Who We Are
The mission of Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis, Inc. is to provide member school districts with high-quality and cost-effective services, resources and leadership to achieve educational excellence for all students
CSD
Overview
Cooperating School Districts
(CSD) of Greater St. Louis is a non-profit educational service
agency that brings school districts together to share resources,
information and ideas through exemplary, nationally-recognized
services in educational technology, cooperative purchasing, staff
development and more. CSD serves as a proactive voice for
education.
Cooperating School Districts is a voluntary, membership-driven organization owned and governed by 30 public school districts in the St. Louis metropolitan area. CSD also serves 35 additional public school districts that are members of the organization.
The St. Louis Regional
Professional Development Center (RPDC) operates under contract with CSD, and
combines CSD staff development resources with Missouri Department
of Elementary and Secondary Education resources. The St. Louis RPDC
is one of nine regional centers created by DESE as part of the
educational reform act of 1993.
History
of CSD
CSD was founded in 1928 by a
group of school superintendents who joined together to share ideas
and share resources. Today, CSD displays the power of collaboration
by bringing school districts together to network on education
issues, save money for the classrooms and enhance classroom
instruction through staff development training and
programs.
Below is a brief timeline of some milestones in the history of CSD:
1928: A small group of superintendents get together to exchange ideas and share ways to improve schools, marking the start of an organization now impacting educators across the country.
1931: Cooperating School Districts superintendents establish a lending service to provide educational films into local schools.
1946: Cooperating School Districts launches a national audiovisual movement by expanding its space and collection of films.
1950: School business administrators from five districts jointly bid for and buy pianos, launching CSD's first cooperative purchasing program.
1958: CSD and its member districts begin a regional vocational training program, administered through the War Manpower Act.
1964: CSD is officially chartered by the State of Missouri to provide educational services as a consortium of public school districts.
1971: CSD opens its computer center to assist member districts with processing data for payroll, attendance records and accounting information.
1982: CSD launches its own cable television center.
1985: CSD creates the Network for Educational Development, a cooperative resource for staff development and school improvement.
1987: CSD begins construction of its new in-house television studio, which offers teachers and students the opportunity to produce quality videos. CSD is also license by the FCC for Instructional Television Fixed Service.
1988: Led by the effort of Sanford McDonnell, CHARACTERplus (formerly known as PREP) is formed as a project of Cooperating School Districts.
1989: CSD formally establishes its Business Services Division to streamline and improve cooperative purchasing.
1991: CSD launches its Insurance Trust, providing medical, dental and life insurance benefits to public school employees and their families.
1994: The International Education Consortium and the Regional Center for Education and Technology merged with CSD.
1994: CSD begins work with the St. Louis Regional Professional Development Center to provide staff development opportunities to area school districts.
1995: CSD goes online with a new Web site.
1996: The first forum for African-American Academic Achievement (4As) was held.
1998: Cooperating School Districts' Regional Educational Applicant Placement (REAP) program is launched, offering human resource personnel, university placement offices and teacher applicants an innovative online career placement center.
1998: CSD's New Links to New Learning program is formed, bringing state-of-the-art distance learning to Cooperating School Districts' schools.
2002: CSD joins with Unitedstreaming to provide online digital video content to school districts in Missouri.
2004: CSD and the Missouri School Boards' Association form a Natural Gas Consortium to save districts money on the purchase of natural gas.
2005: CSD earns the "What's Right With The Region" Award from FOCUS-St. Louis in the following category: Improving Racial Equality and Social Justice.
