Who's Watching Over the Office for Civil Rights?

I've learned a lot over the past 7+ years dealing with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office for Civil Rights (USDA OCR).

One thing I discovered was the fact that there is a pattern of practice of complaints remaining open for years in the Kansas City ED OCR Regional Office from across the multi-state region. I have had many parents and advocates contact me over the years about complaints they've filed with ED OCR that have remained open for years.

It's even more troubling to know that ED OCR allows school districts like Fox C-6 to spend nearly 7 years trying to meet the terms of the Resolution Agreement that the district signed in May 2009 to become compliant with federal law.

How do students expect to be protected when there's no enforcement of the law or enforcement of Resolution Agreements?

From a FOIA request, I recently learned that the Kansas City ED OCR office has only completed 7 out of 17 school district wide compliance review investigations that have been assigned to them over the past 10 years.

I voiced my concerns to the Washington D.C. ED OCR office back in 2010 when I found out that the Kansas City ED OCR office was going to be conducting the district wide compliance review of Fox C-6 instead of the Washington D.C. office. My concerns have definitely been validated over the years.

Completing only 7 out of 17 compliance reviews over the past decade is a very disturbing statistic and one that should raise the eyebrows of the public as well as our U.S. Senators and Congressman. Taxpayers are paying a lot of people six figure salaries for what would be considered a failing grade if scoring their work like a test, 7 out of 17 is 41%. That's an F in anybody's grade book!

What are the directors and enforcement directors who oversee the Kansas City ED OCR office doing?

It doesn't seem as if they are ensuring that investigations are getting done in a timely manner.

The information regarding the 7 out of 17 compliance reviews was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Washington D.C..

Kansas City Open Compliance Review Investigations
There is one open compliance review that was opened in 2007 investigating the Wichita Unified School District #259 in Kansas.

There are two open compliance reviews that were opened in 2009; one investigating the Bayless School District in Missouri and the other investigating the Jenks Public School District in Oklahoma.

There are two open compliance reviews that were opened in 2010; one investigating the Fox C-6 School District in Arnold, MO and the other investigating the Rapid City Area School District #51-4 in South Dakota.

It's difficult to even imagine that the Kansas City ED OCR office has only been able to complete 7 out of 17 compliance reviews assigned to them over the past decade. Why can't they complete these investigations?

It should have been very easy for the Kansas City ED OCR office to determine that Fox C-6 was non-compliant with federal law when the district wide compliance review was initiated in March 2010. The district had already agreed to sign a Resolution Agreement in May 2009 which stipulated what the district was required to do in order to become compliant with federal law.

Students Previously Denied 504 Plans Are Provided 504 Plans
In August 2014, after Fox switched law firms and the district demoted Fox's Section 504 Coordinator and assigned the assistant superintendent of secondary education to the position, several students that had been previously denied Section 504 Plans for years at Fox were finally appropriately provided Section 504 Plans. This happened after ED OCR helped with an Early Complaint Resolution after Fox changed law firms.

There are people working in the Kansas City ED OCR office that know why compliance reviews and other complaints aren't getting completed. They should use the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 to speak out about what's been going on in the Kansas City ED OCR Office. They owe it to the students who have been denied proper protection under the law for years. It's truly sad and disgraceful to think of the pain that that the KC ED OCR office has caused for families covered by their regional office over the years.

As it stands now, it’s very easy to see how school districts have been able to get around federal law for years. There's no accountability of the school districts nor ED OCR itself.

It's time for attorneys and staff in the Kansas City ED OCR Office to stand up and report what's been going on for years in that office that's been allowing compliance reviews to remain open for years and complaints to remain in limbo for years as well.

KC ED OCR staff and attorneys probably have the same fear of reprisal in their office just like it was for teachers and administrators in our school district. Everyone was too afraid to speak up about what was going on in our school district.

I wrote to the former director of enforcement for the Office for Civil Rights over the Kansas City office in September 2015. His name is Randolph Wills. Mr. Wills did not respond to my first email inquiry regarding Fox's open District Wide Compliance review that's been open for nearly 6 years. After 10 days of not receiving a response from Mr. Wills, I emailed him again. He responded to my second email. He informed me that he was no longer the Enforcement Director over the Kansas City ED OCR office. He informed me that Debbie Osgood was the current director of enforcement over the KC Office and that he had forwarded my email to Debbie Osgood.

