It’s official. The soon-to-come Ritenour Center for Educational Excellence for the school district where my sister, Janine, taught for all 27 years of her educational career is going to house an early childhood set of classrooms named after her. 

On Thursday evening, January 9, 2025, I attended a meeting of the Ritenour School District Board of Education along with my father, Richard Milam, Jan’s husband, La Marr Haynes, and a host of friends-as-family where the board voted unanimously to call a portion of the new Ritenour Center for Educational Excellent the “Milam-Haynes Early Childhood Annex”.  The annex is going to provide one year of no cost early education for every incoming Kindergarten student.

Jan mainly taught 5th grade throughout her career before her untimely passing in 2023, but our mother taught 1st and 2nd grades for most of her 30+ year teaching tenure with the St. Louis City Public School District.  Our aunt (our mother’s sister), Mary Turner, was also an educator for more than 30 years in the City of St. Louis. I only spent 1 year teaching English in Tokyo, Japan, but I did work in technology education for several years while in New York and I have always viewed my many years in journalism/broadcasting through a lens of an educator.

And while, most certainly, Jan became a teacher because our mother, aunt, and grandparents, she explicitly became a 5th grade teacher because of our mutual teacher Mary Allen at Flynn Park Elementary School in the University City School District. And as an ironic matter of fact, I will be attending the memorial services for Mrs. Allen this weekend since she just passed away at the age of 99 and a half at the end of last year.

This naming of the coming center at Ritenour after my sister is not only highly appropriate, but also well-earned. Even in the last few weeks of her life and deep in her battle against cancer, Jan returned to her school of Marion Elementary in a special capacity to pull students that were struggling out of their regular classes. There, she was able to give those students some one-on-one instruction and education in between her chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

While nothing could ever be enough to fill in the empty space that has been left after Janine’s passing, this particular recognition by the Ritenour School District and the attendance at her funeral of all of her colleagues at Marion Elementary has meant a great deal to all of her family and friends. It also highlights the importance of cost free, public education in her life and in the lives of the community of people around her.

A big thank you to all that were involved with making this naming possible.