Pattonville School District has achieved so much throughout the past decades.  In 1983, Pattonville amongst many other St. Louis County school districts were a part of the Desegregation Program, or Transfer Program, which were bringing black students from St. Louis City into school districts in St. Louis County. Pattonville’s goal during those next few years was to make 25% of their population diverse. Since then, according to Niche.com, Pattonville has made over 50% of the school district diverse, making it the most diverse school district in Missouri.

Niche combines rigorous analysis and statistics along with millions of reviews from students, parents, and teachers, to highlight the best schools, businesses, and neighborhoods throughout the nation. They rank businesses and school districts based on a A-F scale, with A+ being the best. Out of more than 450 public school districts in Missouri, Pattonville ranked No. 9 for districts with the best teachers, No. 4 for best places to teach, and No. 1 for most diverse school districts. Niche also ranked Pattonville in the top 4% of districts in the nation.

Dr. Pecoraro, superintendent of Pattonville School District, thinks one of the reasons why Pattonville ranked so high is because of the relationship with the community. “There is a tight connection between our parents, and our school district. We make an effort as a school district to reach out to the community, keep them informed on what we are doing, and we are always wanting to partner with them.” Dr. Pecoraro references an old quote: “The community is only as strong as the school, and the school is only as strong as the community.”

Another reason Pattonville ranked high is because of how they are always strategically planning ahead. Pattonville has a five year school improvement plan, in which Dr. Pecoraro looks back on the previous school year and asks, “Did some of the reforms that we wanted to implement work?”

Dr. Pecoraro also spends a lot of time looking three to five years ahead, getting feedback from students and staff, and looking at what they are doing really well in, and also what they need to work on. “The St. Louis Lambert Airport expansion changed our district dramatically,” Dr. Pecoraro stated. “But, Pattonville planned for that. That could have been the downfall of Pattonville, but we are better now than before then.”

Pattonville is always looking to improve and get better, and always wanting to help students to the best of their ability. “We are always wanting to get better. If you think you have arrived, you have mistaken. There are a lot of things in Pattonville that we should be proud of, but I know there are things that we need to be better at,” Dr. Pecoraro adds.

With recognition of being the most diverse school district in the state, Dr. Pecoraro thinks it is awesome. “People think this is corny,” Dr. Pecoraro says, “but when you look around Pattonville, we kind of look like the world. Students of color, students with different ethnicities, if you look around St. Louis County or our region, there is not another school district that has the diversity that we do.”

Dr. Pecoraro would like to thank all the Pattonville students: