Mrs. Laurie Painter, Assistant Principal
Laurie Painter graduated from Columbia College in 1997 and then got her Master's Degree in 2004. She finished her Educational Specialist Degree in 2016, and is currently working on her dissertation to finish up her Doctorate Degree. Mrs. Painter started teaching in 1999 as a kindergarten teacher. She only survived one year at that and began teaching 6th grade math and science at LSE. She did that for 19 years before she was selected to be Assistant Principal at David Barton Elementary. She has been married for 21 years and has two kids. Brooke is a Freshman at Mizzou and Jeff is a sophomore at Battle High School. When she retires from teaching, she plans to move to Florida and work at Disney World. She says that she will do just about anything at Disney!
When asked what made her want to become an administrator, Mrs. Painter said “I got my degree in 2004 that allowed me to be an administrator but I did not do anything with it at the time because my kids were young. I started really thinking about it when I went back to get my specialist degree. I always felt I would be a good administrator because my classroom was very controlled and students always knew the expectations and that there were consequences, both good and bad.” Her favorite memory from working in Boonville was when she would get to do labs with her students. She always loved the lab days because students would be engaged and learning but also having fun while doing it. The light bulbs would come on and they would finally get the concept that she had been trying to teach them. She also has loved all the staff she has worked with over the years. There have been so many that have helped her grow as a teacher and now as an administrator.
By Jamie Schenk, Pirate Press Reporter