A state-appointed board began the task July 1 of turning around the Riverview Gardens School District, where low student achievement has been a problem for years.
At midnight, the district closed and reopened under state supervision. Old policies were removed, the elected school board was disbanded and contracts with employees were terminated. Anyone, from school bus drivers to teachers, who wants their job back must interview for it.
“We start anew,” said Lynn Beckwith Jr., a former superintendent of University City schools and chairman of the new Riverview Gardens board.
The three-member board was hand-picked by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in May. It’s the third time the state has intervened this way.
Beckwith, 70, is a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Mark Tranel, 59, is an associate professor and director of the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Veronica Morrow-Reel, 51, an outspoken parent with a student in the district, is a Dellwood alderman. The board’s term is three years.
On Thursday, the board hired 175 employees, from custodians to early childhood educators. Clive Coleman took over as superintendent.
“An additional 600 jobs are to be filled in the next month,” said Michelle Mueller, spokeswoman for the district. There’s no guarantee that those jobs will go to former district employees. “About 2,000 people have applied for the district’s 400 teaching jobs,” Coleman said.
“The uncertainty has been stressful for teachers,” said Rich Thies, a music teacher and president of the district’s chapter of the Missouri National Education Association. “Some of the best teachers have left for other jobs,” he said, “Rather than wait to see whether they’ll be employed at Riverview Gardens.”
The 6,500-student district in north St. Louis County lost its accreditation in 2007, the result of financial problems, low student achievement and corruption.
Then-Superintendent Henry Williams was accused of funneling district money into a personal life insurance fund, understating his income and double-dipping on district travel reimbursement. In 2008, he pleaded no contest on two counts of felony theft and three counts of tax fraud.
The new board wants to put that behind the district.
“Some people talk to me about what was,” Beckwith said. “That’s history.”
Beckwith said the board’s goals for Riverview Gardens include higher expectations of students, strong instructional leadership starting with principals, a stable learning environment in schools, emphasis on basic skills in the classroom, and continuous monitoring. He plans to drop into schools regularly to see whether students are learning. The culture of low expectations must change, he said.
“Work sheets, busy work, that’s not the order of the day,” he said. “Depth of knowledge, direct instruction, assessment, that’s going to be the new day. I want to walk into school buildings in the district, and I want it to feel like school.”