Ferguson-Florissant Board Incumbent Looks Beyond Last Year's Controversy

Board of Education member and candidate Paul Schroeder has a long history of educational experience, even though he didn't pursue teaching in college.

He studied mathematics for his bachelor’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis and master’s degree at Purdue University before becoming a teacher.

“It made me a different math teacher,” he said. “If I hadn’t gone up to a certain level, I don’t know if I would have seen all of the connections (between geometry, trigonometry and statistics).”

Schroeder worked for 33 years in the Ferguson-Florissant School District at as a math teacher. After retiring in June 2005, he sought a board position with the district and won in April 2006.

Now, Schroeder seeks his third term on the board.

“My passion is for our schools and doing right for our kids,” he said. “Keep our focus on the kids and not the adults.”

History helps future focus

As a teacher, Schroeder was a Fulbright Scholar in the late 1980s in Germany, and he said that’s where his outlook on school systems changed.

“What you can and can’t do depends on school system and culture,” Schroeder said. He said he’s studied other school systems in other countries, such as Japan, since that time.

Being in the Ferguson-Florissant district as first an employee and now a board member has allowed him to learn the history of the district and the state, he said. Furthermore, he’s seen a lot of changes in laws and education during the past years.

For example, he said the accreditation process used to focus on the community’s input into the schools, but now with No Child Left Behind, the focus is on student achievement.

He said the problem lies in getting everyone to reach the proficient level, especially for English-language learners who might be testing their first year of classes.

“The name was perfect,” he said. “No one wants to have a child left behind, but how you measure that is the big problem.”

In looking to the future, Schroeder said that the focus remains on the district’s accreditation.

“The vision is more focused beyond accreditation,” he said. He said the board and focus on gaining accreditation with distinction in performance, which is the next accreditation level.

“I think I can be quite beneficial to Art (McCoy) in terms of focus on where we want to go,” he said. “I want to be able to have that positive information as where we go. Everything I want to do is in a positive aim.”

In back of voters' minds

As the only incumbent running in the municipal election, Schroeder has made no bones that last year’s election could still be in the back of voters’ minds.

Last year, all incumbents–including Doris Graham, Les Lentz and Jim Clark – were voted off of the board. Following the election, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that several board members had traveled to San Francisco for the National School Boards Association the past month and accrued more than $12,800 in expenses. Schroeder had been identified as one of the board members who attended.

“People are going to decide,” he said. “They make the decision.”

Schroeder said he thought more people would have filed for the two board seats, but that’s not what happened.

“Last year’s controversies will be in the back of people’s minds,” Schroeder said.

He said this year’s election is a very different climate and that he can’t get involved in past speculation heading into this election.