CSD’s Chief Financial Officer to Retire

Deputy Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis, Stephen Keyser, recently announced his retirement from the organization. His final day at CSD will be this summer, August 3rd. In 2006, Steve joined CSD’s staff from the Mehlville School District, where he served as Chief Financial Officer. His experience also includes time with the Parkway School District, St. Louis Community College, as well as other private industry companies.

“Steve has been an asset to CSD and the school districts we serve in many ways,” Executive Director Don Senti shared, “Steve’s leadership has helped districts collaborate and save significant money, allowing them to direct those funds to the education of students.”

During Steve’s time here, he has been responsible for many successful programs, including the development of the CSD Retirement Trust. The Retirement Trust has simplified the 403(b) retirement planning process for school districts and their employees. He also spearheaded significant success for the CSD Insurance Trust, with low loss ratios that have been accomplished through a focus on wellness and the implementation of a Health Reimbursement Account. In addition, Steve was a 2011 finalist as a small nonprofit CFO of the year. Those awards are given to financial professionals in the St. Louis region from the St. Louis Business Journal for outstanding performance in their roles as corporate financial stewards.

CSD will begin the process of searching for its next Chief Financial Officer soon. Look for more information to come on our website, www.moreap.net.

Congratulations to Steve for a job well done!

District’s-Choice Online Learning to work with e2020

After evaluating many online learning vendors, Cooperating School Districts (through our new program District’s-Choice Online Learning) selected e2020 as a key virtual education vendor in our plan to provide comprehensive virtual education  to Missouri schools. Schools have 200+ courses to select from with e2020, and different options to purchase. We’d like to invite you to join us for a free Lunch & Learn so you know what features distinguish e2020 and District’s-Choice from other online programs available for K-12 schools.

The e2020 Lunch & Learn session takes place Thursday, November 3rd at 1460 Craig Road in St. Louis. You can come in the morning and stay for lunch, or stop by for lunch and stay through the afternoon. Register for this free event here.

• 10- 11:30 am- Demo & Info session of e2020
• 11:30-12:30- Lunch for all provided by e2020
• 12:30- 2 pm- Demo & Info session of e2020

With e2020 through District’s-Choice you can:

• create a personalized schedule
• offer any course any time, creating the flexibility for new innovative school options and schedules for all
• provide credit recovery for students so they graduate on time
• require a study skills course for freshmen
• encourage students work on a prescriptive MO EOC Assessment Prep course
• offer an ACT, GED prep course any hour of the day to all students
• use e2020 assessments to find out which Missouri and Common Core Standards to spend more time teaching and what to skip, thus personalizing teaching each student in grades 6-12
• use videos of real teachers explaining each Common Core Standard

CSD’s District’s-Choice Online Learning will offer the highest-quality courses at the lowest prices in Missouri using e2020, and down the line, with additional vendors to expand our K-5, Foreign Language, and AP course offerings. For more information on this Lunch & Learn, or on District’s-Choice Online Learning, phone Dave Sanders at 314-692-1219, or Nancy George at 314-692-1251.

CSD Recognized in Community

Over the spring and summer, Cooperating School Districts staff have received accolades from area and regional groups! Congratulations to our deserving staff for your recent recognitions.

Telly Award
The Telly Awards honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the web. CSD’s Communications Department submitted a video entitled “Being Smart in Today’s Schools,” and received the Bronze Telly Award in the “2011 Film/Video” category. This video gave administrators, teachers and all school employees advice on safely and smartly interacting with students using social media, texting, email, cell phones, etc. CSD distributed the video to all member school districts so that they could share it with their employees.

Missouri Distance Learning Association’s Excellence Awards
Congratulations to the Virtual Learning Center’s Stephanie Madlinger for receiving the Missouri Distance Learning Association’s Excellence Award (K-12 Educator). The Missouri Distance Learning Association is a non-profit association formed to promote the development and application of distance learning to education and training. The award is given to instructors who use educational technology effectively and provide challenging, engaging and innovative educational opportunities via distance learning. Stephanie was honored at the annual MoDLA conference in July, where she also presented.

St. Louis Business Journal: CFO Awards
CSD’s Deputy Executive Director/CFO Stephen Keyser was a 2011 finalist as a small nonprofit CFO of the year! The awards are given to financial professionals in the St. Louis region from the St. Louis Business Journal for outstanding performance in their roles as corporate financial stewards.

Gateway Acura Dealers “Gateway to the Best” Program
Gateway Acura Dealers chose four organizations to support over the course of a year; CSD is included in this group. Four times during the year CSD recognizes one employee who is the “Gateway to the Best,” and that employee is profiled in commercials that appear on local TV (paid for by the Gateway Acura Dealers). Each time an employee is profiled by Gateway Acura Dealers, a check for $500 goes to a CSD member school of the employee’s choice.  CSD requests the school use that $500 as a scholarship for a deserving student.

