How Can We Give Our Children the Schools They Deserve?
Whitaker Hall at Washington University
April 13, 2011
7:00 PM
(Doors open 6:30)
Panelists
Dr. Kelvin Adams, Superintendent of Schools, SLPS
Mary Armstrong, President, American Federation of Teachers St. Louis
Trina Dyan Clark James, CEO, Jamaa Learning Center
Ronald Jackson, former Executive Director, St. Louis for Kids
Moderator
Patrick Murphy, The Nine Network
The Great Debates are free and open to the public. Space is limited. Attendees are encouraged to register in advance and arrive early in order to secure a seat.
What are the St. Louis
Great Debates?
Ever leave a panel discussion or speaker wondering what to do with all the information you just learned - wondering what are the next steps? If so, the St. Louis Great Debates is for you. The Debates is a series of events addressing the issues most debated in the St. Louis community. At each event, a panel of knowledgeable, respected experts with different viewpoints will make their case on the topic of the night. Following this lively debate, attendees will have the opportunity to meet in facilitated discussion groups to discuss possible courses of action to address the issue at hand. Contact information will then be exchanged so that those interested can attend follow-up meetings and form an initiative of their own around the subject they saw debated.
Kelvin Adams
Mary Armstrong
Ronald Jackson
Trina James
Dr. Kelvin Adams became Superintendent of Schools for the St. Louis Public School District on November 3, 2008. As superintendent, Dr. Adams oversees a school district serving more than 25,000 students with more than 4,000 employees and teachers. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the district and a budget of nearly $300 Million. During his time with the District, Dr. Adams has focused his attention on improving student achievement, instituting several new academic initiatives, improving after-school programs, and recruiting highly qualified teachers for critical instructional areas. Prior to accepting the Superintendent position with St. Louis Public Schools, Dr. Adams was Chief of Staff for the Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans, a position he held since 2007. From 2006-2007, Dr. Adams was the Executive Director of Human Resources for St. Louis Public Schools.
Mary J. Armstrong is the current President of the AFT St. Louis, Local 420 of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL/CIO. In May 2007, she was elected to a third two-year term of office. She is on a current leave of absence as Secondary Mathematics Teachers at Gateway Institute of Technology High School in the St. Louis Public Schools District. Ms. Armstrong has worked for thirty-five years in the SLPS District, including thity years as a teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has taught and tutored math to young people as well as adults. As union leader, Ms. Armstrong has used her negotiating and diplomatic skills to energetically advocate for her union and student constituents.
Ronald Jackson is the recently retired executive director of St. Louis for Kids, an organization that works to increase the supply and quality of after school programs in the St. Louis region and to raise public awareness and public support to improve the well-being of children and youth. He has also served as the Executive Director of the National Conference of Community and Justice and as director of the Anti-Defamation League campaign “A World of Difference” Mr. Jackson has also worked as an assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and assistant director of admissions at Washington University. He also served as a member and vice president of the St. Louis Board of Education.
Trina Dyan Clark James is currently the founder and CEO of Jamaa Learning Center, a high-performing full-service community charter public school opening in August 2011. Most recently, she was the Executive Director of St. Louisans United To Attract KIPP (SUTAK), resulting in St Louis being selected as the sole expansion site for KIPP in 2007. Prior to KIPP, Ms. James completed the Broad Residency in Urban Education program at St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS), where she was the Special Assistant to Superintendent Creg Williams overseeing the development and implementation of projects aimed at achieving major reform within the SLPS district. She began her career in the San Francisco Bay Area as an engineer, spending the majority of her engineering career at Apple Computer, Inc.
Patrick Murphy is vice president of production for the Nine Network of Public Media, where he is responsible for the development, content and presentation of programs produced by the station. Mr. Murphy produced and directed the Telly Award-winning documentary AmericanTower, which profiles the history of the Continental Life Building in St. Louis. He also produced the soccer documentary A Time for Champions, which aired on public television stations throughout the country. He is executive producer and co creator of the multi-award-winning Nine series Living St. Louis. Mr. Murphy is an adjunct faculty member at Webster University.
The Great Debates is a St. Louis Urban Corps Production
Sponsored by:
With special support from:
The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University and
The Association of Black Students at Washington University.
The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University and
The Association of Black Students at Washington University.
If you would like to get involved with the Great Debates, or you have topics you would like to see debated, please use the Contact Us page. In addition, you can join the Great Debates group on Facebook by clicking here.
