For more information, contact:
Mickey Schoonover
Director of School-Community Relations
(314) 213-8025

Drummond named “Pioneer in Education” by DESE

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has named longtime and former Pattonville School Board Member Robert Drummond a “Pioneer in Education.” Each year DESE honors individuals as Pioneers in Education for distinguished and devoted service to public education in Missouri.

Drummond will be recognized at a luncheon held during the Annual Cooperative Conference for School Administrators on Monday, Aug. 5. A video presentation at the luncheon will detail major events in Drummond’s career and family life.

Drummond retired in April after serving 30 years on the Pattonville Board of Education, a volunteer position. The board just recently voted to name its newest elementary school after Drummond. The school, which will open in August 2002 in St. Ann, is named Robert Drummond Elementary.

Under Drummond’s leadership Pattonville was the first district in the area to establish an alternative high school, to reconfigure from junior highs to middle schools and to open a choice elementary school. He has helped the district improve its MAP (Missouri Assessment Program) scores, lower class sizes, offer full-day kindergarten to all students, reduce the drop-out rate, and form a partnership to use methane gas from a nearby landfill to heat Pattonville High School.

Drummond’s influence was felt beyond the Pattonville community, however. He served as president of the Missouri School Boards Association and in leadership positions in area-wide programs such as Characterplus, the Council for Educational Advancement and Springboard for Learning. He helped affect a major improvement with the Special School District of St. Louis County. He was also Pattonville’s representative on the Special School District’s Governing Council, serving two terms as chairman.

Drummond is retired from a 48-year career in the printing and publishing industry. He graduated from Beaumont High School and Washington University and is a World War II veteran. He and his wife, Peggy, are the parents of two Pattonville graduates.
###