Debbie Osgood responded with the following email on October 1, 2015:

Mr. Simpson: 

I am pleased to respond to your email, which Randolph Wills forwarded to me as the Enforcement Director for OCR’s Kansas City enforcement office. Your email outlines your concerns regarding the Fox C-6 compliance review being investigated by OCR Kansas City. I share your concern about the time that the Fox C-6 School District compliance review has been open. The resolution of this outstanding review (as well as others) is a priority for OCR. Although I cannot give you a specific date by which the review will be completed, I want to reassure you that the Kansas City office is devoting substantial resources and attention to the resolution of this review and other pending reviews. 

You also asked about a Fox C-6 complaint being monitored. My understanding is that a number of the items in that agreement have been completed and Kansas City staff have worked with the district to resolve the remaining items. 

Debbie Osgood
OCR Enforcement Director

Ms. Osgood copied Bill Dittmeier, the current Director of the Kansas City Office for Civil Rights in her response to me. I laughed when I read Debbie Osgood’s response. Many others laughed as well when I told them about the response I received from ED OCR.

How would anyone believe Ms. Osgood’s statement that “the Kansas City office is devoting substantial resources and attention to the resolution of this review and other pending reviews” when the Kansas City office has only completed 7 out of 17 compliance reviews assigned to them over the past decade?

Three weeks ago I wrote back to Debbie Osgood, Bill Dittmeier and Randolph Wills asking why the Kansas City ED OCR office has only been able to complete 7 out of 17 district wide compliance reviews in the past 10 years. None of them responded to my email. Although I did receive Read Receipts from all three of them.

On Monday of this week, I sent my question about the Kansas City ED OCR office to Sandra Battle. Sandra Battle is is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement at ED OCR in Washington D.C. I copied Debbie Osgood, Bill Dittmeier and Randolph Wills when I emailed Ms. Battle as well as the Department of Justice. No one has responded yet to my concerns regarding this issue.

Perhaps no one wants to be held accountable.

It certainly seems that the patterns of practice in the Kansas City ED OCR office would be a concern for anyone dealing with this OCR Office. As an added tidbit of information, it took nearly 60 days for ED OCR to send a response to my FOIA request. It would appear that ED OCR is not as familiar with federal law regarding FOIA request response requirements like the USDA Office for Civil Rights is. Federal law dictates that all FOIA requests must be responded to within 20 days.

A recent USDA Office for Civil Rights FOIA response letter referenced the law in their response (5 U.S.C. § 552).

You can read about FOIA law requirements in the article below located on the U.S. Department of Justice's website:

FOIA UPDATE: THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT, 5 U.S.C. SECT. 552, AS AMENDED BY PUBLIC LAW NO. 104-231, 110 STAT. 3048

I find it truly amazing that the Enforcement Directors for the Office for Civil Rights don’t seem to do what their job titles state that they do

You would think that the Enforcement Directors at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights would be holding people accountable and making sure that the regional offices that they oversee are doing their job.

Perhaps it’s time that our U.S. Senators and Congressman take an in depth look into what’s going on in the Kansas City ED OCR office.

ED OCR’s Enforcement Directors don’t seem to want to answer questions as to why these compliance reviews have been open for so many years. Perhaps the Enforcement Directors will be willing to answer these questions for Congress. I have offered to testify in congressional hearings about our dealings with ED OCR. It's about time that someone starts looking into what's going on in the Kansas City ED OCR office since taxpayers are paying a lot of six figure salaries for such abysmal completion results.

You may wish to contact the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights as well to see if you can get any answers. Perhaps there are some investigative reporters that may be interested in following up on this story as well. It certainly seems to be a huge expenditure of money for very little results.

Here is the contact page:

Key OCR Staff: U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights 

Fox C-6's State Audit Results Not Expected Until Late This Year or Early Next Year

It was reported in The Rock newspaper this month that the state audit of the Fox C-6 School District won't be completed until the end of the year or the beginning of next year. Originally, the community was told that the results of the audit would probably be released in September 2015.

