At 7 a.m. on August 21, Jennings Schools Superintendent Tiffany Anderson stood on the corner of one of the district’s busiest intersections dressed in a skirt suit – but with white tennis shoes on her feet. She leaned on her hand-held stop sign like a cane, waiting to serve as a crossing guard for families.
“It’s a beautiful way to start and end your day,” said Anderson, who became superintendent in 2012.
The district serves about 2,500 students in eight schools and one alternative program.
“I love being on the street,” she said. “I call everybody Mom and Dad. This morning alone, I got to fix problems that I probably wouldn’t have if I was just in an office or walking through a school building.”
That morning, a mother told Anderson that her middle-school student had not been able to register for school because she didn’t have any utility bills. Yet, her elementary student had been able to register just fine. Another mother told her that they needed groceries – something Anderson didn’t think the mother would have mentioned to her inside the school.
“There is something about walking into a school or hospital that sometimes causes people to have a defense mechanism that they don’t even recognize they have,” she said.
On September 25, Anderson will receive the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2015 Stellar Performer in Education Award at the 2015 Salute to Excellence in Education Scholarship & Awards 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.
A St. Louis native, Anderson grew up near the Jennings School District, and her parents, both former Jennings residents, still reside in North County.
“I have a tremendous dedication to making sure that in St. Louis County and city we thrive as a community,” she said. “Good schools are the center of any community, and when you have good schools you have good neighborhoods.”
However, Anderson has taken that mantra a step further. More than 95 percent of the district’s students receive free or reduced-price lunch. Many students are on the verge of homelessness or in the care of a grandparent, extended family member or distant relative.
Under her leadership, the district now provides students with three meals a day, along with services for their 200 homeless families. They also have one of the largest school-based food pantries in the area – distributing 8,000 pounds of food each month. Just this year, they opened a health clinic at the high school.
“It lets them know that we care, that we love them,” Anderson said. “And that all they really have to do is to make sure their kids show up, and we’ll take care of the rest. If that’s all they can do is physically get them here – and they don’t have clothes or food or supplies, that’s okay. We have all of that.”
On Anderson’s first day as 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 before she arrived. 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.
Anderson first moved back to Missouri when she accepted a superintendent position at University Academy, a college prep charter school in Kansas City. Under her leadership, it became 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.
When she started at Jennings, the district had a significant fiscal deficit, and it was bordering on going from provisionally accredited to unaccredited, like its neighboring school districts of Normandy and Riverview Gardens.
Although still provisionally accredited, the district has made some of the most significant gains on the state’s annual academic performance reports among regional schools. Anderson said the high school is one of their “shining stars” in terms of academic proficiency and its 93 percent four-year graduation rate.
“That’s a four-year graduation rate for 100 percent poverty, 98 percent African American students,” she said. “That’s unheard of in many places.”
“It’s a district that was struggling not long ago,” she said, but by changing how they serve families, they have instilled hope.
She said, “I believe that you have to serve the whole child in order to move things forward.”
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, visitwww.stlamerican.com and click on Salute to Excellence, or call 314-533-8000.
