Rockwood Board of Education Reorganizes

Keith Kinder, Steve Smith and Matt Doell were sworn in Thursday as new, or newly re-elected, members of the Rockwood Board of Education.

"None of us have power unless we're together," said Smith, of Eureka, to fellow Rockwood directors, who elected him board president.

Other board officers elected by the group were Janet Strate, vice president; Shirley Broz, treasurer; and Kathy Chitwood, secretary. Chitwood also serves as administrative assistant to Rockwood Superintendent Bruce Borchers.

"Participating in a campaign is a humbling experience," Smith said. "A different song was being sung by voices in the district. They bear listening. But one song was out of tune—the one about our teachers are not good people."

Smith said when people say Rockwood is a good district, he knew they were not really talking about him or necessarily the board or staff.

"They are talking about the people we put in classrooms with our children," he said. "I'd like to go on record tonight about the fact that we value our teachers and the work they do for our children."

School board members took turns reciting various components of the district's code of ethics and agreed as a group to abide by them.

Rockwood's chief communications officer, Kim Cranston, distributed unofficial results from the April 5 election that indicated that of 81,632 registered voters covered by the district, a total of 79,945 resided in St. Louis County. The remaining amount, 1,687, were registered voters from Jefferson County who are covered by Rockwood.

Kinder was the highest vote getter April 5, with a total of 7,160, or 8.7 percent of those registered to vote. Kinder received 24.47 percent of the vote from those who cast a ballot in the Rockwood election.

Cranston said certified election results, which can be deemed official, should be received within two to three weeks.

Unofficial April 5 Election Results as Distributed by Rockwood School District on April 7:

7,068 (24.41%)