Patch Q&A with Superintendent of University City Schools Joylynn Pruitt

University City Patch Editor Myra Lopez submitted questions via email to University City School District Superintendent Joylynn Pruitt. The following are her responses. 

Patch: Any new, major changes for the district this year?

Joylynn Pruitt: We have an absolutely beautiful new building for Barbara C. Jordan Elementary School, and I’m looking forward to seeing the excitement on students’ faces when they return August 29. Pershing Elementary will be temporarily located in the Nathaniel Hawthorne building for the coming year as the new Pershing building is constructed. In addition, we have the change of sixth grade students attending the middle school and only four elementary schools in the District. While those ideas aren’t new, it’s our first year to experience the new grade configuration and consolidated elementary schools.

Patch: What do you see as the most important issue facing the district in the next school year?

Joylynn Pruitt: Academic achievement continues to be the most important issue for the District, because that’s the reason we’re all here. We showed some significant gains in many assessment areas for the 2010-2011 school year, and I know that our teachers and students will build on those successes to show even more gains this year. This year begins our third year of aggressive academic reform through the Instructional Core model. It’s a consistent, districtwide effort to improve what happens in the classroom for kids, and it’s working. 

These were sent in via U City Patch Twitter followers:

alexihnen Alex Ihnen 
@UniCityPatch How do you get students/parents with means to attend private school to attend public?

Whether a student attends a private or public school is a matter of personal choice. In some cases, parents choose private schools for religious reasons, but there are a multitude of reasons that may impact that choice. Our goal is to educate the community on the many wonderful opportunities for academic achievement and extracurricular activities that exist in our schools. We want families to make an informed decision about their child’s education, and not one based on incorrect information about the public schools in University City. This fall, we will host See Our Schools, See Our Pride week from October 10 through 14, where we invite all members of the University City community to come visit our schools and learn about the curriculum, extracurricular activities, building enhancements and the great things happening at each school. Watch the District website for more information about specifics for that week.

gizellie Gizellie 
@UniCityPatch Why tear down Pershing Elementary? Why not upgrade & retrofit?

The Pershing Elementary building was constructed through several different phases of additions and modifications, which resulted in a building with four different levels and a number of structural concerns when assessing the longevity of the building for future use. Starting from the ground up was a more cost-effective approach to creating a building that offers an educational environment for the 21st century student. There’s a lot of history to all of the buildings in our District, and it’s a tough decision to tear one down, but the Destination UCity community engagement effort looked at what was best for kids in the long run. That effort was led by citizens and incorporated the voice of the community at large in its recommendations. We worked with the architects to choose exterior materials and design that will help the new building blend with the existing neighborhood and maintain some elements of the old building’s style.

gailsto12 Gail Stobaugh 
@UniCityPatch What kind of connections between community and schools are in place? Mentors? Faith groups involvement? Alumni? Howcanwehelp?

We have a number of community connections in place, ranging from our partnership with Washington University to other local agencies. We also have District representatives who participate in a number of local and regional committees, which strengthens the tie to the community at large. One of the areas we will be targeting for improvement this year is our connection to individuals in the community, and specifically ways to track volunteer contributions and to match prospective volunteers with the needs of our schools. We have individuals volunteering in our schools every day, through the OASIS tutoring program or other school-based volunteer opportunities, but we want to streamline the process and make sure other community members know how they can help. We do have two mentor programs, the Reflections Mentoring Program, and a new pilot program this fall called LifePlan, which some of our freshman will experience. Alumni are involved in many ways, both these two mentoring programs and other programs, and we always welcome additional help. As we work through revising our volunteer process, we’ll have more specifics to share with the community about opportunities. In the meantime, anyone interested in supporting the mentoring programs can call the communications office at 314-290-4016.