The time to complete the state audit is pretty impressive considering how long the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in Kansas City has been investigating the school district for a District Wide Compliance Review.

5+ Years and Still Under Investigation
On July 28, 2015 I received a response from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) to my June 2, 2015 Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding the status of Fox C-6's March 2010 District Wide Compliance Review.

The response came from Bill Dittmeier, the Director of the the Kansas City ED OCR office.

Bill Dittmeier's response stated that Fox's District Wide Compliance Review is still "an open investigation".

It's difficult to understand how Fox can still be under "an open investigation" after five and a half years considering that the Memphis City School District in Tennessee underwent the exact same compliance review investigation in March 2010 which resulted in the Memphis City School District signing a Resolution Agreement in January 2012.

ED OCR's Growing List of Open Compliance Reviews
It appears that the Kansas City ED OCR office has a documented pattern of compliance reviews and complaints that have remained open for years. An August 22, 2012 FOIA request to ED OCR was responded to on May 3, 2013 which listed 3 open compliance reviews in the Kansas City ED OCR office. Two of the open compliance reviews had been open investigations from 2009. They were for the Bayless School District and the Cape Girardeau School District. The third compliance review was the Fox C-6 compliance review which was opened in March 2010.

I recently made a FOIA request to obtain an updated list of open compliance reviews in the Kansas City ED OCR office compared to other ED OCR Regional Offices.

A Lingering Problem
Two years ago at the June 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting, I asked Fox's school board about the status of Fox's District Wide Compliance Review investigation and the status of the district's Resolution Agreement with ED OCR that Dan Baker signed in May 2009 during Public Comments.

I wrote about these open in issues with ED OCR in a July 6, 2013 article. That article also listed the numerous "monitoring letters" sent to the district over the years following up on the district's May 2009 Resolution Agreement. Charges from Fox's former law firm document fees related to responding to those ongoing "monitoring letters".

Documentation Contradicts Superintendent Dianne Critchlow's Statements

at June 2013 Board Meeting

Using the link below, you can read several years of FOIA request responses from the Kansas City ED OCR office regarding Fox's open district wide compliance review. The July 28, 2015 FOIA response was the first response from Bill Dittmeier who succeeded Angela Bennett as the Director of the Kansas City ED OCR office in 2014.

Below is an excerpt from Bill Dittmeier's FOIA response:

The compliance review concerning the Fox C-6 School District is an open investigation. OCR has determined that the release of the information you have requested at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with our enforcement activities. In addition, the information you have requested includes personally identifiable information that, if released, could be unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Therefore, OCR is denying your request.

July 28, 2015 ED OCR FOIA Response Letter

You may be wondering why Fox would still be under investigation after five and a half years.

Is this something that our community should be concerned about?

From a financial point of view, it is a concern because the district has spent tens of thousands of dollars over the past 6+ years in legal fees related to the compliance review and the still open May 2009 Resolution Agreement as well as other OCR complaints from others in the district.

District attorneys responded to monitoring letters, worked on updating district policies to get the district in compliance with federal law and prepared Dan Baker, school staff and the Fox C-6 school board for interviews in the fall of 2010. District attorneys also charged Fox C-6 taxpayers to respond to my Public Comments at board meetings as well as emails sent to the school board and administrators. There were also charges in the legal bills for reading this blog.

The legal bills are very interesting to read. The disappointing thing about the legal bills was that the former law firm didn't break out their billable time on Fox's bills like they did for the Wentzville school district. This makes it much more difficult to analyze how much was actually spent on various issues since many line items are grouped into lump sum billings.

I requested copies of the Fox C-6 legal bills via Sunshine Law in August 2014. I had made numerous requests before dating back to 2009 for the legal bills but had always been given excuses as to why the district couldn't or wouldn't make them available. I should also note that I didn't receive copies of the legal bills until April 2015 after I contacted the Attorney General's Office for help in obtaining them.

I didn't receive all of the bills I requested because according to Fox's current CFO, the bills were destroyed prior to the 2010-2011 school year.

