And now Bill Purdy

William(Bill) Purdy For School Board - April 5, 2005 (PUNCH #2)
I have officially entered one of the most important and difficult undertakings of my life - running once more for a seat on the Board of Education. My place on the ballot will be # 2 just behind Veronica O'Brien. I am strongly supporting Veronica O'Brien, who is first on the ballot, and Peter Downs, who is last on the ballot.

BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM (BILL) PURDY
In April 1991, it was my honor to be elected to a six-year term on the St. Louis Board of Education and was reelected for a second six-year term in April 1997. I was a member of the boards that successfully negotiated an end of the lengthy and costly desegregation litigation and built the new Vashon and Metro High Schools, the Nance, Clyde C. Miller Academy, the Gateway Elementary and Middle Schools, Stix ECC, Carnahan Middle while most other schools, such as Adams and McKinley were completely renovated within budget and without public controversy. A comprehensive air-conditioning program was begun without increasing tax rates. Community Education programs were expanded. During those years the district experienced steady improved student achievement, a reduction in the drop out rate and improved student attendance. The district moved within two points of receiving full state accreditation. After earlier serving two terms as vice-president, I served as president of the Board of Education during the 2002-2003 school year and completed my board service in April 2003.

I spent most of my life associated with the SLPS and genuinely care about all children, the city of St. Louis, and our public school system. After spending my kindergarten and elementary school years at Roe Elementary, my next four years were spent as a student at Southwest High School. Following graduation from Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri, Columbia, I returned to the District in 1960 as a teacher at Southwest High School. After spending ten years at Southwest, Lincoln Opportunity and Cleveland High Schools as an administrator and teacher, I spent the next twenty years as the High School Principal of both Central and Roosevelt High Schools. I retired from the district in June 1990.

I caught batting practice for the old St. Louis Browns baseball team (now the Baltimore Orioles in 1952 & 1953 and caught the famed pitcher Satchel Paige) My involvement in educational programs and organizations continued beyond my service on the Board of Education. I hold active memberships in the National Association of Secondary Principals, Missouri Association of Secondary
Principals, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Advisory Committee with the United States Military Recruiting Commands, the St. Louis Science Center as a trustee and a member of the Science Center Marketing Committee, and the community health board of Reach. I am a former member of the Staff Development Advisory Committee of the Cooperating School District of greater St. Louis, the Board of Directors of the Missouri School Board Association, a trustee board of the Missouri Botanical Garden and a trustee of the St. Louis Public School Retirement System.

Other professional opportunities have included serving as a graduate assistant in Education at the University of Missouri - Columbia, assisting in student teaching programs at SLU, Washington University, Southeast Missouri State University and the UMSL, a participant and speaker in the C. F. Kettering Foundation School Climate Improvement Project, a recipient of the James E. Allen Fellowship Scholarship of the Danforth Foundation, and participated in many North Central Association schools accreditation evaluations. I co-chaired and served on citywide committees at the request of Mayors Vincent Schoemehl, Jr., Freeman Bosley, Jr. My wife, Mary Beth Purdy, is the former Principal of the Classical Junior Academy at McKinley. We are members of the Concord Baptist Church. All of my children and three grandchildren attended the St. Louis Public Schools and two of my adult daughters are in the midst of long careers as teachers in the city schools.

The Painful Facts Today
The four-member majority backed by Mayor Francis Slay that won control of the board in 2003 has put the schools in the worst shape in years. And the decline appears to be continuing. Teacher morale is at an all time low. There are accounts from various teachers and parents of deplorably maintained schools and of high school class sizes far too large for effective instruction. When the new majority took office, the school system had been steadily improving and was just shy of regaining full accreditation by the state. That trend was abruptly reversed. The majority put the schools in the hands of a New York management consulting firm with no prior educational experience under a $10 million contract. The consultants built a high-salary centralized bureaucracy and fired hundreds of dedicated employees through outsourcing of custodial, maintenance, food services, insurance benefits, and warehouse operations to out-of-town companies. They also hired multiple expensive public relations and law firms.

