Schools

Ladue Balances Growth and New Challenges

School board members will receive budget cut suggestions on Monday; 2011 will bring a larger presence in Creve Coeur.

Marsha Chappelow, Ph.D., Superintendent of the Ladue School District has been at the helm for two years. The district, like others around the state, faces budget-cutting hurdles, and is about to expand its Creve Coeur footprint significantly with the opening of the new Early Childhood Center on the current campus next year. Here is a discussion concerning major issues and current trends facing the district today.

Q. You've been Superintendent now for two years. What is your overall assessment of where the Ladue School District had been and where it is headed.

A. I think we are in a growth mode for the district. We have a strategic plan that we had last year and we've made progress. Passing a bond issue last year in a growing school district is very important to us. So we are on the right track. I feel good about where we are. We obviously have our challenges in the coming year. We also have budget challenges like a lot of Missouri school districts. Growth is a great problem to have and we just need to manage those problems. Overall, I think we are on track for my second year.

Q, If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for Ladue.

A. I would wish we would proactively manage our growth. We established a facility planning committee and our committees are much more active than when I first started and we are getting as much community involvement as we possibly can.  That would probably be my biggest wish that community members would set the pace for where they want their district to go. Proactive is a word we have tried to work with in a lot of different areas.

Q. Sometimes Community involvement is difficult because sometimes you have the same people volunteering for different committees.

A. When we started up, people weren't quite sure what they were. And sometimes with communications, as you know, it just takes some time to establish those committees. The second time we went out, we had more people applying than positions available that we could place. Again, that's a good problem to have. With the establishment of the Ladue Education Foundation that is a new way for people to get involved. You may not have the time or the desire to be a room mom or dad or the Parent Association is not your thing, but there are other ways to get involved. Our budget task force involves a lot of people with certain expertise and many people have stepped up, and that's not a great job, having to reduce expenses, but people felt that was very valuable and willing to give their expertise. The key to community involvement is offering options to people.

Q. These are the days of great economic challenges. What are some of the ways you might be reducing your budget by as much as $5 million dollars.

A. We have a budget task force that is coming to the board with a report on Dec. 13. They will probably be coming to us with a list of options to consider. There will probably be some recommendations that we cannot do this year and we will look at staffing and closely how we have our staffs assigned and can we not limit opportunities for students but can we combine some of those programs and perhaps offer the student the same results done in a different way.

Q. The Ladue Early Childhood Center represents a bold initiative. What are the expectations for the center once it is opened next year.

A.  The LECC has been discussed by the District for about eight years and not a lot of money has been put into the existing facility. This gives us the opportunity to apply for federal and state grants which we have previously not been able to do. We look to expand some of the facilities. We plan to offer a longer day; providing more before and after-school programs.

Q. School communications is obviously important to you being a big part of your career. How important is this to Ladue?

A. I think communications will make or break a school district. I also think it will make or break a superintendent. It's the No. 1 reason why superintendents lose their jobs. People become not happy with a school in this day and age when there is no good communications. Getting out information, especially for districts like Ladue is very important. While we want to get out good news, there is other news we have to get out that people are concerned about.

Q. All your schools have had physical upgrades. Are you now satisfied or is there more to come.

A. The decisions our board has made the past 8-9 years have especially helped out elementary schools and our middle schools. I think you are going to hear reports of some of our committees that will suggest upgrades be made next for our high school.   A lot of surrounding districts, Clayton, Kirkwood are updating their high school facilities. Both Kirkwood and Clayton have got or are getting new modern science centers. There are points where you can get by with educational environments and points where you cannot.

Q. Ladue is not like many other districts. The district has values and accomplishments that often distinguish it from other districts.

A. We have students who come from families where education is very important. The triangle of student/home/school produces very good students who are successful. We hire very good people. Each year we get more than 3,000 applications for new job openings.

Q. How do you maintain and retain a stable teaching base.

A. The cornerstone is having highly qualified applicants always wanting to come to your district. It doesn't matter if we have 15 openings or 38 openings--the number of applicants each year stays around that number 3,000.

Q. How important a role does winning athletics play a part of Ladue's success. Or is participation more important than winning.

A.  Both are important, depending upon the situation. Sports and activities is simply an extension of student learning. There are a lots of skills that you simply cannot learn in the class room that are very important for jobs today. Team work; getting along with a lot of different people and working with people in a lot of different ways in athletics and activities is important. Sure, who doesn't like to win? If someone likes to lose, I'd like to sit down and have a discussion with them. For some kids, that's their way of excelling. That's fine. Sometimes athletics and activities can become a target, especially at budget time. Today, I am especially amazed how many students are involved in so many activities. I might see a student in a music concert and I just saw them in the fall play a week before. And maybe they are on the sports teams. Today, more than ever, students need to manage their time well. Students can multi-task a lot more than when I was a student or a teacher. We may not be a Parkway or a Rockwood (school district), but we still offer the same amount of activities. We ask our teachers and coaches to step up so we can offer those opportunities for our students.

is the local editor for Ladue-Frontenac Patch.

 

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