As of the 2018–19 school year, the school had an enrollment of 377 students and 24 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 15.7:1. There were 374 students (99.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and none eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]
Metro is notable for being one of two International Baccalaureate World Schools in Missouri.[3] Their IB Diploma Programme is coordinated by Sharleta Williams.[4]
Metro opened in 1972 in a five-room building at 2135 Chouteau Avenue as an alternative public high school. It became one of the first magnet schools in the St. Louis Public Schools district in 1981.[5] In the early 1980s, the school moved to the Temple Israel building at 5017 Washington Place and in 1996, it moved to its current location in a purpose-built school building.[6][5]
In 1997, the school's founder and principal, Betty M. Wheeler, retired (and, in 2022, the former Kennard Junior Classical Academy was re-named the Betty Wheeler Classical Junior Academy, in her honor).[7][8][9] Her replacement, Pamela Randall, served until 2003, when she entered district administration and later served as superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools.[10] Randall's replacement, Wilfred Doug Moore, was principal from 2003 to 2017, followed by Steven Lawler.[11] In 2022, Lawler retired as the principal of Metro, and Dr. Tina Wallace-Hamilton became Metro's principal at the start of the 2022-23 school year.[12][13]
All Metro students are required to perform 200 hours of community service prior to graduation.[14][15]
Metro has been ranked among the top public high schools by Newsweek and has won national and state-level awards for quality. For the 2003–2004 school year, Metro was named a Missouri Gold Star school and a national Blue Ribbon school.[16] It was again named a Missouri Gold Star school and Blue Ribbon school in 2007–2008.[16] In 2012, Newsweek ranked the school as 125 out of the top 1,000 public high schools in the United States.[17] In 2016, the school earned the top scores for Missouri end-of-course exams in English, science, and social studies in the state.[18] In May 2018, Metro earned the top ranking in the state.[19][failed verification] In May 2020, Metro was ranked #1 high school in state of Missouri and #114 nationally by U.S. News & World Report.[20] In May of 2021, Metro was again ranked #1 high school in the state of Missouri, by U.S. News & World Report, and ranked #137 in National rankings.[21]
Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting is a feminist scholar and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of French in the Department of French and Italian at the Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science.[1] She is also the Chair of African American and Diaspora Studies as well as Director of the Callie House Research Center for the Study of Global Black Cultures and Politics. She served as Director of the William T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies from 2006 to 2012.[2] She is editor of The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union", and editor of the academic journal Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International. [3] She is also series co-editor of "Philosophy and Race" (SUNY Press) with philosopher Robert Bernasconi. Sharpley-Whiting was a member of the 1985 graduating class of Metro.
