As an I.T. Professional of over 30 years, I am trained to make decisions based upon data. As a result, the Wright City R-II School District is well positioned financially, educationally, and structurally for now and into the future.
Education is highly regulated. There are numerous federal and state laws school districts must follow. I regularly attend professional development opportunities where I learn how changes to both the federal and the state laws impact the operations of schools. I am well positioned to understand the impact and approve policy changes based upon these external factors.
I also advocate for students. I actively contact our representatives in both Jefferson City as well as Washington D.C. when a proposed law impacts education. I am scheduled to visit Jefferson City in March to visit our State Representatives and Senator.
From a financial perspective, the Wright City R-II School District consistently receives clean audits, maintains healthy financial reserves, and is well positioned for the future. A key accomplishment during my tenure as a Board of Education member is the Wright City R-II School District has been able to offer competitive salaries, provide students excellent curricular and co-curricular activities and maintain the facilities. All of this has been accomplished without a raise in the operating levy, which is one of the lowest in the area. If you look at the school district’s budget, it is as healthy as it has ever been!
Educationally, post pandemic, the Wright City R-II School District outperformed the state average in 11 of the 19 tested categories. This is a direct result of identifying where student learning suffered and implementing a targeted remediation program to help kids learn. Furthermore, the Wright City R-II School District offers a wide variety of encore offerings to enhance its core classes, such as Project Lead The Way, Problem Based Learning, and Vocational Education via various partnerships. Finally, one of the major accomplishments during the past few years is a seamless roll out a technology to our students.
From an infrastructure perspective, the Wright City R-II School District successfully identifies, plans, and executes on its capital improvement plan that is regularly reviewed and updated. Infrastructure, such as buildings and parking lots are maintained and the technology infrastructure within the district easily meets the needs for student learning.
Looking toward the future, there is so much more that can be accomplished. As a board member, I am a main advocate for the Wright City R-II School District membership in the Greater Warren County Economic Development Committee. This membership has paid off enormously with both the EPC facility and the planned American Foods Group facility. The financial impact to the Wright City R-II School District will help it maintain a healthy budget. Educationally, the school district is looking into implementing competency based learning to better identify where a student is struggling and helping the student get back on track. Finally, assuming the voters approve the no-tax increase measures on the April 2022 ballot, the Wright City R-II School District will break ground on a new high school and expand East Elementary.
Regarding the district mitigation strategies over the past two years for the pandemic, I understand many of the mitigation strategies implemented are not supported by everyone. As a Wright City R-II Board of Education member, I often talk about the power of in person learning, and the district’s core value of being dedicated to our students’ success. So much of this pandemic has been outside of the school district’s control. Keeping our schools as safe as possible AND maintaining in school learning is something I can help control. Back in August 2021, the school board promised to keep kids safe AND in school with a least restrictive environment.
As the first day of school approached unfortunately the COVID delta variant was surging. While Wright City School District started school with masks in grades 2 through 12, other districts did not. Other schools experienced massive quantities of quarantines whereas Wright City R-II was able to save many days of in-person learning.
As the school year has progressed, the school district has loosened up its mitigation strategies when the data indicated it was safe to do so. Recall, during the 2020 – 2021 school year, the Wright City R-II School District is the only school district that did not have to close its doors due to the pandemic.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Check back often as I will be updating this site with useful information.