McKinley Classical Leadership Academy  McKinley Classical Leadership Academy (also known as McKinley High School) is a public high school and middle school for gifted and talented students in St. Louis, Missouri that is part of the St. Louis Public Schools. McKinley opened in 1904 as the first comprehensive public high school in south St. Louis, then closed in 1988 and operated as a magnet middle school in the 1990s and to present day . In 2007, it reopened as a high school for gifted and talented students, and in May 2011 it graduated nine students.