Mr. Underwood from the Missouri School Board Association met with the Board of Education (BOE) and presented information about the 7 Superintendent candidates during Closed Session.
A Few Important Points From the Meeting
4 - Hodge Mascot Change (1min 40s)
Hodge Elementary's new mascot will be the Hawks.
5 - Discussion on Nepotism Policy and Whistleblower Policy (2min 44s)
There was discussion about the updated Nepotism Policy which is much stricter than before. It will be brought to the board at the November 18th board meeting for a vote.
Current Fox C-6 school board vice president Dave Palmer has been richly rewarded for serving on the school board over the past 8+ years. His wife was promoted to the Director of Nursing in June 2006 while Mr. Palmer was serving as the school board president. Gee Palmer was also given a 75% pay increase with her promotion.
The community should be requesting that Mr. Palmer resign his position on the school board and that his wife resign her position as well.
It would be very nice if they repaid the taxpayers for taking advantage of the community. Gee Palmer earned a total of nearly $250,000 more in salary than the highest paid nurse earned in the district during the same period of time. Several nurses in the district had nearly double the number of years of service in the district that Gee did.
Mr. Palmer doesn't give the impression that he was representing the taxpayer for the students as much as it does that he was able to get his wife a high paid promotion in the district. It seems very similar to the Linda Nash / Kelly Nash issue which stirred things up the community nearly 2 years ago.
The Whistleblower Policy was discussed as well to protect anyone working for the district from retaliation for someone coming forward about someone who is not following school district policy. This would have allowed people to speak to a school board member as well who might want to report a problem but were afraid to report it to their direct supervisor. Mr. Kroupa asked for additional time to discuss and improve the Whistleblower Policy.
6 - Board Vacancy (14min 50s)
Mr. Laughlin told audience that it was the opinion of the district attorney that the Board of Education should appoint a replacement for former board member Cheryl Hermann. Mr. Laughlin is forming a committee and they will be seeking a replacement for Cheryl Hermann.
7 - Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (16min 10s)
CFO John Brazeal presented some possible changes to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program.
8 - Employment of Certified Staff (21min 19s)
Todd Scott presented two retired counselors were approved to work 1 day a week to help in the school district.
Approved by the board.
9 - Employment Modifications (22min 20s)
Todd Scott presented Employment Modifications to the board asking them to approve modifications for 6 administrators to increase their pay by roughly $640 since they had earned their advanced degrees. There was quite a bit of discussion on this topic. In the end, the board voted NOT to approve the modifications.
The vote was 4-NO / 2-YES.
No time was scheduled for Public Comments at the Special Meeting / Workshop.
A Few Important Points From the Meeting
4 - Hodge Mascot Change (1min 40s)
Hodge Elementary's new mascot will be the Hawks.
5 - Discussion on Nepotism Policy and Whistleblower Policy (2min 44s)
There was discussion about the updated Nepotism Policy which is much stricter than before. It will be brought to the board at the November 18th board meeting for a vote.
Current Fox C-6 school board vice president Dave Palmer has been richly rewarded for serving on the school board over the past 8+ years. His wife was promoted to the Director of Nursing in June 2006 while Mr. Palmer was serving as the school board president. Gee Palmer was also given a 75% pay increase with her promotion.
The community should be requesting that Mr. Palmer resign his position on the school board and that his wife resign her position as well.
It would be very nice if they repaid the taxpayers for taking advantage of the community. Gee Palmer earned a total of nearly $250,000 more in salary than the highest paid nurse earned in the district during the same period of time. Several nurses in the district had nearly double the number of years of service in the district that Gee did.
Mr. Palmer doesn't give the impression that he was representing the taxpayer for the students as much as it does that he was able to get his wife a high paid promotion in the district. It seems very similar to the Linda Nash / Kelly Nash issue which stirred things up the community nearly 2 years ago.
The Whistleblower Policy was discussed as well to protect anyone working for the district from retaliation for someone coming forward about someone who is not following school district policy. This would have allowed people to speak to a school board member as well who might want to report a problem but were afraid to report it to their direct supervisor. Mr. Kroupa asked for additional time to discuss and improve the Whistleblower Policy.
6 - Board Vacancy (14min 50s)
Mr. Laughlin told audience that it was the opinion of the district attorney that the Board of Education should appoint a replacement for former board member Cheryl Hermann. Mr. Laughlin is forming a committee and they will be seeking a replacement for Cheryl Hermann.
7 - Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (16min 10s)
CFO John Brazeal presented some possible changes to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program.
- Changes extended the deadline to January 16, 2015 to file for the VSIP.
- Payments would be made prior to the end of their employment so they could use the incentive money to purchase service credit to enable the retirement.
- In turn the staff would waive their claims to a variety of issues such as age discrimination or ADA discrimination. It would not include any open claims.
8 - Employment of Certified Staff (21min 19s)
Todd Scott presented two retired counselors were approved to work 1 day a week to help in the school district.
Approved by the board.
9 - Employment Modifications (22min 20s)
Todd Scott presented Employment Modifications to the board asking them to approve modifications for 6 administrators to increase their pay by roughly $640 since they had earned their advanced degrees. There was quite a bit of discussion on this topic. In the end, the board voted NOT to approve the modifications.
The vote was 4-NO / 2-YES.
You can listen to the public session of the board meeting by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article.
Below is the agenda for the Special Meeting/Workshop from Fox's website:
Special Meeting/Workshop
for the Fox C-6 Board of Education
Monday, November 3, 2014
5:30 p.m. Closed Session
7:00 p.m. Board Meeting
Notice is hereby given that there will be a Special Meeting/Workshop of the Fox C-6 Board of Education, on Monday, November 3, 2014 and will begin with Closed Session at 5:30 p.m. The Board meeting will occur at 7:00 p.m. at the Fox C-6 Service Center, Roy Wilde Conference Room, 849 Jeffco Boulevard, Arnold, Missouri.
The agenda for the meeting is as follows:
1. Call Meeting to Order/Pledge of Allegiance/Roll Call
2. Adjournment to Closed Session:
610.021.3 Personnel
610.021.13 Personnel Records
3. Building Improvement Plans
4. Hodge Elementary Mascot change
5. Discussion - Form #0342.1 Code of Ethics/Nepotism and Whistle Blower Policy
6. Board Vacancy
7. Voluntary Separation Incentive Program
8. Employment of Certified Staff
9. Employment Modifications - Advanced Degree Work
10. Adjournment
The Public Session of the meeting started at 7PM. It began with 10 minute presentations from each of the building principals that had not yet presented their building improvement plans to the board members and the public.
After the presentation time was over for all of the principals the Open Session portion of the meeting continued. Below is a link to the original agenda that was posted on the district website:
Below is my audio recording of the Open Session portion of the board meeting.