The Ladue School District Board of Education held their sixth open meeting of the school year Oct. 29 at 6 p.m.
The meeting began not with the typical board remarks, but with a ceremony honoring the 21 semifinalists of the National Merit Scholars program. The students honored, all seniors, include Sanjay Adireddi, Frank Chen, Aronno Dutta, Miles Grossman, Gavin Hofer, Max Karsh, Eva Kaul, Aaron Lin, Abhiram Madala, Aalaa Mahmoud, Urmil Patel, Isabella Plumb, Owen Prange, Aiden Qian, Ira Rodrigues, Jason Shi, Luke Ye, William Yin, Anthony Zhao, Celina Zhou and Rex Zhu.
Roughly 1.5 million students enter the National Merit Scholar competition each year by taking the PSAT, and 16,000, or around 1% are given the title of Semifinalist. Ladue High School had the highest number of semifinalists out of any high school, public or private, in the entire state of Missouri.
These students will continue to be evaluated by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, and roughly 7,500 out of the 16,000 semifinalists will be declared National Merit Scholars. National Merit Scholars will receive a one-time award of $2,500, in addition to eligibility for other corporate and school sponsored scholarships.
Following the celebration among students, staff and parents for the National Merit Scholars, the Board dispensed this month’s Excellence in Education Award.
The recipient of the award was a staff member at the Ladue Early Childhood Center, Maria Lindsay. Lindsay works with the Special School District, providing individualized care and teaching to students with a variety of special needs.
Lindsay’s coworker, Ladue Early Childhood Center Director Stacy Carlock stood to testify to her colleague’s merit for the award. She attested to Lindsay’s continued commitment to making the LECC a productive learning environment to all students during her 18 years working in the building.
The ceremony concluded with Lindsay’s own remarks, thanking the board and all of her colleagues for the honor.
The Board continued to discuss efforts for Superintendent Jim Wipke’s replacement following his pending retirement, effective June 30, 2026. The Board announced that, following an elongated cycle of interviews, they plan to have a new superintendent selected before winter break begins Dec. 22.
The meeting concluded with Director of Technology Patricia Brown’s introduction of new policy, revising the categorization and handling of AI for the district. Generative AI will now be compartmentalized as student facing, confidential or operational, allowing for more effective use and management of the technology across schools in the district.
The Board of Education will host their next open meeting Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the Ladue High School Multipurpose Room at 6 p.m. All Ladue students and families are welcome to attend. Additionally, they will be hosting several community forums on Nov. 3 and Nov. 6, with specific times and locations available on the board website. There are several forums that Ladue students and families are encouraged to attend.
![The Ladue School District School Board held an open meeting Dec. 11 to wrap up the calendar year and discuss policy changes for next year. One such agenda item was changes to the Ladue Middle School curriculum for the 2025-26 school year, which included the addition of broadcast courses. “We're excited about that option, the trajectory that goes into [Ladue] High School,” Angela Thompson, Ladue Middle School principal, said. “We want to be able to have that opportunity.”](https://laduetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/DSC07353-1200x675.jpg)
