Margaret Korte
Print/Podcast Editor
Webster School District’s Board of Education is having its election on April 8, with two seats open. The candidates up for election are Fran Petruso, Allen Todd and Justin Hauke.
Petruso is running for a first term on the board and currently serves on the Personnel Advisory Board for the district. She worked as the Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Bristol PTO and has two children in the district.
Petruso is the president of the board of directors of the nonprofit organization, Nurses for Newborns. She is on the board of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce and is Chief Counsel for litigation and employment law for Worldwide Technology.
“As far as skills or practical experience, I am a lawyer by trade,” Petruso said. “I manage litigation and employment law, and I think the reviewing of legal documents and overseeing employment decisions that are made is something I have a lot of experience in, and that’s something that the Board of Education has to do regularly.”
As far as changes she wants to make, Petruso said, “I don’t necessarily have a platform of things I want to come in and change. I think the district overall…has good leadership in place and is doing pretty well, but I would say my priorities are ensuring that the district is providing a rigorous and inclusive education for all of our students, also to make sure that the district is financially sustainable, and we do have a budget that makes sense now and for the future.”
Petruso said she would also want to work towards “making sure that the district is a great place to work. That means that all teachers and other staff are treated fairly and that we keep a[n] open line of communication and understand what issues they’re facing, and just make sure we address those.”
Petruso said she decided to run for the school board largely because of her children’s enrollment in the district. “I have been a volunteer in their schools since they’ve been in preschool…so I got to see more about how district decisions are made, and I’ve gotten more interested in how the district is run…and thought that I might bring some valuable skills to the board.”
“I really am asking for voters to vote for me on April 8, because I’m coming into the election with a service mindset; I would be here to serve the students, the employees of the district, and the taxpayers and the community, and not to push a personal agenda or anything like that,” Petruso said.
Todd is currently on his second term on the Board of Education. Before he was on the board, he served on the district’s Finance Advisory Committee, the Legislative Advocacy Committee and was the president of PTO at Walter Ambrose. Todd is the Chief Operating Officer for Health Literacy Media.
The district website said Todd has a “passion for public education and its role in preparing our children for their future, no matter what that may be. He believes the Board of Education’s role is to create a culture and atmosphere that allows every student to achieve their highest potential.”
Justin Hauke is also running for a first term on the board, and it is his fourth time as a candidate.
According to Hauke, he has also “attended Board of Education meetings fairly regularly for the last five years or so.”
Hauke was the treasurer and president of the Webster Groves Public Library for seven years and is currently vice chairman of the district’s Finance Advisory Committee. According to the district website, he is also a financial broker and Senior Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co.
Hauke said the main thing he hopes to improve within the district is “the communication and transparency: that is one of the goals that Board of Education has set for itself.”
“There’s not a lot of communication when it comes to some of the challenges that we face, and so I think that having more town halls, more two-way discussions would improve trust and lower animosity, maybe help stem some of that enrollment decline,” Hauke said.
Hauke added a decline in enrollment has led to some of the financial issues.
“Our enrollment in the district is down about 10% over the last five years, and the state overall is only down about 3.%…That is having a funding issue on the district because most of the district’s revenue is from local property taxes, but there is a component of our budget that comes from the state that’s based on enrollment levels…We’ve gone from an operating surplus budget to, because of the loss in students, about $2.5 million lost revenue on a $60 million budget. Next year, and to the foreseeable future, we’re facing a structural operating deficit, so there’s things the district needs to be more open about addressing the root causes of that.” Hauke said his experience in finance could help to address those issues.
According to the district website, enrollment has only decreased about 7% from 2019 to 2024.
Hauke said, “…As I have pointed out for years, the district is not working as well as it can or should be, with opportunity for improved board independence and greater transparency. Racial achievement gaps are widening, not narrowing. The district lags peers in several areas, and the district’s operating budget, previously in surplus, now faces a structural deficit. These problems have been apparent [and] growing for some time and are not getting better. With incoming new leadership, there is opportunity for new ideas. I want to be a voice acknowledging our successes, but also our challenges, seeking discussion and open communication with the community.”
Hauke said, “I’ve lived here in Webster since 2011, and I have two children that attend Webster schools…and so on a personal level, I’m strongly vested in the community and the school district.”
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Margaret Korte–Print/Podcast EditorThis will be Margaret Korte’s second year on ECHO staff. She made several contributions while taking journalism class her freshman year. |
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