This report should be a wake up call for our community. We have been told for years how great a job our district has been doing by our superintendent with very little evidence to support her claims. This latest report isn't just about MAP scores. It now includes college and career readiness. In a prior post, I pointed out that Fox is in the bottom 25% of the state for the Percentage of Graduates Taking the ACT. This latest report takes that into account as well as the district's Composite ACT Score.
We as a community want our students and our district to do well. Fox is not a poor performing district. However, it's not one of the top schools that Superintendent Critchlow has been overly touting it to be. Her salary however has apparently been increased by our school board based upon those exaggerated claims. Now that Missouri DESE has calculated a "letter grade" for each school district in the state, it's much easier to see how Fox really compares to other districts. The Show Me Institute addressed this in an article stating that letter grades help address transparency since it has been very difficult until now to see how your school district compares to other districts.
Now that you are able to compare Fox to other districts in the state, do you have a different opinion as to how well our district is doing compared to what our Superintendent has been telling you?
Do you think our Superintendent is being paid too much money to run our school district based on Fox's recent ranking in the state?
So, how did this happen? Fox has a list of accomplishments on the district website. Based upon that list of accomplishments, Fox appears to be doing really well. After all, Fox earned a Perfect Score year after year on Missouri's Annual Performance Report since Critchlow was promoted to Superintendent. Here are some of those accomplishments listed on Fox's website are:
- The District has received Distinction in Performance from the state of Missouri for 10 years in a row
- Fox C-6 School District named as a National District of Character, 2009
- Perfect Score on Missouri's Annual Performance Report (APR) 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
- Lone Dell Elementary named as a National Blue Ribbon School
- Lone Dell Elementary named as a Missouri Gold Star School
- Several schools named as DESE Top 10 Schools for academic achievement
For more information on MSIP 5 and the new Performance Report visit Missouri DESE's website here:
With limited information and limited oversight by our school board, the board has nearly doubled Superintendent Critchlow's salary since she was promoted to Superintendent in 2005.
Can Fox C-6 taxpayers and Missouri taxpayers get a refund on our Superintendent's salary?
Tuesday August 27, 2013 is the next school board meeting. This would be a very good time to go to a school board meeting and ask our school board some questions. After all, the school board works for the community and the Superintendent is hired by the school board. It's not the other way around. Remember that you will need to fill out a Public Comments form in order to speak at the board meeting and it must be handed in prior to 6:45PM.
The Rockwood School District now has open discussions with the community prior to their regular school board meetings in addition to the Public Comments session. Fox C-6 needs to have similar meetings so the community can discuss with our board members that represent us what our concerns are within the district! After all, they work for us.
You can read more about Missouri DESE's new public school system rating system in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and see where Fox ranks among the other schools.
Gone is that "Perfect Score" claim when Fox met 14 of 14 standards. There is now a much finer grading system.
If Superintendent Critchlow was paid according to our district rank among the LOCAL districts, that would have placed her salary at $192,238 instead of the $246,824 she was paid for the 2012-2013 school year!
Everyone person I speak with about the problems in our district are always shocked to learn how much our school board has been paying our Superintendent. This is a systemic problem across the state. However, our school board has not been doing its due diligence and is not being fiscally responsible with respect to central office administration pay.
It's time to tell your friends and neighbors to contact our school board members and let them know that this is completely unacceptable. Our school district needs new leadership and a new pay scale for our central office administrators. There's no way that our school board can justify the outrageous salaries when school performance doesn't match up to those of other districts.
With limited information and limited oversight by our school board, the board has nearly doubled Superintendent Critchlow's salary since she was promoted to Superintendent in 2005.
Can Fox C-6 taxpayers and Missouri taxpayers get a refund on our Superintendent's salary?
Tuesday August 27, 2013 is the next school board meeting. This would be a very good time to go to a school board meeting and ask our school board some questions. After all, the school board works for the community and the Superintendent is hired by the school board. It's not the other way around. Remember that you will need to fill out a Public Comments form in order to speak at the board meeting and it must be handed in prior to 6:45PM.
The Rockwood School District now has open discussions with the community prior to their regular school board meetings in addition to the Public Comments session. Fox C-6 needs to have similar meetings so the community can discuss with our board members that represent us what our concerns are within the district! After all, they work for us.
You can read more about Missouri DESE's new public school system rating system in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and see where Fox ranks among the other schools.
Gone is that "Perfect Score" claim when Fox met 14 of 14 standards. There is now a much finer grading system.
If Superintendent Critchlow was paid according to our district rank among the LOCAL districts, that would have placed her salary at $192,238 instead of the $246,824 she was paid for the 2012-2013 school year!
Everyone person I speak with about the problems in our district are always shocked to learn how much our school board has been paying our Superintendent. This is a systemic problem across the state. However, our school board has not been doing its due diligence and is not being fiscally responsible with respect to central office administration pay.
It's time to tell your friends and neighbors to contact our school board members and let them know that this is completely unacceptable. Our school district needs new leadership and a new pay scale for our central office administrators. There's no way that our school board can justify the outrageous salaries when school performance doesn't match up to those of other districts.
Local School District Rankings Under
Missouri DESE's New Rating System
School District
|
Rating
|
Brentwood
|
100.00% |
Franklin County
|
100.00% |
Strain-Japan
|
100.00% |
Parkway
|
99.60% |
Lindbergh
|
99.30% |
Clayton
|
98.90% |
Ladue
|
98.90% |
Kirkwood
|
98.20% |
Webster Groves
|
97.50% |
Festus
|
96.40% |
Francis Howell
|
96.40% |
Wentzville
|
96.40% |
Spring Bluff
|
96.30% |
Lonedell
|
95.60% |
Silex
|
95.40% |
New Haven
|
95.00% |
Affton
|
94.30% |
Ft. Zumwalt
|
92.90% |
Rockwood
|
92.90% |
Mehlville
|
92.50% |
Fox C-6
|
92.10% |
Orchard Farm
|
91.80% |
Washington
|
91.10% |
Wright City
|
91.10% |
Jefferson Co.
|
90.40% |
Elsberry
|
89.30% |
Valley Park
|
89.30% |
Troy
|
88.90% |
Hancock Place
|
88.60% |
Maplewood-Richmond Heights
|
88.60% |
St. Clair
|
88.60% |
Crystal City
|
88.20% |
Hillsboro
|
88.20% |
Winfield
|
88.20% |
Northwest
|
87.50% |
Sunrise
|
87.50% |
Meramec Valley
|
87.10% |
St. Charles
|
86.80% |
Sullivan
|
86.80% |
Windsor
|
85.70% |
Grandview
|
85.40% |
Hazelwood
|
85.40% |
Dunklin
|
84.60% |
Pattonville
|
82.90% |
Desoto
|
81.10% |
Bayless
|
79.30% |
Warren Co.
|
76.80% |
Union
|
75.70% |
Ritenour
|
71.80% |
Ferguson-Florissant
|
69.30% |
University City
|
66.80% |
Jennings
|
65.70% |
Riverview Gardens
|
28.60% |
St. Louis City
|
24.60% |
Normandy
|
11.10% |