Maledy: Attracting, retaining teachers is a key goal
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| Teresa Maledy |
As a graduate and a parent of students in Columbia Public Schools, Teresa Maledy is looking to add a new level of involvement in the community: Columbia Board of Education member.
She graduated from Hickman High School before attending Stephens College and Webster University, and now has three children attending Grant Elementary School, which she says gives her a unique perspective.
“I felt I was well prepared for college and also a business career as a result of going to CPS,” Maledy said.
She now works as the chairwoman and CEO of Commerce Bank’s central and eastern regions.
Maledy has worked for Commerce Bank for 37 years, with 16 years in Kansas City and before returning to Columbia about 20 years ago. She will retire in June, and running for the school board will help her continue her community involvement.
She is a board member for several organizations, including the Alliance for Childhood Education, Cradle to Career Alliance, Regional Economic Development, Inc. and Stephens College. She also previously served on the boards of The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, Columbia Chamber of Commerce and Heart of Missouri United Way.
She’s running on three main pillars: decreasing and closing the achievement gap across all student demographics, developing sound strategies to attract and retain quality teachers and ensuring that the district continues to earn the community’s confidence, trust and consistent financial support.
“She’s going to bring a level of personal investment in children’s education,” said Crystal Kroner, the collaboration network manager of Cradle to Career Alliance. “She’s unbelievably organized and prepared, but most importantly she’s really dedicated to the cause. We’d be really lucky to have her.”
As a founding member of Cradle to Career, Maledy has worked on identifying demographics and identities that need extra attention in schools and getting the community to support those goals. Her experience in getting the community involved in educational goals will help her if elected, said Darin Preis, the current school board president who has endorsed Maledy in the election. Preis decided not to seek another term.
“We really need well-connected citizens to be on the board of education,” Preis said. “We want the community’s input to filter its way into the work of the board and so the more connected and highly respected school board members are, the more likely they are to bring in really good information and offer different perspectives, and Teresa absolutely has those things.”
Maledy said attracting and retaining teachers is key to achieving the school district’s goals, and she is open to exploring different strategies.
“I think what we need to do though is get a little bit more creative and really understand what is attractive to teachers, what encourages educators to stay on with our school district so we’re able to build up a lot of experience and retain them once we have them,” Maledy said.
Several of her former and current colleagues, including the former CFO of the University of Missouri System and member of the Board of Trustees of Stephens College, Nikki Krawitz; former Executive Vice President of Commerce Bank, Valerie Shaw; and Preis and Kroner all said that Maledy is good at balancing different perspectives and making effective decisions.
“She has a lot of great ideas,” Kroner said. “She listens first (and is) very receptive of learning from others. I’ve been in multiple brainstorming (sessions) with her and everyone has a chance to share their idea and she’s taking notes and nodding her head and really listening, and then she says, ‘I was thinking this,’ and it’s usually a much better idea than mine.”
Maledy describes herself as someone who exhibits tolerance, respect, persistence and balance. Through her experience in banking, educational boards and other community involvement, she hopes that through leading by example her legacy would be continuing to establish confidence within the community for the school board in the long term.
″(My legacy would be) the community feeling that we’ve been a transparent board and school district, that they have a lot of confidence in the decisions we’ve made and trust us to continue to make good decisions,” she said. “Having the community really engaged and really supportive of the school district is top priority.”
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