In April, Maplewood Richmond Heights School District voters will decide which three of four candidates will claim seats on the MRH Board of Education. Maria Langston, Francis Chmelir and Julie Pole’s terms expire in April. Pole has added career responsibilities and decided not to run.
Katie Kaufmann and Daniel F. O’Sullivan, Jr. filed, along with incumbents Langston and Chmelir.
40 South News sat down with candidate Katie Kaufmann at Stone Spiral Coffee last week.
Kaufmann, 33, got degrees in American studies and math at Wells College in central New York. In 2003 she was recruited by Teach for America to come to St. Louis. She received a teaching certificate at UMSL while teaching sixth-grade math at a St. Louis public school in the Soulard area.
“I was fortunate to have a great community of young and veteran teachers — folks who were focused on setting goals for students and helping them reach those goals,” she said of the experience.
After that she worked with a nonprofit, developing after-school programs and summer camps in St. Louis city and county.
Now she manages programs at the Regional Business Council that provide professional development for university students and young professionals. She also helps them find positions on non-profit boards.
“I have obviously stepped away from the classroom,” Kaufmann said. “I’m looking for an opportunity, through the school board, to continue to work with students, work with teachers, with communities to continue to improve this community.”
She said she’s the product of public education. “I attended a pretty-similar to MRH school district in upstate New York and was really fortunate to have a great public education, to have outstanding teachers, and have always wanted to pay that forward,” she said.
Kaufman knows one of the challenges that MRH faces is that it’s become a district that families and young professionals are moving to. “Being in that demographic, I hope that I can provide some perspective from folks like myself,” she said.
Kaufmann lives with her husband, Mike Tolles, an attorney, in Richmond Heights.