Marea Kluth-Hoppe Vies For Second School Board Term

Marea Kluth-Hoppe, 58, is no stranger to the Mehlville School District Board of Education. A volunteer in the district for 25 years, Kluth-Hoppe served on the board from 2002 until 2005. After failing to get re-elected in 2005 and 2008, she is running again with the hope of bringing more balance to the board.

“I am running again cause I still want to see the process of education improve. I believe in balance and listening to each side of an issue,” she said.

Kluth-Hoppe was born in south St. Louis and attended Roosevelt High School. Graduating with degrees in mathematics and business administration from SEMO, she remembers her father putting an emphasis on education.

“My father always told me that whatever you put up here (in your head), no one can take away from you. Education is a priority,” she said.

After graduating college, Kluth-Hoppe went into estimating and planning at the International Shoe Company in St. Louis. She moved into a managerial merchandising position, and became involved in the Junior Achievement program, a program that helps youths create and implement business plans.

While volunteering, Kluth-Hoppe met her future husband, Ray, and married him in 1982.

Fifteen years after she started at the shoe company, they closed. In 1985, Kluth-Hoppe and her husband had Carla, a daughter who would become the valedictorian at Mehlville High School.

Her daughter sparked an involvement in education and child programs that would continue for the next 25 years. Starting as a teacher at Zion Pre-School, Kluth-Hoppe worked there for three years, and became involved in the Mehlville School District.

“It’s always fun to help your own child. It’s fun to be in the classroom to help when teachers need it cause that’s giving them more time, or a greater opportunity to reach the children, to do more with them,” she said.

Outside of the district, Kluth-Hoppe has served on finance committees at her church, Concord Trinity United Methodist Church. Former leader of Girl Scout Troop 713, Kluth-Hoppe is the neighborhood treasurer and has continued to plan projects past her daughter’s involvement.

Now, volunteering, bowling, reading and owning a small antique business are main attractions in her life.

As the president of the , Kluth-Hoppe has continued her involvement in the district.

Her experience with the district dates back to the 1980s when she initially joined several committees. Her first was a district-wide safety committee after a few children went missing in North County. Kluth-Hoppe said she noticed the district’s proactive approach in creating the committee and became interested in the bigger processes of education.

She served on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee when it was in existence, bringing community members together with administrators to evaluate district programs. The strings program, ACT/SAT testing and the Missouri School Improvement Program were a few of the projects she in which she contributed.

“I learned a lot about the district, about the make-up of the district, the fact that the district tries to get input from the staff, parents and community to improve the educational process,” she said.

Following her daughter through school, Kluth-Hoppe served on the Bierbaum Elementary School and Margaret Buerkle Middle School PTO, the Mehlville High School Mothers’ Club and was treasurer of Project Graduation. She was also a band parent and organized the PAT Easter egg hunt.

After she advised the Bierbaum PTO on a process by calling a then-school board member, she found out a few parents had written her name on the ballot in that year’s school board election.

With the thought planted, Kluth-Hoppe decided to run for the board in 2002.

“I wanted to see the district continue in its growth in offering things to the students,” she said. Kluth-Hoppe drew experience from her management positions at the shoe company and as a Girl Scout leader, naming honesty and integrity as her qualities.

While serving on the board from 2002 to 2005, she contributed to closing out Proposition P, the district’s building improvement program supported by a tax increase, and helped select a new .

“It’s a learning process and you learn later that not everybody’s happy. You have to take the best candidates and look for what hopefully is the best meld for the district,” Kluth-Hoppe said.

Budget issues were prevalent in her first term, and the board had four yearly meetings to revisit and adjust the budget. If elected, Kluth-Hoppe would suggest having regular workshops throughout the year and meetings twice a month, noting that in 2005, the district had a balanced budget.

Currently, the board is considering a , as was implemented for one year in 2006. Kluth-Hoppe said she would support the transition back to four tiers as well as an increase in activity fees for students to combat potential program cuts.

“There’s going to have to be a combination of cuts and reducing the balance somewhat. Maybe you do cut back a little bit and continue some programs the best way you can and streamline,” she said.

Kluth-Hoppe said she would take a closer look at programs such as going four days in the summer, citing that about $20,000 is saved from a four-day, 10-hour work day in the summer months.

With the failure of Proposition C, the district’s 88-cent tax increase, Kluth-Hoppe responded with caution when asked about another tax increase.

“The present board has to look at the contingency plan and look at what they can cut. The balances need to be firmed up before any discussions on another tax proposal,” she said.

Naming her main priorities as maintaining a dedicated and quality staff and protecting the educational experiences of the classroom, Kluth-Hoppe said she would make decisions based on student impacts such as classroom size and would look at support and maintenance for staff cuts.

“We also have to better communicate to the community where the budget is in the district, where state and federal mandates are,” she said.

Along with bridging relations with the community, Kluth-Hoppe said she would work well with the current board members.

“I might not agree with everyone’s decision,” she said. “You don’t always have a 7-0 vote. There’s going to be conversation and discussion that brings up different points, so open-mindedness comes in handy.”

Along with an open mind, Kluth-Hoppe names striving for balance, trustworthiness and integrity as her strengths. However, she does not currently have a child in the district, naming that degree of separation as a weakness.

Identifying as an independent, Kluth-Hoppe says there is no room for political ideals in the school district and would refrain from bringing up political issues if elected.

“More middle-of-the-road and balanced people will take the edge away from things,” she said. “I have friends that are Democrats, I have friends that are Republican and I respect them for their opinions and I think they respect me for my opinions as an independent who tries to look at all the issues.”

If chosen to serve on the board again, Kluth-Hoppe said she would use her financial expertise, planning, and business experience to look at the “bigger picture” issues of the district without resorting to extremes.

“It would be an honor to serve on the school board again—I hope people certainly look at my experience as being a positive. I thought that I had a lot of district knowledge serving on committees, and then I got on the school board and it is another notch up. I think you do need some experience to reach that level to serve on the board,” she said.