It appeared from the news story that Dianne Critchlow is blaming Tim Crutchley and the school board for allowing Tim Crutchley to book the expensive rooms at the Hard Rock Hotel in June 2013 at the Marzano Conference.
It was stated during the news story by Critchlow's attorney that the board was blindly approving charges. Dianne Critchlow should know that it's difficult to approve individual credit card charges if the credit card statements aren't provided to the school board members in their board packets each month.
When asked to provide the credit charges in the board packets, my request was ignored. It would appear that Critchlow didn't want to provide the credit card statements to the board since they weren't provided to them while she was superintendent.
Critchlow also asked that I be charged $170 to obtain the credit card statements for the 2013-2014 school year when I made a Sunshine request for them in April 2013. The credit card statement should have been public record and should have already been provided to the school board each month but they weren't.
Pausing the video from the news story showed an email from Fox CFO John Brazeal dated October 3, 2014 that was addressed to: To Whom It May Concern. While reading the letter on the TV I noticed there was a comment from Dianne Critchlow to Tim Crutchley about booking the rooms at the Hard Rock Hotel. Below you'll find a copy of the email that was displayed during the news story that I typed in from the video on Friday October 10, 2014.
After I posted this article and made another Sunshine Request for the letter below I received a copy of the letter and documents from Fox's CFO Friday morning October 10, 2014. The "To Whom It May Concern" letter contained Marzano Conference related lodging receipts and hotel reservations. It did not contain any receipts for any of the non-room related meals or the car rental receipts.
The Fox 2 News You Paid For It story and the October 9, 2014 Leader article didn't point out the charges for Value Parking, Self Parking and Meals that were charged to the hotel rooms during the conference as documented below.
To Whom It May Concern Letter
In reviewing the To Whom It May Concern letter and receipts, you will notice the following:
- The original reservations for 7 people at the DoubleTree conference hotel for $99 per night made on January 11, 2013 (Exhibits A-1 & A-2).
- Registration confirmation for the Marzano conference ($4100) Jan 11, 2013. (A-3)
- The reservations for the Hard Rock Hotel made on February 26, 2013. (B-1, B-2, C-1 & C-2)
- The Hard Rock Hotel Orlando Invoices (Exhibits D-1 through D-6)
- Dianne and Jamie Critchlow paid for meals and Valet Parking on their room tab (D-1)
- Valet Parkin - $25 / day
- Emack & Bolio - $26.52
- Beach Club - $145.78
- The Kitchen - $49.54
- Beach Club - $162.12
- Tim Crutchley and Kristen Pelster paid for a meal on their room tab. (D-2)
- The Kitchen - $99.07
- Self Parking Fees of $18 / day
- Dan and Angie Baker had charges for a meal and the Minibar on their room tab. (D-3)
- The Kitchen - $95.07
- Minibar - $16.90
- Stacy Dockery and her spouse charged food to their room tab. (D-4)
- Expo Hot Dog - $6.05
- NASCAR Sports Grille - $41.78
- Andy Arbeitman and his spouse charged self parking to their room tab. (D-5)
- Self Parking - $18 / day
- Jeremy Donald and his wife charged a meal to their room tab. (D-6)
- The Kitchen - $45.54
DATE: October 3, 2014
TO: To Whom It May Concern
FROM: John Brazeal, CFO
RE: Lodging costs at Marzano Conference - Orlando, Florida - June 2013
Public school districts are issued federal program Title II money for the purpose of providing professional development for educators. Unspent Title II money typically rolls over from one fiscal year to the next. Apparently by December 2012, Fox School District had an accumulation of unspent Title II money in excess of $600,00. In early 2013, an effort began to spend down the accumulation of professional development funds.
In response to this situation, then superintendent Dianne Critchlow apparently identified several school related conferences scheduled to take place during 2013 and also identified various staff to attend the conferences. One of these conferences was the Marzano conference scheduled during June 2013 in Orlando, Florida.
Requests for information about the conference have been received with a focus on the lodging costs. The remainder of this memo will outline the sequence of events, trip participants and lodging costs for the conference.
On or about 1/11/2013, it appears 7 hotel rooms were reserved at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at the entrance to Universal Orlando. See Exhibit A. The reservations were made for 4 nights each (6/18/2103 - 6/22/2013) at a nightly rate of $99 per night plus taxes. The names on the reservation were:
Apparently, the DoubleTree reservations were later cancelled, because in February 2013 new reservations are made at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando.
According to Tim Crutchley, Dianne Critchlow requested that he make reservations at the Hard Rock Hotel. Upon researching the cost and informing Dianne Critchlow, he was told that if the Pom squad could stay at the hotel, so could staff. He was instructed to make the reservations.
On 2/26/2013, 4 rooms were reserved at the Loews Hotels Hard Rock. The rooms were reserved for 4 nights each, arriving 6/18/2013, departing 6/22/2013. A one night deposit (rate plus tax) was charged to Discover credit card assign to Deborah Davis. The hotel weekday rate applied to the first three nights, while the higher weekend rate applied to the fourth night. The tax rate is 12.5%.
The room reserved for Dianne is listed as a "King Suite with Garden 2 Queen and Garden King". The before tax room rate for the first 3 nights was $1,095.30 per night, and the rate for the fourth night was $1,162.80. A room deposit of $1,232.21 was charged to the credit card representing 1 night at $1,095.30 plus tax of $136.91. See Exhibit B. (Note: Apparently this reservation...
Below is a link to the Fox 2 News You Paid For It news story:
The saga continues....