Fox's Compliance Review Noted in Report to the President
In 2012, Fox's 2010 compliance review was referenced in ED OCR's FY 2009-2012 Report to the President and Secretary of Education that was issued in 2012 by former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Russlynn H. Ali. Fox C-6's compliance review is listed on the map on page 5 as FAPE 2010 as a Section 504 compliance review. I'm surprised that Russlyn Ali included Fox's Compliance Review in the report since the investigation hasn't been completed yet.

2009-2012 ED OCR's Report to the President and Secretary of Education

It's interesting to read ED OCR's statements in the 2009-2012 Report to the President about how OCR must vigorously enforce the nations's civil right's laws.

I'm not sure how many people consider an investigation lasting more than 5 years, "vigorously enforcing the nation's civil rights laws".

Randolph Wills the Director of Enforcement over the Kansas City ED OCR office wrote a letter to Fox C-6's former legal counsel on April 7, 2010. He informed Fox that compliance reviews are designed to address systemic issues and to ensure that violations are readily identified and promptly eliminated:

As OCR explained in its notification letter to the District, compliance reviews are designed to address systemic issues and to ensure that violations are readily identified and promptly eliminated. The instant compliance review is consistent with the stated purpose and goals of OCR compliance review activities. Accordingly, I have determined that the compliance review will proceed.

What's even more interesting is the fact that the other school district, Memphis City School District in Tennessee, that was investigated for the same issue was investigated and agreed to sign a Resolution Agreement with ED OCR in January 2012. ED OCR posted a Press Release in April 2012 about the Memphis City School District's Resolution Agreement along with the Resolution Agreement itself.

April 2012 ED OCR Press Release

about Memphis City Schools Compliance Review Agreement 

Memphis City School District Compliance Resolution Letter

Memphis City School District Compliance Resolution Agreement

It's amazing how quickly the Atlanta ED OCR office was able to conduct and resolve the issues in the Memphis City School District considering the fact that the Memphis City SD had 110,361 students and 191 schools in their district when the investigation was opened compared to Fox having roughly 11,000 students and only 18 schools. It causes one to question the abilities and/or ethics of some of the Regional ED OCR Offices.

Concerns Over Which OCR Office Handles Investigations

In 2010, the Kansas City ED OCR office was assigned to conduct Fox's District Wide Compliance Review. I voiced my concerns to the Washington, D.C. ED OCR office back then about assigning the compliance review to the Kansas City ED OCR office. My concerns were based upon the fact that there didn't appear to be much enforcement effort out of the Kansas City ED OCR office based upon my conversations with many other advocates and individuals who had been dealing with the KC ED OCR office for years.

The fact that Fox C-6 has been given extension after extension to meet their obligations on the still open May 2009 Resolution Agreement and the fact that Fox's District Wide Compliance Review is still "an open investigation" after five and a half years, I think my concerns have been validated.

According to Fox's legal bills Fox's former law firm prepared the district and board prior to the interviews and then represented them during the ED OCR interviews in 2010.

So how long will it take for ED OCR to complete their March 2010 investigation?

According to Fox's legal bills, it appears that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office for Civil Rights (USDA OCR) was able to conduct and complete a compliance review of the district sometime in 2012 or 2013 that I was unaware of. There were charges in the legal bills to review the findings.

There was never any mention of a USDA Compliance Review in any of the board meeting minutes that I recall. However there was never any mention of the March 2010 ED OCR Compliance Review in board meeting minutes either.

I've made a FOIA request to obtain a copy the USDA compliance review findings.

Fox's Ongoing District Wide Compliance Review

On July 28, 2015 I received a response from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) to my June 2, 2015 Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding the status of Fox C-6's March 2010 District Wide Compliance Review.

The response came from Bill Dittmeier, the Director of the the Kansas City ED OCR office.

Bill Dittmeier's response stated that Fox's District Wide Compliance Review is still "an open investigation". It's difficult to believe that Fox is still under "an open investigation" after five and a half years considering that the Memphis City School District in Tennessee underwent the exact same investigation in March 2010 and resulted in the district signing a Resolution Agreement in January 2012.

