‘Bleu’ debunks myths surrounding mental health, trauma
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“If you are an elected official or nonprofit entity and you wrote a letter or signed a resolution or posted on social media that we should postpone this vote, then it is your moral responsibility to follow it up with a concrete plan of action that you can take ... to help this school district. — SLPS Board President Dorothy Rhode-Collins
Vol. 92 No. 38 COMPLIMENTARY
A most essential worker As the pandemic takes hold, Misha Marshall shifts her caregiving into overdrive By Leyla Fern King For The St. Louis American
Photo by Lawrence Bryant
St. Louis Public Schools Board member Donna Jones on Monday walks to Clyde C. Miller Academy ahead of a closed/virtual board meeting to read over her notes and pray before the board was to vote on whether to keep the high school open or close it.
St. Louis School Board postpones vote on closing 11 schools By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American The St. Louis Public Schools Board on Tuesday night postponed a vote on whether to close 11 schools next year. The Board followed the recommendation of Superintendent Kelvin Adams to wait 30 days for additional feedback and brainstorming. The Board met at Clyde C. Miller Academy,
where members voted 6-1 to move the vote about closings to their Jan. 12 meeting. Board President Dorothy Rhode-Collins, was the sole vote against postponement. The public was able to watch the meeting on YouTube, as is the practice during the coronavirus pandemic. Adams said he believed his team and the Board did all they could to come up with a school consolidation plan, but he noted that based on overwhelming feedback since the list
of endangered schools was made public, the community disagrees with that assessment. “But even with that disagreement, I think it makes some sense to pause and this is my recommendation to the board tonight,” he said, adding that the postponement would allow him and his team to meet with community members See SLPS, A6
Restrictions stay put as first vaccine begins shipping across country By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American As the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine began shipping across the nation this week, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page addressed the public Wednesday and focused on the impact the pandemic has had on small businesses in the region. He encouraged the federal government to pass another stimulus that would provide more financial resources for small businesses. “We know that there are small businesses that have been hurt by this pandemic, and through a small business relief program we have awarded grants to 1,663 business, totaling $19.6 million,” he said during the news conference. “We are in the process of getting out the door another $4.75 million to restaurants and other small businesses through a rapid deployment fund as this pandemic continues to tighten its hold on this country.” He also confirmed that he’s signed an extension through April of the indoor dining restrictions that See COVID, A7
Vicki Hodges, a Mercy Hospital housekeeper, on Monday, Dec. 14, receives a coronavirus vaccine from nurse Lisa Finley at Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur. Photo by Lawrence Bryant
First of two parts This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center as part of the 63106 Project, a St. Louis-based non-profit racial equity storytelling project. On a frigid evening in January 2019, Misha Marshall set out to Missouri Baptist Hospital in west St. Louis County to work a 12-hour night shift as a registered medical assistant. On a normal day, the trip from Misha’s home in the Columbus Square neighborhood just north of downtown would take no more than 30 minutes and she usually drives. But on this Misha Marshall evening Misha was looking at a massive storm that would drop eight inches of snow across the region. With an abundance of caution, she tapped an app on her phone to hail an Uber. As Misha See Essential, A6
Deadline looms for Workhouse closure — but its fate on Jan. 1 remains unclear By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American It’s been five months since the St. Louis Board of Aldermen unanimously passed a bill to close the Workhouse by the end of the year, yet what will happen come Jan. 1 at the jail remains unclear. St. Louis’ Medium See the Security Institution, commentary more widely known as “the Workhouse,” has on page A4 operated on Hall Street near the Mississippi River since 1966. Board Bill 92 passed unanimously on July 17 and was based on the Close the Workhouse Campaign’s plan, while also establishing two funds of $7.6 million to address neighborhood safety and re-entry See Workhouse, A7