Jefferson City. Mo. ? The state school board voted Thursday to strip accreditation from the St. Louis school district and take control of its struggling schools.

The 5-1 vote came after angry students chanting “No Takeovers!” temporarily shut down the meeting. One student was handcuffed by Capitol Police after a brief foot chase.

Under the board’s decision, a transitional, three-person board, formed by state and district officials, will take over the St. Louis schools June 15. The locally elected board will remain in place but have no power.

The roughly 32,000-student district has struggled academically and financially for years. Its operating budget has shown a negative balance for each of the past four years, and a special state panel appointed to recommend ways to improve the schools recommended that an unelected board run the district.

Gov. Matt Blunt appointed businessman Rick Sullivan to lead the transitional board. Another board member will be appointed by Mayor Francis Slay, and the other by the president of the city Board of Aldermen.

Many of the students who drove to the Capitol to protest the move said they were concerned that if the district were unaccredited they would have a difficult time when applying for college.

“This is our future, and they are messing it up when they take away accreditation from us,” said Johnnie Fields, 17, a senior from Gateway High School.

Jim Morris, a spokesman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said last week that loss of accreditation should not affect students’ scholarships or future school acceptances, although he noted the department cannot control decisions by individual institutions.

Before the vote, State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education staff said the St. Louis school district had failed to meet both academic and financial standards.

The district met only four of the 14 performance standards set by the state, failing in such areas as middle and high school math scores, graduation rates and college placement. To remain provisionally accredited, it would need to meet six of the 14 standards. Full accreditation requires meeting nine of the standards.