ST. LOUIS 鈥 In many ways, it was like most commencements, with boisterous families and microphone interference. Only for Beaumont High School, the graduation ceremony Wednesday marked the end of an institution.
Seventy seniors filed into the auditorium of Beaumont High to become the last ones to receive diplomas there.
鈥淯nderstand what being last truly means,鈥 Principal Gerold Nave told them, before a crowd that didn鈥檛 quite fill the bottom half of the lofty auditorium.
It means carrying out Beaumont鈥檚 legacy in a positive way, he said. And then he went on to urge them to be leaders, be proud and make a mark on society.
His charge was one of just a few nods to the fact that Beaumont High School 鈥 one of the few remaining comprehensive high schools left in 最新杏吧原创 鈥 would cease to exist once the ceremony ended.
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Some in the crowd said they were unaware. But several dozen alumni in the first few rows said it was their only reason for attending.
鈥淭his is historic,鈥 said Evelyn Thomas Smith, a 1967 Beaumont graduate.
鈥淏ut it shows someone is asleep at the wheel,鈥 said Henry G. Miller, also a 1967 grad.
The closure of Beaumont, 3836 Natural Bridge Avenue, is part of a larger movement in the works for years in 最新杏吧原创 Public Schools. Traditional high schools have been losing students at a more rapid rate than the school district, which itself has lost 34 percent of its children in 10 years, according to state education data.
They鈥檝e suffered from low academic achievement, discipline problems, low graduation rates. Academic performance at Sumner, Vashon and Roosevelt 鈥 the district鈥檚 remaining three comprehensive high schools 鈥 ranks among the worst in the state. The district has had better success at its 12 magnet and choice high schools, such as Carnahan School of the Future and Clyde C. Miller Career Academy.
So when Superintendent Kelvin Adams announced in 2011 that he鈥檇 be phasing out Beaumont, no one stepped forward to publicly object.
But that didn鈥檛 make the ceremony any easier for Aretha Brown, the valedictorian, who said she was eager to go to college but noted that she wouldn鈥檛 ever have a homecoming to return to. She said her Beaumont teachers had helped her through the traumatic weeks after her family lost their home to a fire.
鈥淭hey just did so much for us,鈥 Brown said.
Beaumont opened with an all-white student body in 1926 on the former site of Robison Field, where the 最新杏吧原创 Cardinals played until 1920. It was five stories and just three blocks from the burgeoning Central High School, which also served the densely populated Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood.
In 1954, Beaumont became the first school in the city system to integrate. After Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas temporarily closed following its integration crisis, three members of the Little Rock Nine finished at Beaumont.
In the 1970s, the school became predominantly black as whites left the area. In the following decades, the school鈥檚 physical condition, security and academics deteriorated.
The Wall of Fame on the second floor commemorates notable Beaumont grads, such as Dave Sinclair, the late car dealer; Cory Spinks, the boxer; and Blanche Touhill, the former chancellor of the University of Missouri-最新杏吧原创. Other famous alums include the late baseball Hall of Famers Earl Weaver and Dick Williams.聽
Richard 鈥淏ird鈥 Hamilton, Beaumont鈥檚 basketball coach since 1995, sat outside the auditorium. He grew up two blocks from the school. His son graduated from Beaumont. He remembers when the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood filled with children the moment school let out.
鈥淣ow at the end of the school day, we don鈥檛 have many kids,鈥 Hamilton said.
Unlike the old Central High, Beaumont will not sit vacant. A career technical program is on the basement level. An alternative school takes up the second floor.
On stage, Whitney Kennell sat surrounded by classmates who had mixed feelings about the night and being the final graduates.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an honor to be in the last class,鈥 she said.
But Purnell Bush said he didn鈥檛 care much for the school. Others shrugged and said they were excited to move on.
鈥淚t鈥檚 resonating with the students, but not as much as it will two years from now,鈥 Nave said. 鈥淣ot at this juncture in life. It hasn鈥檛 hit them yet.鈥