There seems to be a pattern of compliance reviews remaining open for years that were handled by the Kansas City ED OCR office. An August 22, 2012 FOIA request to ED OCR was responded to on May 3, 2013 which listed 3 open compliance reviews in the Kansas City ED OCR office. Two of the open compliance reviews had been open investigations from 2009. They were for the Bayless and Cape Girardeau school districts. The third compliance review was the Fox C-6 compliance review which was opened in March 2010.

Two years ago at the June 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting, I asked Fox's school board about the status of Fox's District Wide Compliance Review investigation and the status of the district's Resolution Agreement with ED OCR that Dan Baker signed in May 2009 during Public Comments.

I wrote about these open in issues with ED OCR in a July 6, 2013 article. That article also listed the numerous "monitoring letters" sent to the district over the years following up on the district's May 2009 Resolution Agreement:

Documentation Contradicts Superintendent Dianne Critchlow's Statements

at June 2013 Board Meeting

Using the link below, you can read several years of FOIA request responses from the Kansas City ED OCR office regarding Fox's open compliance review. The July 28, 2015 FOIA response was the first from Bill Dittmeier who succeeded Angela Bennett as the Director of the Kansas CIty ED OCR office in 2014.

Below is an excerpt from Bill Dittmeier's FOIA response:

The compliance review concerning the Fox C-6 School District is an open investigation. OCR has determined that the release of the information you have requested at this time could reasonably be expected to interfere with our enforcement activities. In addition, the information you have requested includes personally identifiable information that, if released, could be unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Therefore, OCR is denying your request.

July 28, 2015 ED OCR FOIA Response Letter

You may be wondering why Fox would still be under investigation after nearly five and a half years.

Is this something that our community should be concerned about?

From a financial point of view, it is a concern because the district has spent tens of thousands of dollars over the past 6 years in legal fees. District attorneys responded to monitoring letters, worked on updating district policies to get the district in compliance with federal law and prepared Dan Baker, school staff and the Fox C-6 school board for interviews in the fall of 2010 according to Fox's legal bills that I received via a Sunshine Law request in August 2014. I didn't receive copies of the legal bills until April 2015. I also didn't receive all of the bills I requested because according to Fox's CFO, bills were destroyed prior to the 2010-2011 school year.

I wondered the same thing considering that Fox was only 1 of 2 school districts out of more than 13,000 school districts in the United States that were chosen to undergo a District Wide Compliance Review for one particular issue in 2010.

It's also interesting that in a 2013 FOIA request to ED OCR made by someone in Kansas City Missouri that it was documented that there were 2 other school districts in our state that had "open compliance reviews" dating back to July 2009. There were for the Bayless School District and the Cape Girardeau School District. So Fox is not alone in this matter. I have also been told that there are open compliance reviews in the Kansas City ED OCR office in Kansas and Oklahoma as well.

Fox's Compliance Review Noted in Report to the President

In 2012, Fox's 2010 compliance review was referenced in ED OCR's FY 2009-2012 Report to the President and Secretary of Education that was issued in 2012 by former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Russlynn H. Ali. Fox C-6's compliance review is listed on the map on page 5 as FAPE 2010 as a Section 504 compliance review. I'm surprised that Russlyn Ali included Fox's Compliance Review in the report since the investigation hasn't been completed yet.

2009-2012 ED OCR's Report to the President and Secretary of Education

It is interesting to read ED OCR's statements in the 2009-2012 Report to the President about how OCR must vigorously enforce the nations's civil right's laws.

I'm not sure how many people consider an investigation lasting more than 5 years, "vigorously enforcing the nation's civil rights laws".

Randolph Wills the Director of Enforcement over the Kansas City ED OCR office wrote a letter to Fox C-6's former legal counsel on April 7, 2010. He informed Fox that compliance reviews are designed to address systemic issues and to ensure that violations are readily identified and promptly eliminated:

As OCR explained in its notification letter to the District, compliance reviews are designed to address systemic issues and to ensure that violations are readily identified and promptly eliminated. The instant compliance review is consistent with the stated purpose and goals of OCR compliance review activities. Accordingly, I have determined that the compliance review will proceed.

