History

In the fall of 2009, the founding board developed from a series of conversations and experiences of several founding board members with experience working with schools. The original mission, vision and executive summary of South City Prep were created by Mike Malone. During his eight years as a classroom teacher, Mike saw the struggles of urban youth and created innovative strategies to help student overcome those difficulties. In the fall of 2008, Mike began working for the Missouri Charter Pubic School Association as the Director of Member Services and New School Development. In this position, he helped develop the association’s new school development program and was given the opportunity to observe charter schools across the state and country.

Over the course of two years, Mike noted the particular successes and failures of these schools and developed a strong support network with charter school developers in both St. Louis and Kansas City. In the fall of 2009, Mike started working on the charter application for South City Prep and began to reach out to others in his network who envisioned a school with a similar mission and with specific skills sets. In January of 2010, the initial founding group of Rodney Malone, Matt Stark, Michael Malone, Carter Cunningham and Kelli Best-Oliver met, approved a proposed timeline, and began the hard work of opening a rigorous college prep middle/high school in St. Louis City. Three members of the founding team became members of the founding board on February 8th, 2010 upon submitting the Articles of Incorporation to the State of Missouri.

By the summer of 2010, the board had expanded to nine board members with a variety of skills including experience in law, finance, banking, marketing, communications, education, business operations, small business, HR and the non-profit sector. South City Prep earned endorsement from Mayor Slay’s office in 2010, and was the recipient of a Walton Family Foundation Public Charter School Start Up grant as well as one of only two St Louis schools to earn a 2011 Federal Charter Schools Program grant.

In fall 2010, the University Of Missouri-St Louis became the authorizer/sponsor for South City Prep, which allowed us to earn our charter from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in January 2011. South City Prep moved into our first home, the former Messiah Lutheran School, in the dynamic Tower Grove East neighborhood on South Grand Boulevard, in April of 2011.

South City Prep was proud to open its doors to serve 5th and 6th graders in August of 2011. We will add 7th grade in August of 2012.