Previous Debates
Economic Development in the St. Louis Region:
What is a Winning Strategy?
January 25, 2001
Missouri History Muesum
Keynote Speakers
Tim Logan & David Nicklaus
Expert Panel
Kathleen Osborn
Henry Webber
Gilbert Bickel
Moderator
Don Marsh, St. Louis Public Radio
David Nicklaus
Award-winning reporter David Nicklaus has been a business reporter, editor, and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since 1981. Currently, he writes three columns a week on local and national business trends and economic issues. He also writes a blog called Mound City Money on the Post-Dispatch's website, STLtoday.com. Nicklaus received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Drake University and a master's in economics from the London School of Economics.
Tim Logan
Tim Logan writes about economic and urban development at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he has been a business writer for about four years. Prior to that, he worked for newspapers in New York and Indiana and earned a master's degree in urban affairs at St. Louis University. A proud son of New England (and, yes, a Red Sox fan), he is nonetheless fascinated by St. Louis and all its potential. He lives in south city with his wife and young son.
Don Marsh
Host of the St. Louis Public Radio 90.7 KWMU program St. Louis on the Air, Don Marsh has been a broadcast journalist since 1960. He arrived in St. Louis in 1971, serving as anchorman, reporter and producer at KTVI-TV until 1994. Over the next several years he anchored the 5:00 and 10:00 news at KDNL-TV and intermittently hosted talkshows for KMOX Radio. He joined St. Louis Public Radio in 2005 and has since then been the voice of St. Louis on the Air. Mr. Marsh has won 12 Regional Emmy Awards for writing, reporting, producing and has over 60 Emmy nominations.
Gilbert Bickel
With forty-four years of service in the financial services business, Gilbert Bickel is a Senior Vice President for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and a founder of the St. Louis Arch Angels. The mission of the St. Louis Arch Angels is to provide opportunities for our members to obtain outstanding financial returns by investing in early-stage companies with high growth potential in the St. Louis Region and accelerating them to market leadership. Over the past five years, this group has funded nineteen companies with over $20,000,000. Mr. Bickel also serves on the Boards of the Center of Emerging Technologies, the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association and Innovate St. Louis.
Kathleen Osborn
Kathleen Osborn is Executive Director of the Regional Business Council, a consortium of 100 CEOs representing the St. Louis region’s largest mid-cap companies. The Council's mission is to act on high impact business, civic and philanthropic initiatives in order to build a highly competitive and world-class region. Prior to this position, Ms. Osborn was Vice Chancellor of University Relations at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Ms. Osborn serves on the boards of the Urban League of Greater St. Louis, St. Louis County Economic Council, United Way of Greater St. Louis, St. Louis Airport Commission, and Forest Park Forever.
Henry Webber
On March 1, 2008 Henry Webber became Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration and Senior Lecturer at Washington University in St. Louis. He acts as the University's chief administrative officer, overseeing facilities, campus planning, capital projects, environmental safety and health, off-campus real-estate acquisition and development, sustainability, campus safety and transportation, and a variety of other areas. Prior to his appointment at Washington University, Mr. Webber worked at the University of Chicago for 21 years, where me most recentlyworked as the university's vice president for community and government affairs from 2001-2008.
Should St. Louis City
Re-enter St. Louis County?
October 19, 2010
Washington University School of Law
Moderator
Jim Kirchherr, KETC-TV Channel 9
Panelists
E. Terrence Jones, Ph.D.
Gene McNary, Esq.
Ambassador George Herbert Walker III
Video Outtakes
Terry Jones is a professor of political science and public policy administration at the University of Missouri - St. Louis where he has taught since 1969. He has authored more than 60 articles on metropolitan politics, public opinion and public policy. He has served as a consultant to more than fifty governmental and nonprofit organizations and to more than two hundred candidate and referendum campaigns, is a past president of Confluence St. Louis and has been a consultant to the Leadership St. Louis Program since 1986. His two most recent books are The Metropolitan Chase: Politics and Policies in Urban America (2003) and Fragmented by Design: Why St. Louis Has So Many Governments (2000). In Fragmented by Design he documents how the structure of government in St. Louis came to be, why it survives and its implications for St. Louis.
Bert Walker as chair of the "Home Rule" project led the way toward an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that gave voters in the City of St. Louis the opportunity to alter their City Charter for the first time in the history of the city.
