Central Newsmagazine School News

Central Newsmagazine is Central St. Louis County's exclusive direct-mailed community newspaper.

Kirkwood Call student newspaper receives award

The Kirkwood Call student newspaper recently was announced as a 2008 Pacemaker winner at the Journalism Education Association/National School Press Association (NSPA) Fall National High School Journalism Convention awards ceremony in St. Louis. The Call was one of only 14 student newspapers nationwide and the only Missouri newspaper in the 16 or fewer pages category to be named a Pacemaker winner, the highest recognition of NSPA awards.

In addition, 10 Kirkwood High School journalism students won national write-off competitions at the convention. They included Superior award winners Karlos Harbor, Pete Krusing, Katie Linsley, Spencer Michelson and Lindsay Miller; Excellent award winners David Danaher, Sean Funcik and Sam Sauer; and Honorable Mention winners Keenan Priestley and Bobby Watson.

Mitch Eden, journalism teacher and Call/Pioneer adviser, Lara Embree, English and photojournalism teacher, and Christine Lindquist, assistant principal, accompanied 42 members of The Kirkwood Call and the Kirkwood High School (KHS) Pioneer yearbook staff to the convention. English teacher and department chair Linda Reed joined the Kirkwood students at the convention for the awards ceremony.

Eden commended Madeline Agathen and Brandon Mitchener, 2008 Kirkwood High graduates and co-editors in chief, and their 32-person staff as well as the current Call staff for their hard work and commitment to student journalism. The Kirkwood Call earned its last Pacemaker in 1987 and was last named a Pacemaker finalist in 1997.

Senior members of the 2008-09 Call staff who accepted the award on behalf of the 2007-08 staff included David Danaher, editor in chief; Pat McHugh, design editor; Carra Hansen, managing editor; Katie Linsley, photo editor; Spencer Michelson, copy editor; Ryan Schuessler, opinions editor; and Alex Berry, features writer.

Clayton delays decision on middle school

The School District of Clayton Board of Education likely will wait one year to seek funding for at least part of its Facilities Master Plan, postponing a proposal relating to Wydown Middle School until April 2010.

Officials said the delay will provide the board the time needed to engage the Clayton community in a discussion about possibly building a new middle school on the former CBC High School campus. The district would obtain the CBC property in a land swap with Washington University. The proposed exchange would give Washington University the district's Bracken Building, Maryland School and Wydown Middle School properties. In exchange, the district would receive the former CBC High School property plus additional considerations.

Developments since the board approved the Facilities Master Plan on Dec. 17 have made the possibility of trading properties with Washington University more realistic. The board felt that there simply was not enough time before the Jan. 27 deadline to gather the input necessary to determine what would be the best option for the Clayton community.

Both Washington University and the district have agreed to engage the Clayton community later this year in a process that will allow for residents and patrons to provide input and feedback as both organizations evaluate this option.

Ladue seeks new superintendent

On Dec. 22, the Ladue School District Board of Education formally approved Superintendent David Benson’s request for release of his final contract year (2009-10). Benson was offered the superintendent position for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) School District. After the board’s decision, Benson accepted the Cedar Rapids position and will begin work on July 1.

Benson is in his fifth year as superintendent at Ladue. Prior to Ladue, he had an 11-year tenure in the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kan. He also worked in Iowa for six years earlier in his career.

The Ladue Board of Education has posted a superintendent search survey on the district’s Web site (filemaker.ladue.k12.mo.us/admin/sws/home.php), which seeks insight from community members on the characteristics they would like to see in a new superintendent. It also asks what issues they believe are of the highest priority at this time. This community feedback will assist the board members as they select the new superintendent.

The survey will be available until Jan. 31.

Fourth graders help donate books to children throughout country

Fourth graders in Shayla Graves’ classroom at Robinson Elementary School in the Kirkwood School District joined students from throughout the country to help donate one million books to children in need through the Scholastic Book Clubs’ ClassroomsCare program.

At the start of the school year, Graves registered her students online to participate in the program, which is designed to teach children about the joys and importance of reading and giving. Her class had to read 100 books by Dec. 19 in order to have Scholastic Book Clubs donate the books.

Graves said the students met the challenge and read the 100 books by the end of October.

“I’m so proud of my students,” Graves said. “They helped other children and also helped themselves by reading and taking part in this program.”

The Robinson students chose to have their books donated to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.