By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
School is back in session in the St. Joseph School District.
Superintendent Gabe Edgar says the hope for this school year is just to have a good and successful year
"There's a lot of excitement, here at Parkway this morning, we were at Lafayette earlier and Bode before that, we stopped at Mark Twain, and it just seems like there's a better feel for '24-'25," Edgar says. "I've had a lot of these first days and just excited, I tell you today's a little bit bittersweet, this is my last first day."
Edgar informed the school board during its meeting in late June that he would be retiring as superintendent following this school year.
Edgar says in his final year he hopes to see improvement in some areas.
"With attendance and with some discipline issues and those types of things, I hope we can just have a successful year, and I just want to see everybody do what's best for kids Matt, I mean that's why we're here" Edgar tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And this reminds you, to be honest with you when I woke up this morning, I was a little bit sad, but this is the reason why you come to work every day."
Heading into the year, while there were enough teachers, there was a need for support staff such as paraprofessionals and custodians.
After the district held a hiring fair last week, Edgar says as school begins, the district is in a good place
"It was very opportunistic, we have all the certified staff and teaching positions filled, we do have some more support staff but we're optimistic that it's coming around." Edgar says.
After the approval of a 59-cent increase to the districts tax levy, which will help increase teacher and staff pay, Edgar says morale has never been higher.
"I started my job here in 2018, not as Superintendent but as Assistant Superintendent, and I've never seen morale any higher," Edgar explains.
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