The bottom line results have been alarming. In June, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education awarded the district a rating of only 48 points for 2004 on its performance toward accreditation, the lowest level in recent memory. That rating is 18 points below the minimum of 66 required for full accreditation, and is a drop of 16 points from the rating in 2003. The rating is made annually but decisions on removal of accreditation are taken only after continued years of substandard performance.

GRAVE CRISIS: The points awarded reflect an objective state assessment of attendance, drop-out and graduation levels, of students' standard test scores, and of the range and level of education services and resources available to the students. Clearly, the schools are in a grave crisis, and the controlling majority has advanced no plan for progress. Indeed, the board is riven by acrimony and has become a public embarrassment. Currently, the schools are under the third acting superintendent in the last year and a half. The board majority claimed the closing and sale of public school facilities and the outsourcing and administrative steps were necessary because it had "discovered" a $90 million deficit. In fact, the financial picture had been clearly shown in public reports at the time of the 2003 campaign, and most of the deficit was because of post 9-11 severe reductions in promised state funding and new payments to charter schools. There has been no indication of any financial savings from the outsourcing and building sales that have offset the major problems it created. Indeed, the board told the state this summer that it is running at a $44 million deficit.

I feel my service as a teacher and a 20 year principal in the St. Louis schools, as well as my experience as a board member and board president, will be particularly useful in this extremely troubled time in the schools. My track record in the school house and in the board room shows my ability to work with people in a constructive, non-confrontational way.

MY POSITION ON THE ISSUES:
* My top priority is to strengthen student academic performance.
* The district must regain full state accreditation and financial stability.
* To insist that all board decisions be in the best interest of the children.
* To demonstrate respect and support for the dedicated employees of the district.
* To see a major reduction in both the dropout rate and in disruptive student behavior. The board of education should implement the comprehensive recommendations made in 1992-93 by a panel of parents, students, teachers, St. Louis County school officials, district security staff, police, court officials, members of the clergy, union officials, and representatives from both the office of governor and mayor. This committee was created by the former board and chaired by the late Alderman, Dan Kirner and school administrator Charles Simms. The recommendations in this report have been completely ignored by the current board of education.
* To reestablish the alternative schools for chronically disruptive students which were closed by the current board of education.
* I believe in strong neighborhood schools.
* I believe in and support the continuation of successful magnet school programs.
* To return stability in our schools and in our neighborhoods. Parents and children must have a continuity and consistency in school assignments. Children cannot continue to be objects that are moved around the city from school to school.
* I believe in strong parent, teacher, staff and community relationships with open and honest communication with all members of the public. Parents, teachers and neighbors know more about what works in their school and community than do "downtown" administrators.
* To reconnect school and neighborhood decision making within a centrally structured but school based friendly environment.
* From 1991-1993 progress was being made in reducing bureaucracy and transferring more authority and accountability to each school site. I will continue to push the district toward meaningful neighborhood school-based
decision-making. Unfortunately there has been a reversal in that movement.
* We must regain public confidence in the school system and reverse the recent decline in student enrollment. For the past twelve years, citizens have demonstrated their confidence in former board members by approving every tax increase and bond election by substantial margins.
* At this time, although the need is quite real, I am not in favor of a local tax increase because of the wasteful spending of the present board.
* The feuding and fighting between board members and the community must be replaced with cooperation and respect for students, parents, employees and the community.
* To end the pattern of closed-door decision-making.
* End the continuing practice of issuing no-bid contracts. This was identified as a significant issue in the recent audit conducted by state auditor Claire McCaskill.
* Return to the practice of providing backup information to the public at school board meetings on matters pending before the board. Board decisions must never be conducted in secrecy and out of the view from the public and the media.
* I strongly oppose the outsourcing of public services to out of town, private, for profit international and national corporations at the expense of our own citizens.
* To get a clear demarcation between the board's policy-making role and the superintendent's administrative responsibilities.
* Reducing the recently enlarged high salaried central bureaucracies and making the district more responsive to students, parents, the professional staff and the community.
* While cooperation and respect with the city mayor is desirable, as established in state law, there must be separation of governance. Political influence from city hall in the hiring and contract practices of the school district must STOP. I will be running independently and not as part of a formal organized slate but I am strongly supporting Veronica O'Brien (first on the ballot) and Peter Downs (last on the ballot).