South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Mehlville teachers earn National Certification

The Mehlville School District recently was notified that two of its teachers have earned National Board Certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Kate Wottowa and Deborah Shannon each completed the last step in the yearlong application process last spring by taking a three-hour exam. Both now are certified to teach in any public school district in America.

Wottowa is an art teacher at Rogers Elementary. She’s in her sixth year in the Mehlville School District, having taught in Springfield, Ill., before coming here.

This Belleville, Ill., native received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Wottowa also is an art teacher for the district’s gifted arts program.

Shannon teaches art at Hagemann Elementary and Bierbaum Accelerated. She has been with the district for 10 years, having taught in Parkway and in the state of Ohio before coming here.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Ohio University and her master’s from Webster University.

Wottowa and Shannon are the third and fourth teachers in Mehlville history to earn National Board Certification. Cathy Mayrose and Mary Drastal last year became the first Mehlville School District teachers to earn National Board Certification.

National Board Certification measures a teacher’s practice against a set of high and rigorous standards. The process is an extensive series of performance-based assessments that includes teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and thorough analyses of the candidates’ classroom teaching and student learning.

The certification is valid for 10 years, after which a teacher must seek renewal.

A total of 8,196 teachers earned National Board Certification this year.

Of those, 58 teach in Missouri, including 17 from the St. Louis area.

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