I want to thank the Mehlville Board of Education for unanimously electing me as board president for the 2016-2017 school year.

The transition from a board member to president is a learning experience in progress. However, I’ve had great mentors from our senior board members. I am very excited about the forward trajectory of where our district is headed. We recently extended the contract of Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines another year. He met all goals we outlined in his successful interview process for the job, as well as those goals listed in his contract.

Those goals included getting to know the employees and community members of great influence, building community engagement, beginning the process of implementing the district’s strategic plan and proposing innovative ideas for moving up the needle on academic achievement, such as the school of innovation.

We have also asked him to look at how best to reorganize our high schools to meet the educational needs of the 21st century.

These are just a few of the goals and measurements accomplished by Dr. Gaines over the last year. His first year as superintendent was impressive; he’s been a busy man. With new goals leading into the 2016-2017 school year, we expect even better results in the coming years as we follow our strategic plan.

Transparency is of the utmost importance and we are always working on better ways to make our district accountable to our community. Soon you will find that our finances are more accessible to the public with new online information.

Currently, we hear from our community twice during our board meetings, but we felt it was important to take it a step further and add listening sessions. We want to have an open dialogue with our residents, to hear your ideas and thoughts and be able to have an actual back-and-forth conversation around it. We will make sure that you have a voice at board meetings that satisfies any concerns you might have within the law and board policy.

Part of being accessible and open is hearing from the community. After all, some of our best ideas on how to improve the district come from you. Feel free to email me with any ideas or concerns and I will do my best to follow up and answer you.

My email address is stormers@mehlvilleschooldistrict.net.