The Wright City R-II district has not had to deal with culture war issues like other schools in Missouri.
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School districts across the state, including one that borders Warren County, have been dealing with “culture war” issues that take the focus off education.
But for the most part, Warren County hasn’t had to deal with those issues.
“I would say that largely we have not been confronted with that,” Wright City R-II Superintendent Dr. Christopher Berger said. “Have we had a little bit of it? Absolutely. St. Charles County is too close not to have some kind of residual effect to us.”
The Wentzville School District has had a number of run-ins with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, including over allegedly hiding its deliberations on instituting a new transgender bathroom policy to avoid input and outrage from parents.
Bailey sued the district after two members of the school board emerged as whistleblowers and more than 40 members of the community filed formal complaints with the attorney general’s office.
“Parents have the right to know who is in the bathroom with their children. Members of the Wentzville School Board knowingly and purposefully denied parents that right when they shrouded the transgender student bathroom usage policy in secrecy, directly violating the Open Meetings Law,” Bailey said.
Fortunately for Warren County, that type of issue hasn’t arisen here.
“I can say with 100 percent confidence that Wright City is not being confronted with that to the level,” Berger said.
He credited the board of education as a big reason why.
“I think our board is sensible to those things,” Berger said.
He also believes that people may be moving out of St. Charles County to get away from those issues, and that the community doesn’t want to see them come up in a place like Wright City.
“I’m optimistic that people coming to our community are looking to get away from that stuff,” Berger said. “Wright City, for example, just has a history of being above the fray on some of that stuff.”
Berger was thankful for that because he said the “culture war” issues at hand can do serious damage to school districts.
“Some of our schools in the area are just torn apart with those types of things splitting their board,” he said.
About the author: Jason Koch is the editor of The Warren County Record, and covers local news and government for the newspaper. He has won multiple awards from both the Indiana and Illinois APME and from the Illinois Press Association. He can be reached at 636-456-6397 or at jason@warrencountyrecord.com
