R-3 school administration presents state of the district

During the Lebanon R-3 School District’s state of the district report to the school board Tuesday night, Superintendent Dr. David Schmitz framed the district’s progress around its mission and vision statements of inspiring a passion for learning and an adaptive, empowering learning community respectively. “You as a board, you have demonstrated that adaptability,” Schnitz said. He added the Board had also shown it was open to very unique and different processes. Schmitz also noted the importance of community partnerships such as the City of Lebanon and the Lebanon Area Chamber Commerce in realizing systemic learning throughout the district. He also stressed the importance of the district’s passage of ballot propositions in 2014, 2018 and 2024. Dr. Jeremy Brownfield, Assistant Superintendent of Human Services and Quality Improvement, presented feedback from the district’s stakeholder survey, which was conducted in November and early December of 2024 and had 849 participants (a 37 percent increase from last year) and consisted of students, staff, parents and other community members. The survey reported that district pride and spirit, teachers and student experiences were what the participants most recognized as strengths in the district, while participants most often selected facilities and safety as opportunities for improvement. Participants across the spectrum ranked highly qualified teachers as the most important criterion for student success from among criteria including soft skills, proficiency rates, and parent satisfaction. The participants also preferred district communication over text messages, social media, and the eNews newsletter (preferred in listed order). Adam Dameron, Chief Financial and Operations Officer, then reported on the district’s finances. In his report, Dameron showed that state and local funding comprise most of the district’s operating revenue (42.5 percent comes from state, 40.5 local). Salaries comprise 60.2 percent of the district’s operating expenditure. Dameron also reported that enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year was down one student from last year (4,146 to 4,145) and compared this shift to enrollment since the 2003-2004 school year. Enrollment has for the most part declined from 2013-2014 on, though there was a brief increase in 2021-2022. For more on this story, see Saturday's LCR.