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Oakville Senior High stu-dents Chris Dlugos, Samantha DeMierre and Michael Dickens won a cooking competition at L’Ecole Culinaire. Each stu-dent earned an $18,000 tuition scholarship for the Culinary Fundamentals Program. A story and photograph can be viewed at www.callnewspapers.com.

Web exclusive

Read more on Page 9A about how these students celebrated the 800th birthday of St. Louis’ patron.

Our town ..................... Page 3AOpinions ..................... Page 4ABirths .......................... Page 5AMehlville news ........... Page 6ACalendar...................... Page 7ASchool news ............... Page 9AGraduate Salute .......... Page 10AClassifieds ................... Page 14ACrossword puzzle ....... Page 15ACalendar...................... Page 19A

Inside the Call

Springfield superintendent to lead Mehlville schools

Norm Ridder

Sunset Hills panel sets public hearingon telecommunications tower request

Sime recommends pact with firm city once sued

Volume 17, Number 22 1 Section, 20 Pages Thursday, May 29, 2014 callnewspapers.com9977 Lin Ferry DriveSt. Louis, MO 63123

Compromise bill on student transferssparks veto announcement, lawsuits

By GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The Mehlville Board of Education announced last week that the superintendent of the largest school district in Missouri will serve as Mehlville’s interim superintendent.

Current Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Norm Ridder will take the helm in Mehlville July 1,

arriving in the district with more than 40 years of teaching and administration experience in Nebraska, Colorado and Missouri, in advance of the selection of a permanent superintendent next year.

“We’re honored to have someone of Dr. Ridder’s caliber in Mehlville,” board Vice President Venki Palamand told the Call. “He has a calm, quiet lead-ership style, and I think he’s really a team-oriented

superintendent. And he brings a wealth of experi-ence from different states — I’m sure there’s a lot we can learn from him.”

Board Secretary Lori Trakas told the Call she is most impressed with Ridder’s array of experience, along with his expectation of academic excellence.

“He sets a high standard,” she noted.(See LEAD, Page 6A)

New chair selected for MSD boardBy GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Board of Trustees has a new look, with a new chair and a new member.

The vacancies in both positions came from the retirement of board Chairman James Buford, the former chief executive of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, who reached his limit of two four-year terms on the MSD board in March.

The six-member MSD board has three trustees appointed by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and three trustees appointed by County

(See CHAIR, Page 8A)

Students sponsor fundraising car washSeventh-grade literature students at Washington Middle School recently

sponsored a fundraising car wash to raise money to provide reading books for young students at the Central Institute for the Deaf. Seventh-graders par-ticipating in the car wash included Alena Hong, left, and Libby Uttendorf. To read more, visit www.callnewspapers.com.

By GLORIA LLOYDStaff Reporter

The week after the Missouri Legislature sent a compromise bill on student transfers to Gov. Jay Nixon brought an announce-ment by Nixon that he would veto the measure, a state decision to dissolve the Normandy School District and lawsuits by Normandy against the state and 20 area districts, including Lindbergh Schools.

After months of wrangling, the Legis-lature adopted Senate Bill 493 in the last week of its session, a compromise that continues transfers but makes transpor-tation optional and includes provisions for using public money for nonreligious private schools in unaccredited school dis-tricts if the local voters agree.

Nixon announced late last week that he(See TRANSFERS, Page 12A)

By MIKE ANTHONYExecutive Editor

Crestwood City Administrator Mark Sime is recom-mending the Board of Aldermen approve an agree-ment for financial support services with a company the city once sued for alleged professional negligence and breach of contract.

Aldermen were scheduled to consider Sime’s rec-ommendation Tuesday night — after the Call went to press.

The agreement calls for Hochschild, Bloom & Co.

to serve as a consultant for financial support services for the city’s Finance Department. The board had been scheduled to consider the agreement May 13, but Sime pulled the issue from the agenda after learn-ing about the lawsuit, which the city filed in 2003 and Hochschild, Bloom & Co. settled in 2006.

In a memo recommending the Board of Aldermen approve the agreement, Sime wrote, “... The case was settled, and pursuant to the settlement agreement, Hochschild, Bloom (&) Co. paid the city $170,000 to

(See RECOMMENDS, Page 13A)

By MIKE ANTHONYExecutive Editor

A public hearing on a request to erect a telecommunications tower and shelter at 9907 Sappington Road will be conducted next week by the Sunset Hills Planning and Zoning Commission.

The Planning and Zoning Commission

also will conduct a public hearing on a re-quest by Ameren Missouri to construct a new substation on Deane Court when the panel meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, at City Hall, 3939 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

CIS Communications LLC is seeking a conditional-use permit, or CUP, to erect the

(See TOWER, Page 4A)

• TransfersThough student transfer bill has fl aws,Englund believes Nixon should sign it(Continued from Page 1A)will veto the bill for that clause, which he called a “danger-ous voucher scheme.” The bill did not pass the House with a veto-proof majority, but Nixon could call legislators back through a special session. He was slated to speak at Lindbergh High School’s graduation ceremony at Chaifetz Arena Tuesday — after the Call went to press.

