Special School District of St

Missouri Education News

October 2008

IN THIS ISSUE:

Missouri Teacher of the Year Honored at MU Football Game

Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) Special Education Management System

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Missouri Teacher of the Year Honored at MU Football Game

As Missouri’s new Teacher of the Year, Margaret Williams will spend plenty of time in coming months behind the wheel, driving to professional conferences and other special events throughout the state.

Those trips will be easier now since she will be driving a new car – donated this year, for the first time, for use by the Missouri Teacher of the Year. Mrs. Williams received the keys to her new car last Saturday evening (Nov. 8) during a break in the action at the University of Missouri-Kansas State football game in Columbia.

The keys were presented by Paul Broome, president of the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association, and Sam Barbee, president and CEO of the Jefferson City-based association. MADA joined DESE earlier this year as a major sponsor of the Teacher of the Year program. The association represents 500 franchise new car dealers across Missouri. Mr. Broome, the current president of MADA, is the owner of Broome Cadillac, Independence.

“As a franchise dealer for the last 25 years, I have delivered new keys to many customers, but I cannot remember a more satisfying hand-off of keys than when I saw the look of gratification in Mrs. Williams’ eyes, as we stood on the football field, with nearly 70,000 people applauding her accomplishments, while her image filled the stadium’s huge video screen,” Mr. Broome said.

Beginning in September, and leading up to Saturday’s main event, MADA has recognized one of the state finalists in the Teacher of the Year program during each University of Missouri home football game.

“It has been a pleasure witnessing the incredible appreciation and humility from all of the finalists as MADA has recognized each of them during football Saturdays at Memorial Stadium. Our association could not have joined with a more deserving group of professionals,” Mr. Barbee said.

Through MADA’s sponsorship, Mrs. Williams will have the use of the car for two years.

A veteran social studies teacher at University City High School, Mrs. Williams was named Teacher of the Year for 2008-09 in August. She is Missouri’s nominee in the annual National Teacher of the Year program, the winner of which will be named next spring.

Mrs. Williams and all of the state finalists in this year’s program will be formally recognized by the State Board of Education during a reception and banquet in Jefferson City on Nov. 19.

]Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) Special Education Management System

Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) has renewed its contract to provide educators with Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc.’s special education IEP software product Encore®. The Encore IEP software suite provides a web-based “all-in-one” solution to more effectively manage the individualized learning process for all students receiving special services including special education, 504, limited English proficiency (LEP/ESL) and pre-referral Response to Intervention (RTI) programs.

Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) has been using Encore since 2004. Since that time, Encore has become the special education information system for all 23 partner districts in St. Louis County.

“Encore streamlines operations, improves accountability, provides staff access to data whenever and wherever, and ensures the District is in compliance with federal and state mandates,” stated Dr. Joan Zavitsky, Associate Superintendent of Learning and Assessment, Special School District of St. Louis County, Missouri. “There was no county-wide computer network connecting all of the 250+ schools in St. Louis County, so until the advent of Encore, the sharing of information was a paper transfer process.”

Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) is a leader in providing special education services to students with disabilities. The district also operates two technical high schools that provide a wide range of career and technical education programs to area students.