Kathie Dolan, an Idea Lab Teacher at Spoede Elementary School, received the November 2015 Excellence in Education Award at the Nov. 23 Board of Education Meeting. Congratulations to Kathie on this prestigious recognition!
Kathie has been with the Ladue School District since August of 1990, when she joined the staff as a teaching assistant at Reed Elementary School. Having served the district as a first and second grade teacher, an enrichment teacher and an Idea Lab teacher, Kathie has touched the lives of many students in many different ways.
She has had a hand in either initiating or continuing the success of several programs at Spoede, such as Spoede garden and woods, Science Carnival, Equations Club and Creative Convention. She also chairs the Wellness and Outdoor Learning committees and serves as the teacher representative for the SSA. Kathie has also written several grants to provide the tools for the following learning areas: robotics, geocaching and dissecting owl pellets.
And yet, even with all of these responsibilities Kathie takes on for her students, she strives to help educate other students, too, for whom education is not so attainable—those in Belize. Kathie volunteers with another Ladue School District teacher, Jennifer Johnson, in heading a nonprofit organization to educate teachers in Belize. The group supports education in the southern part of Belize by organizing teacher-training workshops in the rural villages and by supplying schoolbooks and supplies to 50 primary schools.
Kathie and her husband, Dan Dolan, have been married for 22 years and have four children: Dominic, a freshman at the University of Kansas; Maya, a sophomore at Nerinx Hall; Maria, who is in the sixth grade at Ladue Middle School; and Beau, who is in fourth grade at Spoede Elementary School.
Kathie attended the University of Kansas both as an undergraduate and to receive her Masters in Education. She received her Gifted Certification from Maryville University.