The American’s biggest contest yet! An Essence Festival prize package with air, hotel and tickets to three nights’ worth of concerts.
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CAC Audited MAY 23 – 29, 2013
Vol. 84 No. 8 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Black supers by the numbers Nine African Americans lead area public school districts By Rebecca S. Rivas Of The St. Louis American
“We want champion leaders because we want to do things no one else has done.”
The St. Louis region has more AfricanAmerican superintendents in its public school districts than ever before. Out of the 23 public school districts in the region, not including charter schools, nine have African-American superintendents. Of these nine, four landed their jobs in the past year and three of those newcomers replaced white superintendents. The newest superintendents who were hired in 2012 are Sharmon Wilkinson at Clayton, Tiffany
– Art McCoy, Ferguson-Florissant superintendent
Anderson at Jennings, Karen Hall at Maplewood-Richmond Heights and Grayling Tobias at Hazelwood. The other five are Art McCoy at FergusonFlorissant, Clive Coleman at Riverview Gardens, Stanton Lawrence at Normandy, Kelvin Adams
at St. Louis and Joylynn Pruitt at University City. To get a glimpse into these nine superintendents’ worlds, the St. Louis American compared data from the Department of Early and Secondary Education on student demographics
Of the nine superintendents, Karen Hall leads the smallest district with 1,088 students. See SUPERS, A7
Pastor Clark and his 5,500 members celebrate June 7-9
Teaches third-grade at Wabash Elementary By Bridjes O’Neil Of the St. Louis American
See HOWARD, A6
Karen Hall – Maplewood-Richmond Heights
Shalom turns 20
Vanessa Howard is Teacher of the Year
Vanessa Howard, a third-grade teacher and instructional coach at JohnsonWabash Elementary School, was named 2013 Teacher of the Year in the FergusonFlorissant School District. She wished she could have shared this accomplishment with her own first teacher, her mother, Lillie Johnson, who died in 1997. It was her mother who encouraged Howard to pursue a career in education. “I felt overwhelmed,” she said of the recognition. “When you’re doing something that you really love to do, you “I have to don’t expect to be come up with rewarded.” ways to In the classroom, she pushes her stuengage them dents to think indeand get them pendently but excited about believes they learn learning.” best from each other. She actively – Vanessa engages her students Howard by incorporating collaborative learning strategies such as “Think-PairShare,” in which students work together to solve a problem. “It’s like being a salesperson for education,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t want it, but I have to sell it. I have to come up with ways to engage them and get them excited about learning.” At the beginning of the school year, she assesses each student’s learning style and tailors the curriculum to meet each of their needs. She remarked that each class is different; for example, last year’s class was predominately male and comprised of kinesthetic learners. She opted to move the classroom to the playground because, she said, they needed to move. “When we would be working on our times tables,” she said, “I would let them shoot hoops by twos.”
and performance – as well as administrative salaries. African-American superintendents are leading some of the largest and highest-performing districts, as well as some of the most struggling.
By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
Poms on parade Members of the St. Louis Hip-Hop Poms danced their way down the parade route on Sunday as part of the Annie Malone May Day Parade. This year’s Grand Marshals included Robbie Montgomery, owner of Sweetie Pie’s, and Dick Gregory, activist and comedian. Visit stlamerican.com for more than 150 photos of the parade.
Shalom Church (City of Peace) is preparing to celebrate its 20th Anniversary with events and worship services at both of its North County campuses, June 7-9. But looking back at where they started, founding pastor Rev. Freddy J. Clark remembers the residues of other, very different celebrations. “Our first stop on this journey was some rented space at a Holiday Inn,” Pastor Clark remembered. “We’d set up chairs on Saturday night. On Fridays they’d have parties in that same room, and people would have spilled beverRev. Freddy ages. We could smell it. J. Clark But we didn’t let that deter us. We kept right on moving.” They moved, when they ran out of space, to the gymnasium of a Catholic school, and when they outgrew that room they founded what is now known as “the Mother Church” at 6136 Garfield Ave. in Berkeley in January 1995. The Mother Church will host services as the culminating event of the 20th Anniversary weekend at noon on Sunday, June 9, which is actually four days before the precise 20th anniversary of the first time Pastor Clark led worship at that Holiday Inn. The newest star in the Shalom firmament, the Lindbergh Campus at 5491 N. Highway 67, was founded seven years ago on the church’s 13th anniversary. It will host 20th Anniversary services at 7:30 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. on Sunday, June 9. Earlier that weekend, the congregation – which now numbers approximately 5,500 members – will celebrate in less sacred spaces. On Friday, June 7 there will be a group dinner at Orlando Gardens, and on Saturday, June 8 there will be a movie outing to Jamestown 14 Cine. Pastor Clark refused to take credit for any of this planning, which he said was done by comSee SHALOM, A12