Ladue faculty and board members look to move forward

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 25, 2013 - As the Ladue school district moves forward with its selection of a new superintendent -- the fourth person who will serve in that post since 2000 -- both faculty members and those serving on the board are aware of issues that the district's new leader will face.

Teachers interviewed about recent trends in the district hardly thought the outcomes of their students are subpar. But they did raise questions about how they were being treated as professionals, and whether that treatment will allow the district to continue to attract the kind of top-quality instructors for which Ladue has been known.

In recent years, some said, the atmosphere between the teaching staff and administrators had turned more adversarial than the collegial relationship the two groups had enjoyed in the past.

Eric Hahn, a veteran high school social studies teacher who has a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, said teachers used to have a strong say in the way subjects were taught -- a respect that he said encouraged them to contribute and develop ideas.

“We used to have meetings in which there were various educational ideologies discussed,” he said, “a real democratic process. Either teachers or administrators would initiate an idea for a course or the direction of a program, then agendas were set, timelines were developed and we would go back into departmental or full faculty discussions. Sometimes real fruitful discussions would take place, or arguments would ensue. It was a place where people could have a meaningful exchange of ideas.”

That kind of dialogue, Hahn added, has largely gone away. He bemoaned the end of a group known as the instructional council where, he said, “teachers could take concerns about instruction and curriculum and new course development and other kinds of issues that didn’t have to do with things like, my window has a leak in it and how can I fix it.”

David Sonius, also a social studies teacher who has been at the high school for 19 years, made clear that he and his colleagues at Horton Watkins are willing to be held to high standards. And he realizes that in such an atmosphere of elevated expectations, being an administrator isn’t the easiest job in the education world.

“Being principal in Ladue is different from being a principal in other places,” he said “You have a strong staff and a strong student body.

“It’s not for everybody. It’s a difficult environment in which to teach. It has its rewards, but it’s a difficult environment in which to teach.”

Still, they said, a difficult environment should not mean a lack of respect for teachers.

“I shouldn’t have to be talking with a reporter about this,” Hahn said. “That should be an internal kind of discussion. I’m not frustrated with my job. I’m not burned out. I love my students. But I am extremely concerned about the relationship that has developed, or the lack of it, between administrators and teachers at the high school.

Ladue schools by the numbers

“I think there needs to be a lot of mutual respect built. I need to be able to respect the administration, and I think the administration needs to be able to respect teachers.”

Part of the problem, he said, has been a lack of continuity in top positions.

“I’m not sure if the administrators that are in place right now even view Ladue as one of the top districts,” Hahn said. “They might look at scores and think it’s a nice place, but I’m not sure they admire what the students have to offer, what the teachers have to offer and what the parents have to offer in the sense of what they can contribute to the institution.”

Sonius and Hahn both emphasized the need to return to an atmosphere where being a teacher in Ladue was something that people at the top of their game would be shooting for.

“Progress has to be made,” Sonius said, “or we’re not going to be competitive in recruiting.” And he quotes a colleague as saying this:

“I want to get back to the day where we could steal teachers from anybody.”

Both sides now

As a teacher in Ladue for 39 years, and now a member of the board running for re-election this spring, Jeff Kopolow has a unique perspective of how the district has functioned, how it has changed and what qualities a new superintendent should have to move it forward.

He realizes that some things have changed over the years, but not the most basic principles.

“In a lot of ways,” he says, “the kids haven’t changed. The surroundings have changed. The demands and the pressures that are on someone on the teaching staff have changed.

“Most people go into education do so because we really want to reach kids. We want to educate them. Certainly there’s going to be variance among teachers because of personality and how they see that can be accomplished. But most of the teachers you find, whether it’s in 1966 when I started or in 2005 when I retired or in 2013 while we’re talking, they want to help kids. They want to open minds. If I ever had a philosophy, it might have been that the function of education is to teach you how to teach yourself what is really important.”

The job of board members, Kopolow said, is to set policy, not to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the classroom. That is what he and his colleagues have to remember as their search for a new superintendent moves forward.

“We’re not supposed to be micromanagers,” he said. “We’re not out there saying that A, B, C, D is what we expect them to do. We are looking for an education leader. They are the professional in this. I’m not denying my experience, but I’m not in charge. It’s not Jeff’s schools. It’s the Ladue schools.”

And he doesn’t want parents to be focusing so much on things like how Newsweek rates the district’s high school because as a teacher, he saw only too clearly how numbers like the scores on standardized tests have been used to totally mischaracterize schools.

“I’m not panic-stricken about dropping from 103 to 188,” in the Newsweek rankings, Kopolow said. “How many high schools are there in this country? If we’re in the top 200, I think we’re doing pretty well.”

As far as the incidents that have brought Ladue negative publicity in recent months, both Kopolow and fellow board members Sheri Glantz and Jayne Langsam say that as unfortunate as they have been, seeing how the district’s administrators responded was very reassuring.

“You never really expect negative things to turn out to be a blessing,” Glantz said after the latest incident, “but this whole week, ever since this whole Instagram thing popped up, I have to say that with the leadership we have in place right now, this has been a blessing.

“The way this whole situation was handled, the commitment and the dedication demonstrated by our district leadership, is really unparalleled. I am so proud of them and proud of what this district is accomplishing.”

And, she said, the school can only do so much.

“Teachers and administrators have a certain amount of control over what kids do,” Glantz said. “Unfortunately, kids often make really poor decisions, and often parents are not aware of what their kids are doing. We live in a world where it’s awfully easy to make an imperfect decision with unintended consequences, and I feel like that happens at times.”

Adds Langsam: “I don’t necessarily believe this is an isolated problem. It’s more of a national and a worldwide problem, and Ladue is one example of where these things happen. They can happen anywhere. I think it’s more about how the district handles it.”

At the public forum where the superintendent search was discussed, Glantz made a point of saying that the proceedings would not be adversarial. “It’s not the board versus the community,” she told the crowd as the discussion sometimes became particularly animated.

Expanding on that in an interview, she made a point of saying that while board members themselves may sometimes have pointed discussions about policy, the tension is creative.

“We have seven people on this school board who definitely have minds of their own,” Glantz said. “None of us is a puppet for anybody, which I think is a really good thing. We agree and disagree respectfully with each other, and if you never have any disagreement, you don’t learn as much.”

And, she wanted to make a point about the district that most people don’t consider.

“When people think about Ladue schools,” Glantz said, “they never equate that with diversity. But we have cultural diversity, socioeconomic diversity, racial diversity, language diversity. There is a great deal of diversity in the district that the general public is now aware of.”

What does not diverge from one person to the next, board members say, is the importance they place on the effort to ensuring that every Ladue student gets the best education possible, regardless of the distractions that may come from within the district and from outside.

“Our commitment is to excellence in education,” said Kopolow. “We have an excellent staff. We have a staff that we trust. We trust them with our kids. They work very hard at it. They’re very committed. If they find something that works better, they’re willing to take a look at it, and if it works, they’ll say we’ll do it.

“If that’s the Ladue Way, I’m very happy with it.”