By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
New St. Joseph School Superintendent, Ashly McGinnis, has a firm goal in mind as she enters her first school year as superintendent.
Finances and academics remain top priorities that McGinnis says the district must tackle.
But McGinnis’ primary goal is to get back to a place of pride for the St. Joseph School District.
“I am hopeful that we can get back to a place where people love being at our district and parents are satisfied with the learning that they’re receiving,” McGinnis tells KFEQmmunity. “I’m hopeful that we can get back to a place that we have a sense of pride in our district.”
McGinnis says the theme for this school year is “We Believe in St. Joseph.”
McGinnis says the district must improve its score on the Annual Performance Report (APR). It sits at 67.5%, with improvements in math and science scores, but still lagging behind in literacy and social studies.
“I’ll tell you, literacy remains a key priority at all grade levels,” McGinnis says. “That’s a life skill, impacts every subject and is the foundation for our kids to be successful in the real world.”
McGinnis came to the St. Joseph School District in 2007. She has served as a counselor, a special education teacher, a middle school math teacher, an athletic director, and as principal at Layette High School. McGinnis became the district Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services before the Board of Education promoted her to superintendent, succeeding Gabe Edgar, who retired.
McGinnis says the district must improve test scores, but also see improvements in its graduation rate, career readiness, and even attendance to raise the district APR rating.
“The biggest piece of our APR that we have to focus on is the academics. So, we need to focus on literacy, on math, on science, and on social studies,” McGinnis says. “We did make quite a bit of improvement with math and in science this past year, but we still have a lot of work to do with literacy and social studies.”
McGinnis says the district must also focus on finances, pointing out the current budget reserve balance is at 16%, short of the 20% goal of the Board of Education.
McGinnis says she seeks to be a servant-leader. She says the leadership team must take care of the staff and support them in any way they can.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