What's even more interesting is the fact that the other school district, Memphis City School District in Tennessee, that was investigated for the same issue was investigated and agreed to sign a Resolution Agreement with ED OCR in January 2012. ED OCR posted a Press Release in April 2012 about the Memphis City School District's Resolution Agreement along with the Resolution Agreement itself.

April 2012 ED OCR Press Release

about Memphis City Schools Compliance Review Agreement 

Memphis City School District Compliance Resolution Letter

Memphis City School District Compliance Resolution Agreement

Atlanta OCR Completes Compliance Review in 2 Years

It is amazing to how quickly the Atlanta ED OCR office was able to conduct and resolve the issues in the Memphis City School District considering the fact that Memphis City SD had 110,361 students and 191 schools in their district compared to Fox having roughly 11,000 students and less than 20 schools. It causes one to question the abilities and/or ethics of the different Regional ED OCR Offices. It's also notable that Cynthia G. Pierre who signed the Memphis City School District Compliance Resolution letter was recently promoted to the Chief Operating Officer of the EEOC.

In 2010, the Kansas City ED OCR office was assigned to conduct Fox's District Wide Compliance Review. I voiced my concerns to the Washington, D.C. ED OCR office back then about assigning the compliance review to the Kansas City ED OCR office based upon the fact that their didn't appear to be much enforcement effort out of the office based upon my conversation with many other advocates and individuals who had been dealing with the KC ED OCR office for years. But, the fact that Fox has been given extension after extension to meet their obligations on the still open May 2009 Resolution Agreement and the fact that Fox's District Wide Compliance Review is still "an open investigation" after nearly five and a half years, I think my concerns have been validated.

According to Fox's legal bills that were finally provided to in April after multiple Sunshine Requests, Dan Baker and some Fox C-6 staff and Fox's school board was interviewed by ED OCR in 2010. Fox's former law firm prepared the district and board prior to the interviews and then represented them during the ED OCR interviews.

Please note that I wasn't provided all of the legal bills that I had requested which dated back to the 2007-2008 school year. Those bills would have covered the time that Fox first started dealing with ED OCR in August 2008 on issues in our district.

Legal Bills Destroyed

According to Fox's CFO, John Brazeal, who fulfilled my Sunshine Request in April 2015, he stated that "after an exhaustive search", it has been determined that all paid invoices from the 2007-2010 school years (including invoices from Fox's former law firm) have been previously destroyed.

Legal Bills for Press Release

Reading through the legal bills has been very interesting and very eye opening. Back in May 2010, when the Post Dispatch contacted us out of the blue to do a story on complaints filed in Missouri with ED OCR, there were charges from Fox's former law firm for conferencing with Dan Baker about interviewing with the Post Dispatch. The legal bills noted it as a "press release". There were similar charges referenced as "press release" in August 2010 when the article was published in the Post Dispatch. Dan Baker was quoted saying that he,

"strongly believes the district has handled the situation appropriately. He said the district had spent a lot in legal fees during the dispute, but he did not know an exact amount."

Legal Bill Entries

I found it interesting that the legal bill charges referred to Dan Baker's interview with the Post Dispatch as a "press release".

5/3/2010 - TBG  - Telephone conference with Mr. Dan Baker regarding telephone call from Post-Dispatch.

5/6/2010 - TBG  - Telephone conference with Mr. Dan Baker regarding media contact; review press release. 

8/19/2010 - TBG  - Telephone conference with Mr. Dan Baker regarding Post-Dispatch interview and press release.

There were many more charges related to the "media contact" regarding Sunshine Law requests, etc. in May 2010. But there's no need to list them all here.

Post Dispatch Article Fails To Mention Compliance Review

I also found it interesting when the Post Dispatch article was published in August 2010 that there was no mention of the May 2009 Resolution Agreement that Dan Baker signed legally binding the district to make corrections agreed to with ED OCR in order to become compliant with Section 504 and the ADA AA. Nor was there any mention in the article about Fox undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review which had been initiated in March 2010. Perhaps those were simple oversights or the information just wasn't deemed that important at the time.