• Janice Putman was the first honoree and she sent the scholarship check to Roosevelt High School in St. Louis Public Schools
• Elise Reineck was the second honoree and she chose Rockwood Summit High School in the Rockwood School District
• Sandy Happold was the third honoree and she Oakville High School in the Mehlville School District
• Donna Collins will be the fourth honoree and she has not had to choose the high school

And lastly, congratulations to Kelly Hackworth in our Business Services Division. Kelly received the “CSD Award” last week for her service and dedication to CSD and our member districts!

CSD Business Services Launches New Programs

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Last week, a group of 25 superintendents and business officials from CSD member districts attended a meeting to learn more about three new services offered through our Business Services Division. If you did not attend the meeting, I encourage you to learn more about these services and how your district can benefit from participation by contacting Steve Keyser, CFO/Deputy Executive Director, at skeyser@csd.org. Below is a brief overview of the new services.

Support Services Cooperative: A partnership between CSD & Access Management Group (AMG) that provides CSD member districts with access to educational consultants on business, custodial, facilities/maintenance, food and transportation services. Click HERE to learn more about AMG and their services available to districts.

Pooled Financing: A turnkey program that provides funding for fixed assets (e.g. school buses, technology equipment, tracks, security equipment, etc.) by combining the financing needs of multiple districts. The CSD Pooled Financing program, which will be administered by Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, allows for lower borrowing costs by providing access to national credit markets and also qualifies as tax-exempt funding (i.e. lenders do not pay federal tax on interest income). The program is designed to eliminate school district officials from devoting significant resources presenting to rating/insurance agencies.

403(b) Cooperative: The 403(b) Cooperative would streamline 403(b) offerings for participating school districts and save time in the day-to-day management of such programs. The concept behind the 403(b) Cooperative is to combine the purchasing power of CSD member districts with the expertise of an Advisor/Consultant to create a program that will be centered and focused on education versus sales, provide an appropriate number and variety of investment options, reduce, and possibly eliminate, the administrative burden on school districts, and lower investment expenses to increase amount invested for participants. CSD’s Business Services is currently forming a 403(b) Advisory Committee to study and recommend the structure and governance of the 403(b) Cooperative.

You will be learning more about the progress of these new services throughout the year. If you haven’t already, I encourage our member district superintendents and business officials to contact Steve Keyser, CFO/Deputy Executive Director, at skeyser@csd.org with any questions.

CSD Launches New Podcast Series

High School Reform. Leadership in Public Schools. Technology Integration in the Classroom.

These are just a few examples of topics to be covered in Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis’ (CSD) new “Education Connection” podcast series. The bi-monthly podcast was launched on August 29, covering the topic of rising fuel costs and its impact on school bus transportation.

Tune in to the podcasts here.

The “Education Connection” podcast is produced by CSD’s Department of Communications.

Saving Money and Expanding Educational Opportunities for Children?

CSD is exploring this possibility through the St. Louis Regional Exchange Collaborative

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director
CSD was recently part of a meeting led by David Sandel, Executive Director of the St. Louis Regional Exchange Collaborative (REP), which serves as a regional exchange point – a local Internet access method that streamlines and improves the efficiency of the way data is exchanged between service providers, businesses, and residents of the St. Louis region. As shared on their Web site, “the REP principally functions as a regional broadband hub to assure quicker, more secure, and less expensive processing of Internet communications and services, much the way that river port authorities, railroad stations, airline hubs and interstate highways ease the flow of traffic while simultaneously lowering costs and improving services.” There are 22 member organizations in the St. Louis REP Collaborative. CSD is working with the organization to explore a possible plan to include K-12 school districts as members.

As we continue to work closely with the REP, some potential benefits to schools in our area include: cost reduction and improved efficiency for IT services such as video surveillance, disaster recovery, server consolidation, storage consolidation and voice over IP (VoIP) services, and increased learning opportunities through partnerships with local institutions. Examples of such partnerships include students having access via videoconferencing to live surgeries in local hospitals, or establishing business incubators in schools by working with local firms.

You may question: Isn’t this type of videoconferencing already available? Yes, it is. However, our interest in the REP includes the need for expanded bandwidth and wireless capabilities within all schools. While individual school districts are expanding their bandwidth, potential membership in the REP could leverage these individual efforts to gain substantial savings on school districts’ future technology investments. In addition, access to St. Louis-area institutions for shared learning opportunities could enhance the type of learning that already exists in our schools.

The need to invest in infrastructure is critical. As we prepare students for the global workplace, technology integration in the classroom is essential. The REP is attempting to enhance our infrastructure which allows for greater technology integration into education at a lower cost to schools.

We have just begun to explore this initiative in detail. As we get deeper into its development, we will involve school district personnel in our planning. Until then, I encourage everyone to learn more about this collaborative by visiting the REP Web site at: http://www.stlrepcollaborative.org.