In her 41 years of working in the St. Louis Public School District, Alice Faye Roach, Ed.D., said she met her most difficult challenge when she became the founding principal at Carnahan High School of the Future in 2006.
When she arrived, the attendance rate was 55 percent and academic test scores were in the single digits. By the time she left in 2009, attendance was 95 percent, parents were highly involved and the school was meeting the state’s annual yearly progress goals. She said she didn’t believe in suspension as a form of discipline, so she got permission from parents to use “alternative” measures, such as washing tables and removing gum from the bottom of desks.
“What she brings to the table is a real belief and high expectations of students,” said the district’s superintendent Kelvin Adams. “She believes anything is possible for our students.”
Having retired from the district several times and repeatedly called back, Roach has served in many roles – including a classroom teacher, counselor, instructional coordinator and the superintendent’s chief of staff. She is currently the administrative director of the Parsons Blewett Memorial Fund, which assists teachers and administrators in the district with financial support for educational and professional development, as well as aids them in dire financial situations due to a health or personal crisis.
“She has given her life for the school district, and not only in the sense of just time but she gives much more than that,” Adams said. “She gives who she is, her whole being, to making sure young people in the district are successful.”
On September 25, Roach will receive the 2015 Lifetime Achiever in Education award by the St. Louis American Foundation at its 2015 Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, to be held at the America’s Center Ballroom. The gala will begin at 7 p.m., following a reception at 6 p.m.
Roach said she knew she was going to be a teacher ever since she was in the third grade. She tells the story of her belated father, Lee Moore, and how he greatly admired one of the teachers from his youth, Miss Dora Randall.
“He said, ‘You know Faye, I want you to be a teacher just like Miss Dora Randall,’” she said, smiling at the memory. “Folks don’t realize how powerful their words are. The words of parents and teachers are. Those words stayed with me always.”
For her undergraduate degree, she attended Southeastern Missouri State University – Cape Girardeau. She gives much credit to her guidance counselor at Beaumont High School for coming to her house and talking to her parents about the necessity of her going to college. From there, she earned her master’s degree in guidance counseling at University of Missouri – St. Louis and her doctorate at Saint Louis University in 2005.
Roach said she has always enjoyed whatever position she held in the district. So when Adams asked her to become his chief of staff in 2009, she was reluctant to leave her role as Carnahan’s principal.
“He was able to convince me, and it proved to be good for me,” she said. “Dr. Adams has a unique leadership style. I found that we were likeminded about so many things.”
She discovered that they were both “doing business by the good book,” which is the title of a book by David Steward.
“He was following many of the principles that I followed so strongly,” she said. “It made working for him a good fit for me.”
In 2010, Adams asked her to put together a principal leadership program, which she was already doing in an unofficial capacity, Adams said.
“She did all the research and put a qualitative program together,” he said.
She was also one of the mentors for principals, and he recalls there being one individual who was having a difficult time in the program. Not only did Roach spend countless hours mentoring the principal, but she also bought the woman clothes and makeup and enrolled her in a public-speaking program to give her more confidence. It wasn’t part of the plan, but that’s the kind of thing Roach would do all the time, Adams said.
“She saw a real gem in this person, and she did everything she could to support her,” he said. “She has never thought of this job from A to Z. She’s gone beyond the alphabet to make sure every single time she is giving more to people who have desires.
“I could tell you story upon story about when she’s reached out when she didn’t have to do it. She does it because she really believes it makes a difference in terms of changing young people’s lives.”
The 2015 Salute to Excellence in Education Gala will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, September 25 at the America’s Center Ballroom, following a reception at 6 p.m. Tickets are on sale now. Individual tickets are $85 each/$850 table, and VIP/Corporate tickets are $1,500 table. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.stlamerican.com and click on Salute to Excellence, or call 314-533-8000.
