To the Editor:

I want to thank Matt Hudson for his response to last week’s “Concerned Parent” letter. His seven years on the school board and 25-plus years of teaching in his household give him a perspective worth listening to.

As a mother who has lived in this community for over ten years, I can tell you that what keeps us here is real. The camaraderie among parents, the commitment in extracurricular activities, the way people show up for one another, and the Doolin family themselves, who have been a genuine presence in ways that go well beyond a job title. I am also a professor of education, and that combination of personal investment and professional background compels me to respond.

Most of what the original letter describes is not unique to Fayette. It is a Missouri-wide crisis, and our superintendent is not its cause.

Teacher turnover is a statewide emergency. Missouri’s teacher retention rate dropped from 91.1% before the pandemic to 88.2% in 2022-23, with rural districts hit hardest. Missouri ranks 49th in the nation for average teacher salary, nearly $17,000 below the national average. Rural schools are more likely to struggle filling positions with fully certified educators, not because of local leadership failures, but because the pipeline is broken and the pay is insufficient. Missouri also ranks last in the nation for superintendent salaries. Many rural administrators earn what a mid-level manager in the private sector makes while carrying the weight of an entire school district and community on their shoulders.

It is made even harder when our state legislature has made a habit of rerouting funding away from public schools toward other priorities. Missouri’s current K-12 budget is already short $245 per pupil this fiscal year. If we want that to change, the answer is at the ballot box, not at the superintendent’s door. He did not create the state funding formula. He works inside it, doing his best to recruit qualified candidates to a town of 2,000 people with limited housing, limited recreation, and salaries that can’t compete with suburban districts an hour down the road.

On the four-day school week: I opposed it and said so at board meetings. When the board voted for it, I accepted the decision, because it was now the policy my children would be living under. Research since has confirmed it does not meaningfully improve recruitment or retention. Salary does.

I’ll also say this directly: I have had my own disagreements with Superintendent Doolin over the years. Every one of them was resolved through respectful conversation and collaborative problem-solving. That is what good-faith engagement looks like, and it is available to anyone willing to try it.

The path forward runs through civic engagement, not resignation demands. Show up to board meetings. Contact board members. Run for the board yourself. And we as a community need to be honest about our shared responsibility to hold our own children accountable for how they treat one another and the adults charged with their care.

Our schools need builders right now. It is so much easier to tear down than to build up.

Cindy Dudenhoffer

 Mother, community member, and professor of education