Legal Bills For Reviewing My Blog

Some of the other notable charges in the legal bills were from July and August 2013 after I made public comments about the Compliance Review and the Resolution Agreement at the June 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting. Fox's former law firm contacted ED OCR to get a status on the Resolution Agreement and Compliance Review and prepare a memorandum regarding the Resolution Agreement with ED OCR and the District Wide Compliance Review.

The law firm also charged the district to "Review media postings regarding status of OCR matters" and "Review patron media blog" perhaps to check my facts about the Compliance Review and the Resolution Agreement.

Federal Programs Overview Tonight at Fox C-6 School Board Meeting

There is a Fox C-6 school board meeting tonight.

Closed Session: 5:30PM

Public Session: 7:00PM

There is time allotted for Public Comments at tonight's meeting.

You can review the agenda and associated documents on BoardDocs:

Fox C-6 June 2 Board Meeting on BoardDocs

Dr. Wipke was released by Rockwood School District a month early so his first day at Fox C-6 was moved to Monday June 1, 2015.

Fox posted Dr. Wipke's one month contract on BoardDocs for the public to review prior to tonight's school board meeting. You can review his contract using the link below from BoardDocs:

Dr. Wipke's One Month Superintendent Contract for Starting Early

Angela Burns Baker who is in charge of Fox's Federal Programs will be making a presentation at tonight's board meeting about Title I, II and III. Her presentation documents the amount of federal money Fox C-6 is receiving for Title I, II and III schools in our district and compares their progress to the state average. Her report highlights the schools that are Title I in the district.

No where in Angie Burns Baker's report does she mention the fact that Federal Law prohibits retaliation against anyone who files a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR). Her husband,  Dan Baker used to be Fox's Section 504 Coordinator for the district and handled ED OCR complaints for the district. 

Dan Baker has since been moved/hired as the Seckman Elementary School principal in the district after it was discovered that derogatory online posts directed at parents were traced back to his and Angie Burns Baker's home. 

ED OCR's Dear Colleague Letter on Retaliation

I wrote the article above on retaliation only a couple of months after online attacks were made against me after I spoke at a school board meeting. In 2013, I had no idea that some of those posts would be linked to Dan and Angela Baker's home. At that time I figured that most of them were being made by the Critchlows. I didn't have proof in 2013. It took until April-May 2014 before I learned that the Baker's home was linked to posts as well.

It's also very surprising that the Bakers got to keep their jobs knowing what everyone knows now.

It is quite possible that in today's world with "Smart Homes", the posts that were linked to the Baker's home could have been made by their thermostat or their refrigerator and not by anyone living in the house. Just a thought! You never know.

I get asked quite often about what's going on with our lawsuit. Well, when the Critchlows requested to have the lawsuit moved to federal court, it added 18 months to the process due to docketing of federal lawsuits. So, the court date for the lawsuit is currently set for April 2016.

District Wide Compliance Review by ED OCR
Things don't happen very fast when dealing with federal agencies such as ED OCR and USDA OCR. Fox C-6 has been undergoing an District Wide Compliance Review with the U. S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) after more than 5 years. ED OCR is supposed to enforce civil rights law such as Section 504 law. USDA OCR is supposed to to the same. However, it doesn't mean that these agencies actually do their job. Education law attorneys know this. That's how school districts can go for years without have to comply with the law. That's why the legal bills that I did obtain from Fox have year after year of Dan Baker and the former law firm responding to ED OCR and USDA OCR regarding the Resolution Agreement and the USDA's Final Agency Decision that found the district Non-Compliant with Section 504 law.

I find it funny how ED OCR touted Fox's 2010 District Wide Compliance Review as one of the Compliance Reviews in their 2009-2012 Report to the President and Secretary of Education given the fact that the Compliance Review is still an open investigation.

ED OCR's 2009-2012 Report to the President and Secretary of Education

ED used to call this an Annual Report. However, there were several years as you can see that the report was not made on an annual basis.

You can find Fox's Compliance Review on page 5 (14 pages into the report). It is linked to the state of Missouri on the map of the United States. It is listed as FAPE 2010 which was performed by the Kansas City ED OCR office.

The latest FOIA request to ED OCR has Fox's District March 2010 District Wide Compliance Review listed as an open investigation. Therefore there is nothing to report to the public at this time. It certainly seems odd that it would take more than 5 years to investigate the school district as to whether or not our district complied with federal law.

