St. Joseph School District officials hosted a back-to-school news conference on Wednesday to answer questions of public interest. The panel consisted of Superintendent Gabe Edgar; Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Brian Kraus; Assistant Superintendent of Academic and Education Services Ashly McGinnis and Director of Nonacademic Services Shannon Nolte.
One of the first main points the district addressed was attendance. “For 2022, we had 70.6%.
We ended 2023 at 78.91%. And then this past year we ended at 77.
56%. So just a slight dip,” McGinnis said. Because of this, the district will reconsider their approach.
In recent years, the attendance budget for each school building was $8 per student which has now decreased to $6. Last year, St. Joseph used incentives like bikes, gift cards and electronics to promote good attendance.
However, research shows those incentives lose their luster after only a year. “We need parents to get kids to school, right? Not kids getting themselves in school. So we have to engage our families in that process and help them see the value in education,” said McGinnis.
With a goal of 90% attendance at all buildings, McGinnis said high school is the biggest challenge with eighth grade and kindergarten falling shortly behind. “Lafayette Carden Park, Lindbergh are our three lowest schools,” she said. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, graduation rates are gradually increasing.
“So 2022 we ended at 77.6%. 2023, we ended at 76.
8%. And then this last year we ended at 87.9%.
So about 11% increase in graduation rates,” McGinnis said. Edgar said places like Hillyard Tech are the reason for the positive increase For teachers, McGinnis said in its first year 463 teachers have signed up for Career Ladder, a program designed to provide professional learning and development over the summer for district staff. Furthermore, Proposition S has raised teacher’s hourly wages from $1.
34 to $3.13 with the $2,750 flat-rate increase. In terms of recruitment and retention, things seem to be improving.
Kraus said the retention rate are higher this year compared to years past. This can be attributed to the district's Pathways to Teaching and Grow Your Own programs. “We had roughly 50 new teachers and that's new to the profession teachers, and then another about 35 that are new to our districts who had some experience elsewhere,” he said.
“In the last couple of years we've been averaging 110 to 115, leaving.” Possibly in coming years, Edgar is excited to introduce a new English Language Center, or ELD Center. Its goal is to put the district in a proactive standpoint when it comes to an influx of non-English-speaking students.
“It’s more of a welcoming thing,” said Edgar. “It gives us the opportunity to gauge where we're at, to where the students are at. We want everybody to feel comfortable.
” Another aspect of the district Edgar is proud of is Hillyard Technical Center. While working with different manufacturing companies, officials are able to adjust training based on the company’s needs. “For example, we were training students on equipment that didn't feed into manufacturing,” he said.
“And so (the companies) come to the table and say, hey, this is the equipment we're using.” This allows the district to stay current with industry trends while adequately preparing students for the job market. Currently, Hillyard has about 800 students with about half being from St.
Joseph. Officials hope to partner with more surrounding areas in the future such as Cameron if there are openings. McGinnis is also excited for the rebranded middle school careers course.
This helps children figure out what they want to do in life early by exposing them to different careers and providing them with hands-on experiences in a wide array of career fields. “We partnered with United Way and we will have career speakers, along with that class,” McGinnis said. Additionally, Bode Middle School, Robidoux Middle School and Benton High School were selected to be pilot schools that offer a more specialized career focus.
“Benton has a focus of one speaker a week and one field trip a month,” she said. “That is targeted for those kids who may be interested in the health care field or engineering, or they want to go into robotics.” As far as nonacademic services, Nolte said a new bus contract will implement new air conditioned buses coming in the first few months of the school year.
Since officials are still working on finalizing routes, parents should expect communication from the district if there is a change. “For the first day of school, just find that stop that's closest in your resident district. Get on the bus, we'll get them to school, and then we'll figure out if we need new routes, over the next couple of weeks,” Nolte said.
According to Nolte, there is still a large number of students that still need immunizations prior to the first day of school. “We have about 250 kindergarten students right now. We have about 280 eighth graders and 423 seniors,” he said.
In the future, the district also has some turf renovations slated to begin in November, just after the conclusion of football season. All four officials say the St. Joseph School staff are all ready and excited to welcome kids back next week.
Edgar said the overall climate of the district is better compared to years past. “That’s (been) reflected through our staff,” he said..
