Boys Hope Girls Hope on Brentwood School Board Agenda

is interested in buying two lots and building an office and group homes for teenagers.

Boys Hope Girls Hope St. Louis provides a home for motivated children-in-need to live in while going to middle and high school.

The group would like to build on Madge Avenue, and invited residents of that and nearby streets to an informational meeting at St. Mary Magdalen.

If this came about, some of the approximately 20 students could potentially go to Brentwood public schools. Superintendent of Schools David Faulkner invited Brian Hipp, the executive director of Boys Hope Girls Hope St. Louis to a Brentwood Board of Education meeting for an introduction. It's on Tuesday's agenda.

“David Faulkner invited me to come to the board meeting, just to speak briefly to introduce the Boys Hope Girls Hope Girls Hope program to the school board members so they understand what our program is about, what type of young people might be attending Brentwood schools in the future,” Hipp said.

Faulkner said it’s strictly an informational meeting. There’s no action to be taken. 

“We’ve heard things about it, but nobody has heard anything directly," he said.

When asked if the board would determine if any students of the group home could go to Brentwood schools, Faulkner said that’s not something that the board can predetermine on a blanket basis.

“That’s why we want to hear the whole program – what their expectations are of us, because we don’t know what questions to answer,” he said. “I know in other districts, many of the kids go to private parochial schools, and that doesn’t affect us at all.”

A Brentwood resident who lives near the proposed group home wrote an informational blog with her concerns. What are your thoughts?

More in Patch on Boys Hope Girls Hope:

• Group Home in Residential Area
• Director of Group Home Wanting to Move to Madge Avenue: "Our Kids Are Hand-Picked"
• Group Home for 20 Teenagers on Madge Avenue?