LEAD Center

The Ray-Pec School Board on March 28 honored Teacher Carma Richey. Ms. Richey teaches English Language Arts during the morning at the high school. In the afternoon, she teaches the Teacher Academy at the LEAD Center. Students in the program spend two days per week learning about becoming an educator. The other three days each week, students are in district classrooms working with teachers and students at the middle and elementary schools.

Last week, Ms. Richey attended the Council of Chief State School Officers Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., with Missouri Commissioner of Education, Dr. Margie Vandeven. During the conference, Ms. Richey participated in a panel discussion and shared about Ray-Pec’s use of federal grant funds to start the Teacher Academy program.

The people attending the conference included Chief Officers of education for each state, members of Congress, and members of the Biden Administration. The panel’s goal was to convince those in attendance that Grow Your Own programs should be included in the national education budget. Ms. Richey was selected to attend because DESE identified Ray-Pec as having an “exceptional program.”

She is pictured with Board President Ruth Johnson.