Saint Louis Public School District (SLPS) is the school district that operates public schools in the City of St. Louis, Missouri (but not St. Louis County, which is an entity independent of the city). History Beginnings The act of the United States Congress that created the Missouri Territory in June 1812 also required that all land in the territory not belonging to private individuals or to the government for military purposes was reserved for schools. In January 1817, the legislature of the Missouri Territory voted to create a Board of Trustees to manage all land and property designated to be used for schools in St. Louis. The Board also was given the power to employ teachers and create regulations for the schools. The first chairman of the Board was William Clark, and its first meeting was held in April 1817. In his role as chairman, Clark repeatedly wrote to President James Monroe requesting that Monroe identify land used for military purposes so that other land could be used for schools. After several exchanges between local military leaders, Clark, and President Monroe, in 1817 the federal government relinquished its claim to all land except for a small part, and further relinquished that area in 1824. Starting in 1817, the Board of Trustees began leasing its lands to provide income for future schools. In 1833, the Missouri General Assembly established a second governing body for St. Louis schools, which first met on April 18 of that year. This body, known as the Board of Education, continued to lease vacant land to provide income, although some of this money was mismanaged due to inaccurate boundary lines. In December 1833, the Board began to loan out money on interest, but up to that point, no money had been appropriated for the purposes of an actual school. For the next four years, the Board continued to loan money and study school plans, but took no action to build a school. In 1836, the people of St. Louis voted to sell the city's common land and to appropriate 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale toward the establishment of a public school district. From this sale about $15,000 was provided to the Board. First schools In July 1837, the board agreed to build two school buildings, known as the North School and the South School, respectively located at the northeast corner of Broadway and Martin