County Executive Charlie Dooley called on Nixon to veto the bill, saying that it sends money to private schools while ignoring the central issue of how to fi x the quality of education in the unaccredited districts themselves.

“Those kids are still in those schools. What are they sup-posed to do with the kids who don’t get a transfer? How do they get educated? What are we doing to fi x that problem?” Dooley told the Call. “That’s the real problem. The transfer problem is the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is educat-ing kids in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and the Normandy and Riverview problem was not addressed in that legislation.”

Instead, Dooley said the governor should call a special session where legislators can work for a better solution.

“They need to address this — don’t put it off until next year. This is about kids’ lives and education. They need to do this now,” he said. “How do we fi x this problem? This problem needs to be addressed this year, not next year. Right now is the time to start fi xing and get it going in the right direction.”

Englund calls for compromiseRep. Vicki Lorenz Englund, D-Green Park, who also

serves on the Lindbergh Board of Education, served on the seven-member Senate and House conference com-mittee that produced the fi nal compromise sent to Nixon.

Although the Legislature’s fi nal product has many fl aws, she noted, she wants Nixon to sign it because it addresses some of the key uncertainties and issues around transfers and gives districts a road map to follow for next school year.

“It’s a Band-Aid for the situation, to try and stop some

of the bleeding,” she told the Call. “It’s one thing to say, ‘I don’t like the solution that you guys came up with,’ but we need to know what (Nixon is) thinking.”

Nixon has not offered his own solutions, Englund noted. She hopes he calls a special session to unite legislators and give guidance on the problem, as he did with last year’s special session on incentives for Boeing, she added.

The bill allows receiving districts to enforce their class-size policies so that they do not become overcrowded by transfer students, the top goal for the legislative session of Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, who noted at the outset of the session that under current law, if St. Louis Public Schools loses provisional accreditation, its 50,000 school-age chil-dren could overwhelm county districts.

However, local offi cials expecting a solution from Jef-ferson City said they were instead disappointed.

“It’s a real problem. They need to fi x this, and it’s not fi xed,” Dooley said. “And that’s their jobs. One of their major jobs in the state is what? Education. They need to address this.”

The original transfer law does not mention student trans-portation, but the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, produced guidelines last year that each unaccredited district should provide trans-portation to one or more receiving district.

The new legislation states that unaccredited districts “may” provide transportation, which has Mehlville Super-intendent Eric Knost concerned that current transfer stu-dents would no longer be able to attend their new schools.

It is up in the air whether current transfers could contin-ue if sending districts declined to provide transportation, Englund agreed, but she noted that the bill creates a cen-tral education authority which could potentially provide transportation if unaccredited districts refused.

“Mehlville did a great job taking in slightly over 200 kids and educating them, and there’s still some limbo over whether those kids will get to stay,” she said.

Mehlville started the year with 216 transfer students from Riverview Gardens and now has roughly 190 transfer stu-dents fi nishing out the year.

“It’s just problematic all around, lose-lose — and the Legislature sure didn’t help,” Knost said. “They didn’t put anything together that was worth anything ... It’s a bill that takes all the transportation away. I can’t imagine that any of our almost 200 (transfer) kids would still come to Mehlville. That choice would be removed.

“And yet, vouchers for nonsectarian private schools?” he added. “There’s zero nonsectarian private schools in Normandy and only one in Riverview. To me that connects the dots and says this is not about a victory for kids and giving them choices as (school choice supporters) claim they wanted, it’s a victory for vouchers — and a victory, potentially, for commercial interests.”

Normandy fi les suit against LindberghThe State Board of Education announced May 20 it

would dissolve the Normandy School District July 1. In its place and with the same schools, teachers and footprint, the newly named Normandy Schools Collaborative — still unaccredited — will be run by a state-appointed board rather than its elected school board, DESE Commissioner Chris Nicastro announced.

The next day, Normandy announced that it was suing the state, the state board, DESE and 20 area school districts it is paying to send students to, including Lindbergh. Since Mehlville only has transfer students from Riverview, it is not included in the lawsuit.

The following day, DESE, which assumed control of Normandy’s fi nances in February, denied the district funds to use for the lawsuit, which was not withdrawn.

“We haven’t offi cially been served with the lawsuit yet, so our legal counsel has not had time to review it and give their thoughts on it,” Lindbergh spokesman Anthony Dobson told the Call Friday, adding that Lindbergh’s $10,039 tuition is lower than Normandy’s.

Lindbergh began the year with 24 Normandy students and now has 12, along with three from Riverview.

“We don’t need to be having taxpayer dollars spent on lawsuits instead of education — that makes it that much more of an urgent crisis,” Englund said.

Page 12A - Call Publishing, Thursday, May 29, 2014

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