District partners with local businesses to meet achievement goals
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
With the announcement Thursday of the Leonard Little L3 Literacy Initiative, the Wellston School District has added another partner to its growing cadre of corporate and community partnerships aimed to increase productivity and achievement of students. Hence, the district’s new slogan – “We’re on the move.”
At a special ceremony Thursday, Little was given a proclamation and key to the city from Wellston Mayor James A. Harvey. The Rams defensive end spoke to students about the importance of literacy and school attendance and credited his success on the football field to hard work in the classroom and in practice. He said without an education, he would not have made it to the NFL.
When Charles R. Brown, assistant commissioner for the Division of Teacher Quality and Urban Education for the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, took over the superintendent position for Wellston schools this summer, he was faced with a district in crisis. School buildings were in disrepair, student achievement scores were lagging behind state and national averages and there was not even a library in the community.
Wellston still has no library, but Brown has developed a three-part plan to improve the district by focusing on operations, achievement and community.
“The school district has to be in good shape operationally. The buildings were in poor condition when we got here, and the maintenance plan was not well thought out. We have eliminated an outside company that was maintaining our schools, we have hired in-house people and the buildings are cleaner,” Brown said.
“We’ve revamped our heating systems, which were in poor shape. We’re looking for a way to bring some private money into this community to put central air conditioning into all of our schools so that if we do have summer school, it will be conducive to learning.”
One local business that is supporting the district’s efforts is JJ Fish, which has created a literacy corner in its establishment to provide free reading materials.
“JJ Fish has agreed to support us in our literacy effort. If you go there you’ll find in the corner of the store a literature resource center where folks can walk in and just get books,” Brown said.
“These are books that are related to our activities in the schools. A family can go there and do some studying there with their students right now.”
Brown said the JJ Fish partnership is a quick fix for the community’s need for a library. While he admits establishing a community library is a long-term goal, in the short term Brown is focused on creating services and support systems to benefit Wellston students.
“Many of our students, especially in our middle and high schools, are below grade level, and the only way for them to catch up is for us to give them some accelerated, intensive support. We’re going to do that by having after-school tutoring,” Brown said.
“We also have a plan for these young people to do well on the standardized (MAP) tests that are coming up. We’re giving the students mock exams that they’ll take two or three times before they take the real one at the end of the year.”
To properly educate students, Brown also is pursuing training for Wellston’s educators, providing “intensive professional development” on a weekly basis, including “two all-day professional-development days.”
“One thing we’re working on is how to use student achievement data to guide setting the curriculum and then in the classroom from week to week, using the data to know what weaknesses to concentrate on with each individual child,” Brown said.
“It’s almost like an individual educational program for each individual child. If we know what their weaknesses are, then we’ll use that data to show us where we need to address those problems.”
To involve the community in the district’s efforts, Wellston has enlisted the help of the Boeing Company to provide much-needed student mentors. Brown said the corporation may provide up to 200 employees to take part in the Mentor 600 program.
“We’re trying to get mentors for every student in the Wellston school district – not for one year or one month, but until they graduate from high school,” Brown said.
A major coup for the district was the addition of Joyce Roberts to the staff. The former principal of Pierre Laclede Elementary School is credited with helping that school earn the national Blue Ribbon Award as one of the top schools in the nation.
“Along with the plans that we have here and with my leadership and the leadership of Ms. Roberts, we’re going to apply those best practices that we know will work. Our young people are going to be competing at the top level with any school district in the state of Missouri within two years,” Brown said.
“We’re going to become a premier school district, not only in the city and in the state of Missouri, but in the United States. We have the support staff now to make that happen. Wellston is a small community, but the people here are passionate and want their children to get the best.”
