Francis Howell wrestles with summer school options

By  Kalen Ponche

The Francis Howell School District may still offer summer school this year for elementary school students, despite concerns about a potential drop in funding.

The Board of Education on Thursday voted 4-3 to cut the original budget for summer school from $1.3 million to $1.1 million. Board members directed the administration to bring a new plan for summer school funding to the next meeting.

District spokeswoman Jennifer Gasper said administrators will create a smaller plan for summer school that will try to incorporate as many of the programs as the district has had in past years.

School Board Election Results

Three incumbent school board members retained their seats on area boards of education and two others were ousted by voters in this year’s election with just 10.5 percent of registered voters casting ballots. For the full election results visit the Election Authority’s website.

In the Fort Zumwalt School District incumbents Carol Russell and Scott Grasser retained their seats on the board for another three-year term, each taking about 39 percent of the vote.  Candidate Will Klein had 20.9 percent of the vote in that race. For the two-year term, incumbent Barbara Story beat Renee Porter with 59.8 percent of the vote. Porter had 39.64 percent of the vote.

Francis Howell School District candidates Cynthia Bice and Amy McEvoy won seats on the board and will replace Terry Black and Sandy Sanders, who did not run for reelection. Bice, who was backed by the Francis Howell Education Association, took 30.25 percent of the vote. McEvoy had 26.45 percent of the vote, beating Gary Miller, the other candidate backed by FHEA who had 20.74 percent of votes. Other candidates included Daniel Wright, who took 13.9 percent, and Todd Mizell, who had 8.2 percent of the votes.

In the Wentzville School District incumbent Dale Schaper took 23.3 percent of the vote and will serve a second 3-year term. Longtime district volunteer Pat Hacker took 20.48 percent of the vote, beating incumbent Joe McDonald, who had 16.48 percent. McDonald has served two terms on the board. Other candidates included Peg Scholl, retired district teacher, who took 19.74 percent, Michelle Caracci, parent, 10.85 percent, and Paul Werner, 8.69 percent.

Orchard Farm School District candidate Carrie Doza took 35.23 percent of the vote, winning one of two open seats. Donald “Joe” Bushdieker edged out incumbent Jane Baum with 472 votes to Baum’s 469. Bushdieker is retired after spending 40 years in the construction industry. Baum is the athletic development director for Lindenwood University.

Warrenton School Board incumbent Jan Sutherland retained her seat for another three-year term taking 39.21 percent of the vote. Candidate Scott Costello won the other seat taking 35.04 percent of the vote. The third candidate, Clifford Tucker, won 20.35 percent of the vote.  Sutherland is also running in the Republican primary for the 99th District House of Representatives seat.

Schools consider cutting transportation

Orchard Farm School District won’t be providing transportation to students who live less than one mile from the new Discovery Elementary School, which will open in the fall for kindergarten through second grade. 

Parents of students who might be affected are angry and want to see sidewalks put in on the streets around the school. District administrators say that most parents will likely end up dropping their children off at the school, rather than have them walk.  

As the state legislature discusses possibly cutting funding for transportation, it’s possible that more area school districts will consider having students who live less than 3.25 miles from the school walk. St. Charles Superintendent Randy Charles said as the district moves forward, less transportation is a possibility school boards will consider. 

Francis Howell: parents step into art class; students win film awards

 

RYAN PREWITT PHOTO Betsy Rivera glazed her ceramic rattle she created during a Parents as Artist class at Francis Howell Central High School last weekend.

Good afternoon. Here’s a brief round up of news from the Franics Howell School District.

– Parents of students in the Francis Howell School District have been having fun at school lately. Francis Howell Central art teacher Judy Switzer organized a Parents as Artists workshop in which parents got to try projects similar to those their children do in art class. Switzer says she plans to host more Parents as Artists workshops in the coming months. Check out the full article that appeared in Wednesdays paper.

– The Missouri Tri-County Regional Science fair is looking for judges for the regional science fair on Feb. 27 at  St. Charles Community College. Judges will get a free breakfast at 8 a.m., then would judge the projects between 9 and noon.  If you are a family member could help volunteer as a judge, please contact Donna Malkmus at donna.malkmus@fhsdschool.org or call 636-928-9481.

Seventeen apply to be new chief at Francis Howell

By Kalen Ponche

Seventeen people are vying to lead the Francis Howell School District. The Board of Education plans to meet in closed session tomorrow to discuss the candidates. Seven of the 17 applicants come from out-of-state some from as far away as Texas, Arkansas and Georgia. The rest are from Missouri and include some internal candidates.

Kindergarten, federal grants and fundraisers for Haiti

by Kalen Ponche

Good morning. Here are a few things that are happening in the education world today:

– Wentzville School District Superintendent Terry Adams is expected to make a recommendation to the board on whether to offer full-day kindergarten in the district, at least for the next two years tonight. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the district’s administrative center at One Campus Drive in Wentzville. The board of education will also get an update on the opinions of the 400 or more parents and community members who attended a meeting last week to talk about how the district can accomodate growing enrollment. To read more about that, check out my story here.

– Francis Howell’s Board of Education will meet at 7 p.m.

– Make plans to attend a meeting with Fort Zumwalt Superintendent Bernard DuBray at 7 p.m. Feb. 8 at West High School. If your students attend West High School, West Middle School, and Dardenne, Ostmann, Pheasant Point, Rock Creek, or Twin Chimneys Elementary School, you’re invited to sip coffee with district administrators and hear about the accomplishments of district schools.

– The state submitted it’s application for a piece of the $4 billion in federal grants that’s available through Race to the Top program this week. We should learn exactly what’s in the state’s application later this week. Even if the state doesn’t get the $743,451,964 it asked for, in a press release the Department of Education said it would use the application as a blueprint for both redesigning the department and “driving educational reform over the next decade.” According to an executive summary you can find here, those changes include adopting the common core standards for math, reading, speaking and writing, developing models for perfomance-based teacher assessment systems, and creating a system where teachers and leaders can have common planning and collaboration time.

– Tell us, what’s happening in your schools? Are people organizing efforts to help the people in Haiti?

Wentzville Board Packets Online

Wentzville School District is joining several other school districts to put it’s board packet online. The documents included in the board packet often provide more information about what’s going to be discussed at a board meeting than just the agenda.

Check out the board documents for Thursday’s board meeting here.

Several other local school districts post their board documents online and many post video of the meeting on their websites. 

Francis Howell School District posts documents here and videos here

St. Charles School District posts documents here

Wright City School Districts posts board documents here Scroll down the page, it’s on the right side.

School Board Candidates

UPDATED: as of 11:50 a.m. Wednesday with information from Fort Zumwalt School District.

Tuesday was the deadline for school board candidates to file to run for office in the April 6 election. Twenty-four candidates filed for 12 open seats in six school districts. Here are the candidates:

Top 100 High Schools

U.S. News and World Report released its list of top 1oo high schools in the nation in December.  Just one school from Missouri made the list,

Check out in brief page

See the in brief page for news and notes about your schools.

To contribute an item for news and notes, call Kalen at 636-946-6111 ext 240, or by e-mail at kponche@yourjournal.com.