‘Super Bowl of R&B’ turns 20 ESSENCE Music Festival ushers in two decades of celebrating live music
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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited JULY 10 – 16, 2014
Vol. 85 No. 14 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
From prison orange to chef whites Matika Kelly and Jami Hobbs prepare lunch for ARCHS’ Culinary Institute Graduation Ceremony held July 1 at St. Louis Community College – Forest Park. Kelly and Hobbs were participants in ARCHS’ eightweek culinary arts program for ex-offenders.
ARCHS’ Culinary Institute graduates new class of ex-offenders By Bridjes O’Neil Of The St. Louis American
Photo courtesy of ARCHS
New Normandy board starts planning
Matika Kelly was overjoyed after peeping into the Jack E. Miller Hospitality Studies Center at St. Louis Community College – Forest Park last Tuesday. “I got excited when I saw my daughter and my fiancé,” Kelly said of 6-year-old, Tiani Redmond, and Jonathan Edwards. Kelly said her daughter’s eyes lit up when she saw her mother donning her chef’s hat and garb. Edwards and Tiani came out to support Kelly who, along with 13 other women, graduated
All-American girl
from ARCHS’ Culinary Institute’s intensive eight-week culinary arts program. It is a Nontraditional Occupation for Women Training
See ARCHS, A7
A conversation with Chris Krehmeyer of Beyond Housing By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
By Dale Singer Of St. Louis Public Radio
See NORMANDY, A7
– Jami Hobbs
‘Ask, align and act’
DESE presents general turnaround plan to appointed board members Now that the dramas of the state takeover and the uncertainty of student transfers have mostly passed, the board of the new Normandy Schools Collaborative started working Monday night on their main goal: raising student achievement. Missouri’s education commissioner Chris Nicastro sat at the board table while her assistants n “We’re not presented detailed plans preparing them on how to evaluate to work on teaching and learning. assembly lines. The five board members heard the state’s plans We’re preparing for turning the district them to work in around. the 21st century.” In their presentation, the process was – Normandy described this way: Superintendent Ty “Starting fresh allows McNichols a state, district or other authorizing entity to break the cycle of low achievement by making deep and fundamental changes to the way the school operates.” For the new Normandy, that means intense, 80-hour training for teachers – once they are all hired – before school begins for students on Aug. 18. For students, it means constant evaluation to make sure they are learning. And, Superintendent Ty McNichols stressed, for the Normandy community, it means a new way of operating to make sure parents and others feel welcome and their opinions are considered valuable. When he described how parents who were pulling their kids out of the district would come to the district office and complain that they weren’t being heard, some members of the crowded audience murmured their agreement.
n “I’ve messed up. But, don’t judge me by my past. Judge me on what I’m doing with my future.”
“Whatever we have been collectively doing for the past 20 or 30 years hasn’t worked,” said Chris Krehmeyer, president and CEO of Beyond Housing. “We want to have a different conversation and operate in different ways.” The St. Louis American spoke in depth with Krehmeyer about how Beyond Housing n “You change operatingisin its the community 24:1 initiative by changing to organize and develop the 24 people’s communities in minds, and the Normandy you can School District only change – now, the Normandy someone’s Schools mind if you Collaborative – are having a from within.
conversation with them.”
Photo by Wiley Price
Myleah Franklin, 4, gets a view of the water show atop the shoulders of her father Michael Franklin on Friday afternoon at Fair St. Louis, which was held in Forest Park for the first time as the Gateway Arch grounds undergoes major renovation.
The St. Louis American: What’s new at – Chris Beyond Housing? Krehmeyer Chris Krehmeyer: A continued push to help create a place within the boundaries of the Normandy School District that everyone can be proud of. We believe in the notion that home matters. For us,
See KREHMEYER, A6