This information includes highlights of information received by the Ladue Schools Board of Education at the February 28, 2022 regular Board of Education business meeting. This is an unofficial record. Official minutes of each Board meeting are posted on the district website and are available for viewing at the Administrative Center after the Board approves them, typically two weeks after the meeting.
Click here to view a recording from the February 28 Board Meeting
Board President Remarks
Times like tonight, when we recognize our teachers and are joined by their families and staff, when we have energy in the room are so nice. As Board members, we are usually accustomed to being in schools, but although our teachers and staff have been back in buildings for a while now, we as a Board have not. It’s great to have our staff join us at these meetings, and we’re crossing our fingers that someday soon we’ll all be able to return safely to our buildings.
Superintendent Remarks
Caroline McGee, this month’s Excellence in Education recipient, is such a phenomenal gift to our district. All of our kindergarten teachers do an amazing job.
I want to personally congratulate Patricia Brown who recently was appointed as our district’s new Director of Technology. We are so excited to have her fill that role and for the future of technology in our district. She will replace Rob Highfill who will retire at the end of the school year, and I want to thank him for his years of service.
We have had an eventful two weeks of school since our last board meeting. We have implemented a mask-recommended strategy for our district, and although we’ve only had a few days actually in school since then because of weather, it has been received pretty positively for the most part.
As we move forward, we have learned from the Department of Public Health and the CDC that they are altering how they report COVID data and requirements in regard to masking on buses and in early childhood centers. I spent most of my day on the phone with medical professionals and legal advisors to make sure we understand all of the options. We will share more with our community soon.
Although our next board meeting is March 14, we may have a need, based on what we’ve learned, to hold an additional special session in the near future. We will need to modify our mitigation plan and I will communicate that with our board members before we hold a special meeting.
For tonight’s board meeting, we have added a statement into our plan that specifically addresses in-person attendance at board meetings in response to a request from our community. The statement says that we will adhere to a St. Louis County positivity rate of 12% to determine whether masks will be required, however, this is subject to change based on how the data is being reported to us. I’m happy to report we currently have a positivity rate below 12% so we are in a mask-recommended environment tonight.
I want to congratulate Instructional Coach Leah Crawford who was recognized as Old Bonhomme’s 2022 Black History honoree. Interestingly enough, it was Leah who started the tradition of celebrating African-American leaders in our community at Old Bonhomme six years ago. I can’t think of a more deserving person than Leah to be honored. From the moment I met Leah, she provided a family feel, and she does the same when she interacts with students. That is so key when we’re educating kids, that we have that family connection and our students know there is somebody at school who truly cares about them. For many students at Old Bonhomme, Leah is that person, and it is very common to see her walking the hallways and receiving hugs from students.
I also want to compliment the cast, crew, and technicians of Mamma Mia! They put on an outstanding production on Thursday night.
I had a chance to attend the boys’ basketball game on Friday night. They earned a thrilling victory on a last-second shot. I believe the boys’ next game is Wednesday against Westminster.
We had another need for an Alternative Methods of Instruction (AMI) Day last Thursday. I received a few emails from our community with questions on the rationale of using AMI days. DESE requires us to be in-session for a certain number of hours each school year, and using AMI days is a way to help meet this goal without adding to our calendar. Dr. Zielinski and I received several emails and we made a point to call many of them back to gather their feedback on AMI days. We want to consider all of our options for snow days along with AMI days. I hope today and this week are signs of things to come and we can put the ice and snow behind us, but you never know. It’s always nice to work with our parents; we received good feedback from them and I know Dr. Zielinski is considering gathering more feedback. It’s nice when our parents are willing to work with us to help solve our problems.
Tonight is a very important night as we have the opportunity to hear from our Curriculum and Instruction Department. They will address several relevant topics such as survey data, community data, and assessment data. The C&I Department works tirelessly and pulls in multiple sources of data to determine next steps for our organization. The data we examine is always looked at as part of a continuous improvement process and not in a punitive sense. I have reviewed tonight’s presentations and am looking forward to them. I don’t believe our C&I Department gets enough credit for what it does each and every day to constantly look at making us better for the students that we serve. Thank you very much to our entire C&I Department.
Finally, I want to announce this year’s Teacher of the Year honorees: Bridget Pogue (LECC) Caroline McGee (OBE) Elizabeth Dalbey (Conway) Kristen Reando (Reed) Tricia Sprat (Spoede) Stacy Hood (FGC) Mark Biernbaum (LMS) and Aly Levine (LHWHS).
ACTION ITEMS
Reed and Conway Project Budgets
Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Dr. Geoff Macy presented, and the Board approved, a budget relating to $14 million worth of work to be done at Reed and Conway as part of Prop L.
INFORMATION ITEMS
School Board Recognition Week March 6-12, 2022
The District will celebrate School Board Recognition Week beginning March 6 and at the next board meeting on March 14.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Amy Zielinski and DEI Coordinator Dr. Jennifer Riesenmy shared results from the fall 2021 school climate survey.
Assessment Data Report/Data Dashboard
Dr. Zielinski shared 2022 Winter Assessment Data
UPCOMING MEETINGS
The next Board of Education meeting will be a regular Business Meeting on Monday, March 14, 2022. The Meeting ID will be posted on the Featured tab of BoardDocs when the meeting information is officially posted.
