Until they change the short period required to vest in the Superintendent's pension plan, you are going to have people tempted to leave for other states to "double dip," or even "triple dip." The ideal candidate would be an accomplished person who is from St. Louis and wants to end their career here, one who remembers the halcyon days of the district, the days of accomplishment and financial stability. I'm told Dr. McKenna was quoted often as saying, "the world may end next year, but the Ladue School District will have enough money to operate. The subsequent boards have spent through that nest egg to appease various constituencies. We need a Superintendent who can say "No." And, we need a school board that is more diverse. When you have a board of seven members where five are current or former teachers, the risk of micro-managing is going to be there. Boards should set policy and the Superintendent should administer it.

Current and former teachers? Isn't that a conflict? Seems to me that current teachers shouldn't be on a board that oversees, um, current teachers....

Former educators, not all are former Ladue teachers.

Not concerned about the "former," it's the "current" that bothers me, esp. current Ladue teachers.

There are no current Ladue school teachers on the board of education.

I hope we do not return to the days of Dr. McKenna. He just rubber stamped whatever the Board wanted and had no independent thoughts. He also had no vision for the district. And Weinberg did not resign. His contract was not renewed and then the Board forced him to leave early but with pay. The Board then tried to claim they had cause to let him go early but if they had cause then they would not have been required to continue his salary.

As for having teachers on the board, yes, there is an Olivette resident, who is currently a high school teacher in Pattonville on the Ladue School Board. It is a school Board, having current and former teachers on a school board is a good thing. All of the current and former teachers on the board are also parents and/or grandparents of current or former Ladue students. They are better suited to be on the board than someone who is just using the school board and a political springboard.

J Moore- So you are saying the school board was better then than it is now? The District was much better off then, ranked high nationally, a sought after district to teach in, and had the highest scores in the state. Now it is being run like a Hazelwood or Bayless. Weinberg was let go to save face for an possible lawsuit. Weinberg had a very questionable past, and has had nothing but trouble since he left. Google him.
The current school board needs to step up here and make a change. It is becoming the good old boys club, which will do nothing for our kids.

Jay - no I am not saying the board was better then than it is now. I am saying the board was horrible back then. Under McKenna there was open discrimination against Olivette and to some extend Creve Coeur families. Weinberg did not have a questionable past and the only problems he has had since then are due to the fact he is outspoken and is not willing to limit his vision for the schools. The board in the past was definitely a good old boys' club. The current board also has issues.
We still are one of the top districts in the nation. In fact that is what has made us go down in some ranking. When looking at "MAP" test scores in high score, which are now mostly End of Course Exams, it looks like we are doing poorly, especially in 9th grade math. Problem is that the test that they are looking at was actually taken by most of our 9th graders when they were in 8th grade but those score are not considered. The only students that are taking the test in 9th grade at Ladue are the ones who are not up to scale with our districts standards in math so that it ends up looking like our students in general are poor in math skills.

Read on, read on. Two more stories from this meeting tomorrow on Patch.