News

By Marcus Clem Although a deeply divided St. Joseph Board of Education rejected a four-day-a-week school plan, room for agreement exists on raising taxes to help teachers through another approach. A number of strategies exist for attracting teacher applicants and building loyalty to the district, so there are fewer recruits leaving. Two main ideas exist:

By Marcus Clem One of St. Joseph’s largest labor unions intervened in education policy in a way not seen before when they urged the St. Joseph Board of Education to vote down a four-day schools plan. The board ultimately did so, 4-3, on Monday night. Labor attorney Monica Vargas-Huertas said organizers became aware of the

By NewsPress Now A series of promotions and transfers is in place for the 2024-25 school year following St. Joseph Board of Education approval on Monday night. Dlo DuVall will serve as coordinator of early childhood services. Kara Anderson will take over for DuVall in the position of director of special programs, according to a

By Marcus Clem The League of Women Voters of Northwest Missouri has invited the 10 candidates for St. Joseph Board of Education to a Thursday public forum. The event, set to begin at 6 p.m. on the upper floor of the Rolling Hills Library at 1906 N. Belt Highway, is the second big gathering of

By Marcus Clem The St. Joseph Board of Education shot down on Monday a school district plan to adopt the four-day class calendar, preserving the status quo at least for now. Whitney Lanning, Latonya Williams and Rick Gehring voted “yes,” while Kenneth Reeder, Kim Miller, David Foster and Isaura Garcia voted “no.” Superintendent Gabe Edgar

By NewsPress Now The Mosaic Life Care Foundation’s Children’s Discovery Center has its first hire. Katherine Patterson-Paronto will be the center’s director and begins her job on March 1. She has years of experience in children’s discovery centers and programs including at KidSight, Wonderscope and Science City. “We are pleased to have Katherine join our

By Jazmine Knight Normally the Free Application for Federal Student Aid opens Oct. 1. However, for the 2024-25 period, students had to wait almost three months for it to open on Dec. 30, causing issues for students and financial aid departments. According to the Department of Education, it computed about 3 million submitted applications by

By Marcus Clem Barbara Spencer and Miranda Ham are recognized as the very best at what they do across the St. Joseph School District for the 2023-24 school year. In being named as Support Person of the Year, Ham is said to represent the height of work done by hundreds of staffers, which includes all

By Kendra Simpson Many residents received a text message with a link to a survey on Wednesday afternoon containing questions about St. Joseph schools, though it did not come from the district. One question inquired about “sexually explicit” and “pornographic” books in St. Joseph elementary school libraries. The same question also said, “The school district

By Marcus Clem The Missouri Western State University Board of Governors unanimously voted to give Elizabeth Kennedy a three-year contract extension as chief executive of St. Joseph’s hometown higher education campus. Kennedy assumed office as university president in February 2021, having become interim president in summer 2020. Her current contract expires on June 30 of