ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The Jennings School District has a new leader.

In a press release, the district announced the hiring of Paula D. Knight as the new superintendent, effective on July 1. The Jennings School Board unanimously approved the decision at a board meeting Tuesday. 

She will replace Art McCoy, who announced in November that he would retire at the end of the 2020-21 school year. McCoy has been the superintendent of the Jennings School District since 2016. His last day is June 30.

RELATED: Jennings School District Superintendent Dr. McCoy to retire from school system

Knight currently serves as the deputy superintendent in the St. Louis Public Schools system. She started her career as a classroom teacher at Hamilton Elementary School in the SLPS system in 1994. 

She also served in various roles at Waring Academy of Basic Instruction and Washington & Euclid Montessori School.

In 2013, she was appointed to the Early Childhood Coordinating Board for the state of Missouri by then-Governor Jay Nixon, where she was tasked with increasing early-childhood enrollment in the city of St. Louis. 

The press release said she also has a long history of public service, including with the St. Louis chapters of the Urban League, United Way and the Charmine Chapman Society.

Knight has a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from St. Louis University and Master's and Doctorate in Education Leadership from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

McCoy, who is retiring on June 30, has been selected to lead the Regional Business Council's STL.works program, an RBC workforce development initiative that supports St. Louisans in receiving skilled jobs and educational training program.

ST. LOUIS — The Trump administration's plans to "aggressively revoke" the visas of Chinese students could have an outsized impact on Missouri, which had more than 5,500 students from China in the 2023-2024 academic year.

Missouri, despite being the 21st-biggest state for population, ranks 10th in the nation for international student population, according to data from Open Doors. And St. Louis, the 23rd-largest metro, ranks 17th among them for hosting international students, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Institute of International Education, which oversees Open Doors, said in an email. Chinese students bring an estimated $181.3 million to the state economy, based on the average per-student expenditure of international students in Missouri, it said.

The region, then, could be hit especially hard by plans from the Trump administration to revoke the visas of Chinese students, revealed in a May 28 statement from U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields could be targeted.

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