From the Desk of…
Diana Bourisaw, Superintendent
Attendance
Student attendance is everyone’s business. It’s
critical to academic success and in preparing our students
to be productive adults. For that reason, we applaud the district’s
top three schools at each level for maintaining high attendance
standards for the third quarter.
Elementary
Kennard CJA
Stix Early Childhood Elementary School
Gateway Elementary
Middle
McKinley CJA
Busch Athletic and Academic Middle
Carr Lane Middle
High
Metro Academic and Classical High School
Mel Carnahan School of the Future
Nottingham CAJT High School
Congratulations to our students – as well as to the
teachers, staff and parents who encourage them!
Moving Forward with Facilities Recommendation
I am pleased as we move ahead with our facility recommendations
for the 2007-2008 school year. We revised our proposal based,
in part, on feedback we received from our parents, teachers,
staff and students.
New education initiatives and school configurations highlight
the changes included in the plan.
Three new programs for alternative students, K-12, will be
introduced in three buildings – Ford Elementary Annex,
Turner Middle, and Des Peres High School.
Bunche International Studies Middle School students will be
relocated to the current Madison Alternative School site at
1118 S. 7th St. There will be no reconfiguration of either
Dewey International Studies Elementary or Soldan International
Studies High, as was previously recommended.
Expansion is on the horizon at McKinley Classical Junior Academy.
The 9th grade will be added for the upcoming school year. At
the end of 2007-2008, district officials would examine the
success of adding grades to the popular gifted magnet program.
Students from the Lafayette 9th Grade Center will be relocated
to the Humboldt facility. The Lafayette building would then
be closed.
We carefully examined the comments made by community members.
While most parents realize the need to reduce the number of
facilities, they raised legitimate concerns about combining
middle- and high-school students in one building. The new plans
address those concerns while also improving our overall facility
usage.
One of my top priorities is to increase the number of alternative
education programs throughout the district. Each program would
serve up to 150 students. The students would benefit from new
curriculum and research-based instructional models specifically
targeted to the needs of these students. Currently, we are
holding discussions with the Big Picture Company (www.bigpicture.org),
an organization that specializes in developing individualized
instruction for students.
Two community forums will be held this week to address concerns
before the plan is presented to the Board of Education.
Wednesday, April 11 – 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Carr Lane VPA – Auditorium - 1004 N. Jefferson Ave.
Thursday, April 12 – 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Roosevelt High School - 3230 Hartford St.
Full details about the plan will are posted on our website.
State Answers Some FAQs
Last Friday, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education responded to some of our questions regarding the
impact of unaccreditation specific to St. Louis. You can access
their answers by clicking above, or visiting our website at
www.slps.org.
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you
can do" - John Wooden
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