Missouri River in Saint Charles country took in 450 Normandy students alone. The reality of Normandy students at their new schools varied. In some cases only a few Normandy students were sent to a school, and their impact there was minimal. But in other cases new arrivals numbered in the dozens, with predictable results. A point many in favor of the policy point to is the improved educational outcomes of those bussed students, but such data rarely, if ever, includes the averages for their hosts schools, or how the educations of the original students at the host school were affected.
Rather than creating more efficient state management of the school district, disaccreditation had the effect of shaking the hornets nest, scattering the true source of Normandy’s problems to the surrounding area, in an odd form of fallout. If that were not enough, the law as it existed placed the financial burden of tuition costs and transportation on the home district of students, a price which the cash strapped Normandy district will be ill equipped to pay. This forced the Missouri legislature to step in and cover the difference, bringing into reality the one time dream of Civil Rights activists of bussing students around to ensure diversity.
It was in this period of late 2013 that I had the dubious privilege to tour Normandy High School as part of an academic study group funded by a nearby state which was eager to learn where Normandy had gone wrong. The experience felt more like an anthropological post op than any kind of educational fact-finding mission. My group and I’s tour was lead by the then principal and a representative of the student body, who took us through the primary classroom buildings, as well as the aged, but still proud facilities such as the theater and auditorium. One of our final stops was a remarkably new looking gym and weight room. The student representative proudly boasted that the facility and equipment had cost well over a million dollars, and had been donated by an alumni who’d gone onto play for the Rams, who were at that time resident in Saint Louis. I thought back to the aged desks and unkempt grounds we’d just passed by and bit my tongue.
Our visit to the school concluded with several speeches from administrators praising the school’s perseverance and dedication to continue in the face of scrutiny from the state government. Even nearly a decade ago I knew enough of the world not to question the adversarial attitude that the Black school staff seemed to have towards the state’s largely White department of education.
The tensions between the DoE and local school district were heightened and brought to a degree of public attention when a recently graduated Normandy student, Michael Brown, engaged in an altercation with a police officer and found himself expelled from life as we know it. In the ensuing Black riots and general civil discourse the failings of Normandy were highlighted.
While Brown himself had graduated his behavior was used as evidence that the school was not producing quality citizens, even if their report card averaged above 2.0. The Normandy diaspora also provided a ready pool of student agitators across Saint Louis county. Despite these challenges the DoE held firm, retaining control of the Normandy district until 2017, when it dissolved the old Normandy school district and created the “Normandy Schools Collaborative,” declaring that the “’The district’s score went from 7.1 percent in 2014 to 62.5 in 2017’…The state award points for things like academic performance, attendance, college-and-career readiness, graduation, and other factors.” One must question what these “other factors” may be, as a quick search on the Missouri DoE’s statistics website indicates that the new Normandy school district’s academic performance remains terrible, and its Black students’ graduation rate is below even the average Black graduation rate in Missouri, if only slightly.
The strategy of destroying and recreating a Normandy school district brings to mind a scene from the mob movie “Casino” wherein Robert De Niro, playing casino manager Ace Rothstein, is incredulous to the notion that the Nevada gaming board would grant him a gaming license, before it is explained to him that he can work in a casino while his application is in processing, and he can continuously reapply to delay a decision. The parallel to Normandy’s situation becomes even more obvious when one considers that the Normandy Schools Collaborative’s accreditation is only provisional, a status which allows it to continue to poorly perform while not being the state’s responsibility, either as a directly managed entity, or one with full state approval. The history of Normandy’s failure has led to a continual, if reduced, spotlight. Of particular note recently is that the district’s superintendent has been found to be without the certifications normally required to occupy the most senior role in a district, prompting him to announce he will step down. He will doubtlessly miss his $215,000 salary. That the head of a school district with a history of accreditation issues should himself be without the certifications required to do his job is just the latest bitter irony in this saga. As Normandy gradually circles the drain we should look at its legacy, or rather what step it represents in the progression of civilization caused by race in America. Normandy is the end product of White flight, Black encroachment, subsequent mismanagement, and desperate state intervention to maintain the façade of normalcy. It broke from the usual blueprint though in that its failure directly touched the surrounding White communities, racializing many residents, and terrifying political figures, who are well aware of what happens when you boil the frog too quickly. The way we can know that Normandy’s public implosion was the source of much radicalization is the fact that parents showed up in the dozens to protest the importation of bussed in Black students, but there is silence as Francis Howell, the aforementioned White supermajority school district, now has more diversity than at the height of the bussing program. A bump in Francis Howell’s “diversity score” can be seen in 2013-2014, but that score was exceeded by 2018.
Previously 90+% White, the largest high school in the district is now only 84% White, evidence that even 30 miles and a river won’t stop diversity’s march. But still, 84% White is pretty good right? 80% would probably be good too, 70% would probably not be too bad. You could probably even do 60% and be OK!
At least, that’s probably what the White students and parents of Normandy though throughout the 70’s and 80’s as their school’s campus gradually decayed.