Staff Report

Lindbergh School District residents can determine whether their schools merit a passing grade by reviewing the district’s annual report card.

The Lindbergh School District this 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 Lindbergh School District includes:

• Enrollment — The overall district en-rollment was reported at 5,437, up from the previous year’s enrollment of 5,289.

The district reported a 95.8 percent attendance rate, up from the previous year’s rate of 94.9 percent. For the 2003-2004 school year, the state attendance rate was 93.6.

• Graduation/dropout rate — Lind-bergh posted a graduation rate of 92.9 percent, up from the previous year’s rate of 90.8 percent. The state’s 2003-2004 graduation rate was 85.1 percent. The district’s dropout rate was 1.9 percent, up slightly from the previous year’s rate of 1.78 percent. The state’s dropout rate was 3.9 percent for the 2003-2004 school year.

• Staff — Lindbergh reported a total certificated staff of 353 for the 2003-2004 school year, down from the previous year’s total of 388, and a support staff totaling 192, down one from the previous year’s total of 193. Of the certificated staff, 296 — 73.4 percent — had advanced degrees.

• Staff ratios — The ratio of students to all teachers in the district during the 2003-2004 school year was 15 to 1, unchanged from the previous year. The ratio of students to classroom teachers was 18 to 1, up from the previous year’s ratio of 16 to 1. The ratio of students to administrators was 272 to 1, up from last year’s ratio of 264 to 1.

• Salaries — For the 2003-2004 school year, the average teacher’s salary was $48,287, down slightly from the previous year’s salary of $48,308. 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 Lindbergh administrator’s salary for the 2003-2004 school year was $93,730, up from last year’s average salary of $92,775. The average St. Louis County administrator’s salary was $88,660, up from last year’s average salary of $86,407.

• Finances — For the 2003-2004 school year, the Lindbergh School District had an assessed valuation of $1,036,753.90, up from the previous year’s assessed valuation of $994,477,553. The district’s tax rate for the 2003-2004 school year was $2.95 per $100 of assessed valuation, up from the previous year’s tax rate of $2.77 per $100.

Revenue sources included: local, $42,823,104 or 87.41 percent; state, $3,201,017 or 6.54 percent; county/non-revenue, $1,711,676 or 3.49 percent; and federal, $1,254,805 or 2.56 percent.

• Per-pupil expenditures — The average per-pupil expenditure for the 2003-2004 school year was $7,731, down from the previous year’s per-pupil expenditure of $7,951. The average cost to educate a student in Missouri was $7,394, up slightly from the previous year’s average cost of $7,345.

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

Crestwood Elementary — $7,926, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $8,527.

Kennerly Elementary — $7,645, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $8,405.

Long Elementary — $8,172, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $8,628.

Sappington Elementary — $7,728, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $8,223.

Truman Elementary — $7,278, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $7,648.

Sperreng Middle School — $6,984, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $7,012.

Lindbergh High — $8,383, down from the previous year’s expenditure of $8,413.

• ACT scores — For the 2003-2004 school year, 70 percent of eligible Lind-bergh students took the ACT, posting a composite score of 22.4, up from the previous year’s score of 22 when 68 percent of eligible students took the test.

Statewide, 70 percent of eligible students took the ACT, posting a composite score of 21.5, up from the previous years’ score of 21.4 when 69 percent of eligible students took the test. Nationwide, the composite score was 20.9 with 40 percent of eligible students taking the test. Students nationwide posted a 20.8 percent composite score the previous year with 40 percent of eligible students taking the exam.