Historical December 1996 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Jesse Brown, longtime resident of 57xx DeGiverville, became chairperson of the Hamilton Community Elementary Education Center Council this fall.
He joined the council at its inception two and one half years ago.
He hopes to see a partnership between parents, the neighborhood, and businesses in the community.
He sees that parents are not really involved with their kids.
They are not coming to council meetings.
The Council, according to Brown, has to focus on this. “What disturbs me,” he said, “is to see parents in this community bringing their kids to school in the morning and never come to the meetings.” He wants to reach out to the community.
The school is for the community.
Another goal for him is to have Hamilton focus on reaching excellence.
The Council is committed to being the leader in community education. Hamilton has graduated some famous people.
The owner of the Rams once went to Hamilton.
The new superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools came to Hamilton last week during the monthly meeting of all education center chairpersons. Brown said that the superintendent, Cleveland Hammonds Jr., said that we need to do away with boundaries and reach out to everyone. Brown is concerned with giving youth a place to go especially when school is out. More activities are needed.
The Council has established working committees.
The Program Resources Committee will work with the community coordinator to explore what courses should be offered in the evenings.
After the first of the year, a survey will be created and sent to every family within reach of the school to see which programs are desirable.
The programs currently offered are not as well attended as they would like.
The SDCC Director comes to meetings as an advisor and serves on some committees.
She should be publicizing Hamilton when she’s in the community. Brown remarked that we are living in such a troubled society.
The young people are our resources. “People always talk about role models.
I felt I could do some good by volunteering.” Brown said that Hamilton has some excellent teachers and an outstanding principal. It’s like a family affair. Everybody is concerned about the students. Hamilton’s basic belief is that “education is a continuum from the womb to the tomb.
If you get children at a young age and guide them right, they should be a success in this world.
The Vice Chairperson at Hamilton is Ruth Johnson. Ellie Chapman serves as secretary and the treasurer is Jeff Strother.
The Council has 21 members. Brown said that he and his family have lived in Skinker DeBaliviere for over 20 years.
He loves the neighborhood and the mixture of housing types as well as the racial and socioeconomic diversity.
He recently retired from the federal government.
He is able to devote his energy and enthusiasm to make Hamilton the best. Brown lives with his wife Mary and a granddaughter and 2 little dogs.
He has been very involved in his block unit and has been its president since 1991. “We have worked wonders on this block.
We used to have some narcotics activity and we fought it.
The block is now real quiet and peaceful.
We have a police officer living on the block and that has been very helpful.” Both Mr. and Mrs. Brown said that they would like to see a neighborhood center at Lucier Park, a facility for boys and girls like Mathews-Dickey.
They feel that Lucier Park should have an indoor facility and the school could have access to it.
It could be very productive in the summer.
They would also like to see the abandoned buildings on Delmar torn down.
They also advocate for a parking lot for the Hamilton teachers at the corner of Hamilton and Westminster.
Original photograph caption
Jesse Brown. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, December 1996.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1996_12.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
