Ladue Administration Asks Board to Postpone One-to-One Initiative

At a business meeting Monday, the Ladue School Board heard a recommendation by the administration to postpone discussion of the One-to-One Learning Initiative.

The initiative would give Ladue high school students their own laptops for use at school and home. Until recently, approval of the initiative relied solely on finding sources of funding for the program.

The recent early departure of superintendent Dr. Marsha Chappelow and media attention of an online sex act incident on a Ladue Middle School computer led the administration to consider tabling current discussion of the initiative.

“We firmly believe in the value of this program, but believe it should be implemented at a time when there is a more conducive climate for it succeeding,” said Dr. Donna Jahnke assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, in a memo to the board.

The recommendation was only an information item, so no decision was made in regards to the initiative at the board meeting. The board, however, was supportive of the administration’s decision, said Susan Dielmann, spokesperson for the Ladue School District.

Dielmann added that no specific plan on how this will move forward has been made.  

“Those decisions will be made in the months to come,” she said.