Fedorchak Aims to Increase Instructional Time for Students

Ron Fedorchak has nine months of experience on the Mehlville School District Board of Education, but is running for public office for the first time.

That’s because Fedorchak was appointed from nine candidates to fill an open position on the school board in June. 

The Oakville parent applied for from the district. After interviewing all candidates, the board unanimously selected Fedorchak because of his preparation going into the interview.

“I like that he said he has no axe to grind. He’s not coming in with a specific agenda beyond wanting to improve the schools,” board member Elaine Powers said on June 30, when Fedorchak was appointed. “I heard some specific ideas instead of just generalities of how to make things better.”

On April 3, voters will choose two candidates from four to serve a three-year term on the Mehlville school board. 

Fedorchak has lived in the district for more than 20 years and has three daughters, Savannah, 17; Bailey, 14 and Grace, 11. The older two attend and Grace attends .

He and his wife, Micki, settled in the district after moving from Illinois for an engineering position.

Fedorchak received a degree from the University of Illinois in chemical engineering and later pursued an MBA at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Fedorchak now works for PJ Cobert Associates, which specializes in chromatography and lab equipment. 

Growing up, Fedorchak said his family business was education. His father was an elementary school principal and his mother was a social studies teacher in both private and public schools.

“We are Catholic, so there was a big push to have us go to private school but they were big believers in public education, still are,” he said. “I’ve been very pleased with the education my girls have gotten and the opportunities they’ve had at Oakville.”

It was talking to other parents and seeing other schools through his daughters’ extracurricular activities that got Fedorchak thinking about serving on the school board.

“There are disparities in facilities within the district,” he said. “A lot of people only see their school. I’ve seen a lot of area schools and you go to those schools and you see that it’s a lot bigger and everything’s brand new. It opens your eyes and maybe we could do a lot more with our facilities.”

The Issues

Fedorchak voted in favor of to build an auditorium on the campus of , as well as his .

However, Fedorchak said he would not support a bond issue for another auditorium at Oakville High School until the first one is completed.

“We committed to the community the idea that we were going to do this based on refinancing, reallocating funds and we could get this done without asking the taxpayers for money,” Fedorchak said.

But after the first auditorium is complete and in use, he wants to see a bond issue on the ballot to gauge the feel of the community.

“That’s the best way for the taxpayers to be heard,” he said. “You can’t dip too far in peoples’ pockets, but you have to see what they want.” 

Aside from facilities, Fedorchak is pushing for the district to adopt a 180-day school year, the national average.

“I think my voice has put the longer school year on the agenda everyone knows my position on that, that’s been my big contribution,” he said.

Currently, Missouri’s minimum attendance is 174 school days; only two states have a smaller minimum.

“Teachers have rejected that in the past; that’s something I’m willing to pay for, but you start adding those days up over the course of the academic career, that’s going to lead to more student achievement,” he said.

Supporting free, full-day kindergarten would also improve student achievement through more instructional time, Fedorchak said.

In the fall, Mehlville will be one of four districts in the state that charges tuition for full-day kindergarten and offers half-day for free.

“When (Chief Financial Officer Noel Knobloch) laid out , I thought, ‘Why haven’t we done this before?’ I can’t really see a negative,” Fedorchak said. “We want to try to draw kids into the public school system earlier so that we can keep them, rather than lose them to private schools.”

The half-day option would still be available if the board voted to move forward with free kindergarten.

Technology is another priority for Fedorchak, who said the movement should begin with the board going paperless.

“I’ve been on the board for 8 months, and the amount of paper—it’s ridiculous,” he said. “But I think that is one item where I am one of seven (board members).”

At a Missouri School Boards’ Association conference, Fedorchak discovered that a few boards started using leftover laptops for meetings. If an agenda had a mistake, rather than reprinting the board book, members could change it immediately, he said.

In the Community

Fedorchak started his involvement in the district through the strings committee, a group of parents, teachers and administrators who seek to improve the district’s strings program.

“My real passion is coaching,” Fedorchak said. He’s coached his daughters in everything from soccer to softball and basketball at YMCA and CYC leagues.

The Mehlville National Education Association (NEA) endorsed Fedorchak along with fellow candidate Mike Wainz.

“I value that and I do appreciate the efforts of our teachers and the talents of our teachers,” Fedorchak said.