The Fox C-6 School District will have a full-time assistant principal in all of its elementary schools and five full-time assistant principals at Fox and Seckman high schools for the 2024-2025 school year.
That means the district will have 11 assistant principals at the elementary school level, one at each of its elementary schools, and 10 assistant principals at the high school level, five at each of the two high schools. Last school year, the district had 10 elementary school assistant principals and nine high school assistant principals.
The Fox district also has four middle schools.
Board of Education members voted unanimously May 21 during a closed session to promote three teachers to assistant principal positions, two of them at the elementary level and one at the high school level.
■ Jeremy Conley, a Fox High School special education teacher, was named the Meramec Heights Elementary School assistant principal. He will be paid an $85,000 salary next school year after being paid $62,215 this past school year, which ended last week.
■ Shellie Manes, a Guffey Elementary School third grade teacher, was named the Sherwood Elementary School assistant principal. She will be paid an $85,000 salary next school year after being paid $65,414 as a teacher.
■ Matt Weber, a Fox High history teacher, was named an assistant principal at the high school. He will be paid a $100,000 salary next school year, up from the $59,796 he earned as a teacher.
The three new assistant principals will begin their new roles on July 1.
Prior to the 2023-2024 school year, the Fox district eliminated two administrative positions and had Hodge and Simpson elementary schools share the same assistant principal, Sara Helms, and had Fox and Seckman high school share an assistant principal, Tracy LaRose.
For the 2024-2025 school year, LaRose will be a full-time principal at Seckman High, and Helms will work full-time at Hodge Elementary. Cheryl Hayes, who was the assistant principal at Sherwood, will be the assistant principal at Simpson.
“Having that full roster will allow us to more efficiently and safely support our students and staff at each of the buildings that were short-staffed this year,” Superintendent Paul Fregeau said. “The needs of families and students are higher than they have ever been. When you have sufficient support people in the building, it will definitely improve the culture, climate and environment in each of those buildings.”
Conley
Conley, 42, of Imperial started teaching at Fox High in 2019.
Before that he was a teacher’s assistant at Ridgewood and Fox middle schools and then was a special education teacher at Hillsboro High School for one year. He returned to Fox C-6 in 2014 and was a special education teacher at Ridgewood Middle for five years before moving to Fox High.
Conley also has helped coach Fox High’s baseball team for the past six years and the school’s football team for the past three years.
“I have been living in the Fox community for the last 12 years,” he said. “I am well entrenched in the nuances of everything that is going on. I want to be a part of it and make a bigger impact and difference in the community I live in.”
Conley’s wife, Christina Perkins, is a special education teacher at Seckman High, and their son, Christopher Perkins, graduated from Seckman High School in 2018. Conley said his mother-in-law, Teresa Lewis, was a long-time teacher at Ridgewood Middle.
“We have been here for a long time,” he said.
Conley earned a bachelor’s degree from Missouri Baptist University, a master’s degree in educational administration from Southwest Baptist University and an education specialist degree in educational administration and superintendency from Southwest Baptist.
He said it will be an adjustment moving from the secondary level to the elementary level.
“I plan to get to know my teachers very well, and I will probably ask a million questions,” he said. “I will have to learn the elementary curriculum and the ins and outs of what the elementary teaching job is. It will be a lot different.”
However, Conley said his middle and high school experiences should help him at the elementary school.
“Education is a backwards design,” he said. “I know what the end result is, and now I have to work myself backwards to where it starts to build those children up to the middle school level.”
While Conley is excited to be an assistant principal, he said he will miss Fox High.
“I am sad to let my students go,” he said. “I have three or four seniors I have had since they were freshmen, and someone else will take over for their last year. I am sad to not be part of the football and baseball teams, but I am not going to go away. I will still come out and support those guys.
“There are a lot of great teachers over here (at Fox High), and I will be sad to leave this building.”
Manes
Manes, 41, of Arnold said her journey with the Fox district started in first grade when she attended Clyde Hamrick Elementary School. She then went to Seckman Junior High School and was part of Seckman High School’s first sophomore class and second graduating class.
She began working in the district in 2006 at Guffey Elementary, where she was a second grade teacher for her first four years before teaching fifth grade for nine years. She has been a third grade teacher for the past five years.
“The district has been home to me,” said Manes, who grew up in Imperial. “I am fully invested in the district.”
Manes earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a master’s degree in education administration from Missouri Baptist University.
Along with teaching, she has served on curriculum writing teams for Guffey Elementary and the district, been part of numerous pilot programs and been a member of the teacher leadership committee and the professional development representative for Guffey Elementary.
Manes was the summer school assistant principal last year, and she will be the summer school principal this year.
“There is no better practice than doing,” she said. “My taste of it last summer as the assistant principal for summer school is what pushed me to work for a spot this year. That has helped me get to know more families, different areas of the community, what the community needs as a whole and how I can serve them.”
Manes said while it is a dream to help lead a school building, she will miss Guffey Elementary.
“Guffey has been a big part of helping me grow to be a leader,” she said. “I am going to miss (Guffey) terribly, but I know the relationships I have built are strong. I will continue to be part of that community.”
Manes said two of her priorities at Sherwood Elementary will be to build relationships with the staff and helping Principal Jessica Meeks execute plans for the school.
“I am big on tying academics in the classroom to character education,” she said. “They already have a tight staff that does those things, so I would want to help them take it to the next level.”
She and her husband, Marty Manes, have three children – Braden Christman, 16, and 9-year-old twins, Hadley and Maddux.
Weber
Weber, 34, of Manchester has been a history teacher at Fox High since 2017.
Before joining the Fox district, he was a history teacher for four years and the dean of students for one year at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in Manchester, which closed in 2017.
Along with teaching, Weber has been a varsity girls basketball coach, junior varsity boys and girls golf teams coach and soccer coach at Fox High.
“I’m really excited for the role (of assistant principal),” he said. “I have immersed myself in the community the last seven years in various coaching opportunities. I got to know a lot of community members. I am excited for my next step and this opportunity to serve the community.”
Weber said his goal is to be a “servant leader” at Fox High.
“We have some phenomenal teachers at the high school level,” he said. “I want to help them in any way possible. I trust that our staff is in a great place now. If I can serve them, they can better serve our students. Any way I can support them is the best way I can support our students.”
Weber said his history at Fox High should help his transition into an administrative role, adding that he likely will be the assistant principal for the incoming freshmen class.
“I think there is a trust already there, and I have built a rapport with quite a few parents and students,” he said. “I think that will continue, and I will get to know more community members outside the athletic community.”
Weber said he will no longer coach, but he plans to attend as many athletic events as possible. He also said one of his goals is to help students find their purpose in high school.
“I think as an assistant principal I can help kids find a purpose in clubs, sports, activities and school to help their high school experience be the best it can possibly be,” he said.
He and his wife, Emily Weber, have a 6-month-old son, Miles.