As the Superintendent of the Clayton Schools, Don Senti is a very busy man, and it shows. During my half-hour interview with him, I noticed that he received six emails as his computer pinged to signal their arrivals. Senti is currently 65 and has been a superintendent for a total of 21 years combined at Parkway and Clayton. While most students associate him with his ability to approve snow days, His typical day involves many meetings with various officials and discussing issues with the School Board. “What I’ve been doing the last two years is spending a lot of time with architects,” Senti said. “After the Bond issues passed, we have to design the buildings and work out the details. The only kids I see very much are Globe reporters and the ones getting kicked out of school.”

Before he came to Clayton, he was the Superintendent of the Parkway District, which had 22,000 students. “I had 2,500 employees at Parkway, more than there are students in Clayton,” Senti said. “At Parkway I was sort of a Public Relations guy, going from meeting to meeting. It was just a really huge operation. Moving to Clayton was wonderful. There’s only one high school instead of five, and one mayor instead of 11. I was really happy at Parkway, but when I got here it was really nice.” Senti is glad that all the administrators here fit around a large table, while at Parkway he had to use a microphone to address them. “It’s easier to get things done here,” Senti said. “To convince five high schools to do anything is very difficult. We also had a philosophy at Clayton that the district either had to be child-centered or data-driven. You had to be one or the other. I said that we had to be both because you can’t be more child-centered than wanting to know what makes kids tick. I think that over the years we’ve come to have a good balance of both and that’s something I’m very proud of.” Before he came to the District, he believes that Clayton was too concerned with the affective domain, or only thinking of decisions in terms of motivating students to learn. “There was nothing wrong with being [too focused on the affective domain],” Senti said. “Obviously Clayton has always been a very high quality district so this is all relative. I wanted to focus more on giving kids a diagnosis of what they needed to improve upon with the data.” About five years into his tenure at Clayton, Senti worked out what is now known as the Kid Check Statement. He views this Kid Check Statement as Clayton’s mission statement: “We are responsible for student learning by knowing students well, valuing every child, and placing students at the center of every decision.” “It looks simple,” Senti said, “but there are no qualifiers. The statement doesn’t just say ‘we’re responsible for the kids who want to learn.’ It doesn’t matter if the kid has a single-parent family or if they’re poor or wealthy. We assume responsibility for student learning, rather than teaching. We have to think about the kids first, and that’s really hard about this job.” Senti acknowledges that sometimes the adults want to be first. “For example, most kids think that all I do is decide whether we have snow days or not,” Senti said. “What you may have noticed is that the School District has never been sent home early. The reason is student-centered since a lot of kids’ parents aren’t home. If we decide to send everyone home in the early afternoon, then a lot of students aren’t going to know what to do if they don’t regularly walk home or don’t have the keys to the house. Most of the staff would prefer to go home early, but the decision is based on the kids.” While Senti is most proud of the Kid Check Statement, he realizes that most people will instead remember him for working with the Mayor to start the Center of Clayton among other construction projects. “I’m particularly glad about the success of the Center,” Senti said, “because its existence proves that two governments, the school and city governments, can work together. We have 10,000 members to the Center and it has almost broken even in terms of cost and revenue. It’s really become part of the community. The mayor at the time was looking for a community center and we were looking to expand our athletic and fine arts facilities. The architect who designed the structure was the one who envisioned where it would go.” Principal Louise Losos is agrees with Senti that the architectural additions to the district were some of his biggest accomplishments. “Dr. Senti has been a visionary on two fronts,” Losos said. “The first is the community partnerships that he has championed the Center, Metro Theater among other structures. He has been the leading force in the St. Louis community in keeping the VST program alive and viable. Finally, under his leadership the High School has undergone one major renovation and one major addition [Prop S] and the District has begun the process  of building a brand new middle school. The last two were accomplished in some of the worst economic times in this country since the Depression.” Senti is known for being in favor of the Voluntary Student Transfer Program. “The program is beneficial for kids that come from the city,” Senti said. “It’s also good for our students to have a diverse educational environment. I think if you weighed the positives and the negatives of the program, the positives would shine through.” The District surveyed all the residents in Clayton and found that two out of three residents really like the program. Back in 1983 when it started, either the district joined the program or was wiped out. The judge mandated that districts choose between those two choices and many districts “volunteered.” In 1999, none of the districts were forced to stay and Ladue was the only one that dropped out. “[VTS] is supposed to ‘end’ in 2014,” Senti said. “That means we wouldn’t be taking new kids. Our Board of Education will eventually have to make that decision.” Senti has been a huge proponent of student rights in the press during his tenure at Clayton. If a professional newspaper, such as the Post-Dispatch, ran a story against one of its financial supporters, the story could be censored. “It’s very usual for student papers where the administrators don’t review it [for content] before it is published,” Senti said. “We passed a policy entrusting the responsible staff members of the Globe. Some of the articles [the Globe] writes are critical of the school and I believe it’s good to have some dissenting voices.” The Missouri retired teachers system is so good that once he retires, he would make more than he currently is. However, Senti has other motivations for retiring. “That’s not the main reason,” Senti said. “The main reason is so I can do some other things while I’m healthy and able. I would like to be able to do something that’s a little less demanding.” Once he retires, Senti plans to keep working on educational issues like improving urban schools and continuing to work on the Mayor’s charter school committee. “My main problem would be, not staying more busy than I already am now because I’m a compulsive volunteer,” Senti said. “I’m going to read the newspapers in the afternoon instead of the morning like now and watch the sunset as often as I can.” As Senti leaves, Losos knows that Dr. Mary Hermann, his successor, will have large shoes to fill. “Taking over after a very successful, long-serving superintendent is difficult enough,” Losos said. “I think the trickiest issue facing Dr. Hermann is the current Math Curriculum review. Beyond that, I believe that most difficulties are inherent in her position.” Senti believes Hermann has had the experiences needed to be a great superintendent at Clayton, including being an elementary and high school principal and superintendent at a much larger district. “She’s used to meeting with a school board pretty much like ours,” Senti said. “They have high expectations for their own students and school. I think she’s going to be superb.” Losos deeply appreciates Senti’s many contributions to the district and the greater St. Louis area. “It’s hackneyed but he truly sees things as they might be and asks why not, rather then thinking of reasons not to do it,” Losos said. “I appreciate and respect Dr. Senti tremendously. He has been a rock to lean on and to learn from. We will miss his steadying influence and his vast experience in St. Louis Education. I think we often don’t appreciate what we have until it is gone.” As his final message to the district, Senti believes that while he has made many steps in the right direction, the work is far from done. “Clayton is one of the best public school districts in the country,” Senti said. “Our graduates attend the best universities. Frankly a Clayton School District diploma is worth more than most districts. That is a result of a world-class education. The reason for our success is an incredible combination of academic rigor and sensitive, caring teachers – the head and the heart. What is best for every student is the filter through which decisions are made. The challenge, a daunting one, is to continue to improve, day in and day out, year in and year out. Although Clayton Schools are outstanding, good enough can never be good enough.”