Staff Report

Mehlville School District residents can judge whether their schools deserve a passing grade by reviewing the district’s annual report card.

The Mehlville School District last week released its annual report card, documenting the state of the district and its schools to help the public evaluate how the district performed during the 2003-2004 school year.

This is the ninth consecutive year that Missouri’s public schools have issued report cards mandated by the Outstanding Schools Act, Senate Bill 380.

In these annual reports, school districts are required to provide information about enrollment, graduation/dropout rates, staff, staff ratios, teacher salaries, finances, per-pupil expenditures and test scores.

Information contained in the 2003-2004 report card issued by the Mehlville School District includes:

• Enrollment — The overall district en-rollment was reported at 11,727, down slightly from the previous year’s enrollment of 11,799.

The district reported a 95 percent average daily attendance rate, up from the previous year’s rate of 94.6 percent. For the 2003-2004 school year, the state attendance rate was 93.6 percent.

• Graduation/dropout rate — Mehl-ville posted a graduation rate of 87.5 percent, up from the previous year’s rate of 86 percent. The state’s 2003-2004 graduation rate was 85.1 percent. The district’s drop-out rate was 2.4 percent, down from the previous year’s rate of 3.4 percent. The state’s dropout rate was 3.9 for the 2003-2004 school year.

• Staff — Mehlville reported a total certificated staff of 770 — 46 administrators and 724 teachers — for the 2003-2004 school year, down from the previous year’s total of 816 — 52 administrators and 764 teachers. Of the certificated staff, 73 percent had degrees higher than a bachelor’s degree for the 2003-2004 school year.

• Staff ratios — The ratio of students to all teachers in the district during the 2003-2004 school year was 17 to 1, down from the previous year’s ratio of 18 to 1. The ratio of students to classroom teachers was 19 to 1, down from the previous year’s ratio of 20 to 1.

The ratio of students to administrators was 317 to 1, up from the previous year’s ratio of 315 to 1.

• Salaries — For the 2003-2004 school year, the average teacher’s salary in the Mehlville School District was $47,080, up from the previous year’s average salary of $46,681. The average St. Louis County teacher’s salary was $49,056 for the 2003-2004 school year, up from the previous year’s average salary of $47,659.

The average Mehlville administrator’s salary for the 2003-2004 school year was $95,594, up from from the previous year’s average salary of $90,019. The average St. Louis County administrator’s salary was $88,660, up from the previous year’s average salary of $86,407.

• Finances — For the 2003-2004 school year, the Mehlville School District had an assessed valuation of $1,371,484,080, up from the previous year’s assessed valuation of $1,279,580,342. The district’s tax rate for the 2003-2004 school year was $3.87 per $100 of assessed valuation, down from the previous year’s rate of $3.95. Revenue sources included: 81.74 percent, local; 14.56 percent, state; and 3.7 percent, federal.

• Per-pupil expenditures — The average per-pupil expenditure for the 2003-2004 school year was $6,974.18, up from the previous year’s average per-pupil expenditure of $6,533.49.

The average per-pupil expenditure in each of the district’s schools was:

Beasley Elementary — $6,239.09, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $5,927.44.

Bierbaum Accelerated — $6,154.73, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $5,767.65.

Blades Elementary — $6,718.78, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,499.57.

Forder Elementary — $6,617.53, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,227.99.

Hagemann Elementary — $6,748.04, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,132.99.

Oakville Elementary — $6,908.33, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,828.51.

Point Elementary — $6,754.04, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $5,879.66.

Rogers Elementary — $7,080.38, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,049.76.

Trautwein Accelerated — $6,850.85, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,498.86.

Wohlwend Elementary — $6,479.30, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,227.88.

Bernard Middle — $5,702.49. The 2003-2004 school year was the first year of operation for the new middle school.

Buerkle Middle — $6,974.29, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,033.45.

Oakville Middle — $6,924.05, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,160.12.

Washington Middle — $7,297.01, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,407.12.

Mehlville Senior High — $7,495.45, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $7,089.62.

Oakville Senior High — $6,715.11, up from the previous year’s expenditure of $6,515.41.

• ACT scores — For the 2003-2004 school year, the district posted a composite ACT score of 22, up from the previous year’s composite score of 21.4.