Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

June 29, 2005

CONTACT:  JIM MORRIS Director, Public Information 573-751-3469

State Officials Name Special Board
To Operate Wellston School District

The State Board of Education today took the unprecedented action of appointing a special three-person board to govern the Wellston School District, beginning Friday.

The district has been unaccredited for the past two years, primarily due to poor academic performance. Under state law, the district had two years – until midnight tomorrow – to regain accredited status and avoid a state takeover.

The "special administrative board" will have all the powers of a regular board of education to preserve the assets of the Wellston School District and to prepare for the beginning of classes for Wellston students in August. The three members are:

Dr. Charles Brown, St. Louis, was appointed superintendent of the school district and chief executive of the special board. Dr. Brown has been an employee of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education since 2002. He is assistant commissioner for the Division of Teacher Quality and Urban Education.

His salary as superintendent has not been set. He will remain a part-time employee of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, but most of his salary will be paid from the school district’s budget.

Dr. Brown was a teacher and administrator for more than 30 years in the St. Louis Public Schools. He was deputy superintendent of that district when he left in 2002 to join the state education agency. He holds lifetime certificates as a teacher, high school principal and superintendent.

Garry Beals is a resident of the school district and will serve as an unpaid board member. He is director of alternative education programs for the Ferguson-Florissant School District. He began his education career in 1990 as a social studies teacher in the Wellston School District. Mr. Beals has been employed by the Ferguson-Florissant district since 1992, working as a teacher and assistant principal until the past school year when he was promoted to director of alternative education. His wife, Kimberly Ford-Beals, also is employed by the Ferguson-Florissant School District.

Mr. Beals earned a bachelor’s degree at Central Methodist University and a master’s degree in educational administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Cassandra M. Hollins-Wallace is a resident of the school district and also will serve as an unpaid board member. She currently works as a parent educator in the Ritenour School District’s Parents as Teachers program. Her husband, David, is a member of the Wellston Board of Education. Their children have not attended school in the Wellston district since it became unaccredited in 2003.

Mrs. Hollins-Wallace graduated from Rosati-Kain High School and attended Xavier University, New Orleans, where she majored in biology and psychology. She has worked as a pharmacy technician for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and she is a certified parent educator.

"We are ready to begin the next chapter in the history of the Wellston School District. Our first challenge is to make sure the district is financially stable. Then, we must turn immediately to the most important business, which is creating a safe, effective learning environment for Wellston students," said Commissioner of Education D. Kent King.

"I urge the parents, students and employees of the district to work with us as we begin the hard work of moving this district forward," he said.