Just before lunch, Jennings School District Superintendent Tiffany Anderson takes her place on the kindergarteners’ carpet at Woodland Elementary and joins them in their giggles.
Her signature tennis shoes allow her to pop down easily, even in her professional dark gray skirt suit.
They’re playing a question game with high stakes – a treat if they get the right answer.
“Math, science, social studies or spelling?” Letty Wright-Hardin, kindergarten teacher, asks one of the squirming children.
Anderson’s eyes brighten even more than the students’.
“Every morning I wake up, and I can’t wait to get here and get started,” Anderson said. “I wear tennis shoes every day so that I can be the crossing guard when I need to. I can visit a different school every week. I bring the energy to this district that we will really take it to the next level. The heart of that is building relationships.”
The school district in North St. Louis County has more than 3,000 students, eight schools and one alternative program. It is currently provisionally accredited, unlike the unaccredited Riverview Gardens and Normandy school districts on either side of its borders.
On Anderson’s first day as Jennings School District’s new superintendent, July 1, 2012, she started writing grant applications. Her tenacity landed a $90,000 federal grant to assist homeless students and their families. This allows the district to employ a homeless coordinator who tends to the 200-plus students who are homeless in the district. It also pays for students’ college prep exams, college visits and other support.
The second grant she secured was a $1.6 million grant to expand after-school programs. With that money, the district has been able to open the senior-high swimming pool, which was closed for the last three years. Now the district offers swim lessons, dance and tutoring after school. Most of the schools provide some sort of child care or activity up until 6 or 7 p.m.
“We also provide full meals to our young people after school,” she said. “It’s really the idea that ‘you just send the kids and we’ll take care of it from there.’”
In her time here, the district has opened a food pantry to assist over 100 families monthly. It has also implemented the district’s first gifted program at one of the elementary schools and the first college-prep middle school program. On top of that, the district has already eliminated its financial deficit.
She has been through such challenges before. After serving as an assistant superintendent in the Rockwood School District in St. Louis County, Anderson accepted a superintendent position in Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia in 2005. During her tenure, the Montgomery district moved from having seven schools fully accredited to having all 23 schools in the district accredited.
“Every district that I’ve been in, we’ve had our challenges when I’ve entered,” Anderson said, “but through the collective energy of many, we have moved those districts to the highest possible performance with kids performing at the 90th percentile and above. And I anticipate Jennings will be in the same place.”
Glad to be back home
A St. Louis native, Anderson said she’s glad to be back home and closer to her parents, both former Jennings residents who still reside in North County.
“They are proud to see me leading the school district,” she said. “I have a tremendous dedication to making sure that in St. Louis County and city we thrive as a community. Good schools are the center of any community, and when you have good schools you have good neighborhoods.”
Anderson first moved back to Missouri when she accepted a superintendent position at University Academy, a college prep charter school in Kansas City. She led it to become one of the highest-performing urban academies. In 2012 University Academy was recognized with Distinction in Performance for exceeding the 14 Missouri state standards for accreditation.
In Jennings’ Woodland Elementary School, the halls are painted with scenes from “Sleeping Beauty” and other classic tales. Some hallways are painted as magical forests from the ceiling to the floor. The art teacher, Jeff Arnold, spent over five years painting the walls himself, with the help of students.
“Entering Woodland is like walking into a story book,” Anderson said, “and it reminds all who enter that you can make your dreams come true with the right vision and hard work to make it happen.”
Kathleen Kurz, Woodland’s principal, said Anderson is just what the district needs right now.
“Dr. Anderson is the right person to get each of our students up to that level of excellence that we have been striving for,” Kurz said. “I look forward to where we are headed.”