Ambassador Walker is Chairman Emeritus of Stifel Financial Corp. and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc. From 1978 until 1992, he served as President and CEO of Stifel Financial and Stifel, Nicolaus. He served as Chairman from 1982 to 2001. He then served as Ambassador to Hungary from 2003 to 2006. Ambassador Walker has served as Chairman of Downtown St. Louis, Inc. (now Downtown St. Louis Partnership) and as the first Chairman of the Downtown St. Louis Business District. He is Chairman Emeritus of Webster University and was a board member of both the Missouri Historical Society and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Ambassador Walker is Chairman Emeritus of Stifel Financial Corp. and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc. From 1978 until 1992, he served as President and CEO of Stifel Financial and Stifel, Nicolaus. He served as Chairman from 1982 to 2001. He then served as Ambassador to Hungary from 2003 to 2006. Ambassador Walker has served as Chairman of Downtown St. Louis, Inc. (now Downtown St. Louis Partnership) and as the first Chairman of the Downtown St. Louis Business District. He is Chairman Emeritus of Webster University and was a board member of both the Missouri Historical Society and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
Gene McNary worked intensely on the issue of City reentry into the County during the 1980’s as St. Louis County Executive. Born in 1935 in Muncie, Indiana, Mr. McNary earned his law degree from Indiana University in 1960. After two years in private law practice in St. Louis, he became Assistant Public Defender for St. Louis County in 1963. He was then elected St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney for two terms, beginning 1967, and was elected four times to St. Louis County Executive, from 1975 to 1989. He was then appointed Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, serving at the INS from 1989 to 1993. Most recently, Mr. McNary served as executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission from 2006 to 2010.
Jim Kirchherr
For the past 17 years, Senior and Executive Producer of Living St. Louis Jim Kirchherr has played an integral role in producing award-winning shows and feature stories for Channel 9. After graduating from the University of Illinois with a Communications degree, Mr. Kirchherr became a William Benton Fellow in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Chicago. From there, he began his career in radio before joining the KTVI news team in St. Louis. From 1987-1991, he was the Senior news editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany, and has been at KETC ever since.
Audience Q&A
Resources
From the Urban Corps Blog
"Re-entry or No Re-entry, St. Louis Cannot Afford a Divided Region"
Christine Chadwick, FOCUS St. Louis
Christine Chadwick, FOCUS St. Louis
Broadcasts
Bound by Division: St. Louis City/County Divide
St. Louis Public Radio, featuring:
"St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay Wants a City, County Merger"
KSDK
St. Louis Public Radio, featuring:
- Terry Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at University of Missouri - St. Louis
- Richard Ward, CRE, CEcD, AICP,Vice President Zimmer Real Estate Services
- William Hudnut III,former Mayor of Indianpolis
- Hank Savitch, Ph.D.,Professor of Urban and Public Affairs at University of Louisville
"St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay Wants a City, County Merger"
KSDK
On-line Articles and Blogs
"Dooley says city-county merger would benefit entire region"
Paul Hampel, St. Louis Post Dispatch
"The History and Possibilities of a St. Louis City-County Reunification"
Joe Huber, Urbanstl.com
Poll, What does "Merge the City & County" Mean to You?
Steve Patterson, Urbanreviewsstl.com
"To Merge or Not to Merge"
St. Louis Magazine
Paul Hampel, St. Louis Post Dispatch
"The History and Possibilities of a St. Louis City-County Reunification"
Joe Huber, Urbanstl.com
Poll, What does "Merge the City & County" Mean to You?
Steve Patterson, Urbanreviewsstl.com
"To Merge or Not to Merge"
St. Louis Magazine
Downloads
| When Efficiency Is Unbelievable |
"When Efficiency is Unbelievable: Normative Lessons from 30 Years of City-County Consolidations"
Susanne Leland & Kurt Thurmaier
Public Administration Review
Susanne Leland & Kurt Thurmaier
Public Administration Review
| Fiscal Regionalism |
"Fiscal Regionalism: Metropolitan Reform Without Boundary Changes"
David Miller
Government Finance Review
David Miller
Government Finance Review
| Government for Growth |
"Government for Growth: Forging a Bright Future—Built on Unity, Efficiency, Equity, and Equality—for the People of Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh"
Report of the Citizens Advisory Committee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of City-County Government
Report of the Citizens Advisory Committee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of City-County Government
Great Debates Logo by Steven Nichols | Art Director | 404 245 1808 | stevennichols.com