On a side note, last month, the Wentzville School District changed law firms just like Fox C-6 did last year.

Fox's Legal Bills

Some may wonder why it took 7 months for our district to fulfill my Sunshine Request for Fox's legal bills from 2007-2014 from Fox's former law firm.

It took filing a complaint with the Missouri Attorney General's Office in order to obtain the legal bills. That was after making several inquiries over a 6 month period trying to obtain them by emailing the district. Fox's CFO failed to see the public's interest in those dated invoices. 

I also had to make a few calls to the AG's office in order to prod the district into releasing the information. I was not charged for the legal bills. Mr. Brazeal reported to me that the district waived the fees of more than $800 in research time and copying the documents. Thank you Mr. Brazeal for not charging me for the information. 

Fox's legal bills from our former law firm are quite interesting. Many email responses from the district to my questions via email or at board meetings went through the district's legal counsel. 

I also found it interesting that Dan Baker's "press release" / interview was reviewed by legal counsel for the August 2010 Post Dispatch article regarding our issues with the district and their handling of Section 504.

I was very disappointed in the fact that Fox's CFO, Mr. Brazeal told me in his email response that when sending me some of the legal bills when he said,

"After an exhaustive search, it has been determined that all paid invoices from the 2007-2008 school year (including invoices from Mickes Goldman O'Toole) have been previously destroyed."

Mr. Brazeal repeated the same statement for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years.

Not having those legal bills certainly makes it difficult for the public to know how their tax dollars were spent with the district's former law firm during a time of turmoil and legal wrangling over Section 504 law and their responses to ED OCR and USDA OCR.

The missing years of legal bills covered the majority of the time when Fox's Dan Baker and former superintendent Dianne Critchlow were dealing with ED OCR and USDA OCR regarding Section 504 issues.

It was May 2009 when Dan Baker signed a Resolution Agreement with ED OCR to comply with Section 504 law.

It was March 2010 when ED OCR informed the district that the District would be undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review.

Still Not Compliant after 6 Years?

When I checked earlier this year, Fox still hadn't complied with the May 2009 Resolution Agreement that Dan Baker signed and agreed to. This is probably now due to the fact that Fox hasn't updated their Policies and Regulations since they were told to do so by ED OCR in May 2009. It will now be another 12 to 18 months before the district's Policies and Regulations get updated and released.

I certainly hope that a lot of this information becomes public when the audit is released. A state audit is supposed to review federal compliance as well and it seems that Fox has had problems in this area for years.

You may also want to check out Jefferson County Penknife's recent article about Jamie Critchow's Driver's License Status. Jamie Critchlow is the husband of former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Brown Critchlow. He was also the former Director of Fox's Bridges program who had 2 DWI arrests in the past year. One was in Iron County and the other in the city of Arnold. Apparently, Jamie Critchlow drove himself to the Arnold courts without having a valid driver's license according to Department of Review records when he had to appear before the court for his Arnold drunk diving arrest.

Critchlow Driver's License Status

by Jefferson County Penknife

Congratulations to the 2015 Fox and Seckman High Graduates!

Congratulations to all of the Class of 2015 Seniors who graduated from Fox and Seckman High School this year!

Good luck to all of our students taking finals this week! Hopefully they have been studying and are ready for their exams.

Tonight is the May 19, 2015 Fox C-6 school board meeting

Public Session: 7PM

Closed Session: 5:30PM

You can access the agenda for tonight's Fox C-6 School board meeting using the following link to BoardDocs:

May 19, 2015 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting Agenda

It's been an extremely busy month which started with days and days of water damage cleanup after the torrential downpour that swept through our neighborhood April 9. That was followed by attending a Seckman High volleyball games and other school events as well as scouting activities and a slow running of the St. Louis marathon.

While running the marathon, I met a firefighter from Imperial, MO who ran the full 26.2 miles while wearing 70 pounds of firefighting gear. He was running his 19th marathon. It was his first time running a marathon with his gear on which included an air tank. Luckily it stayed somewhat cool that day.

While running with the firefighter for a couple of miles, he told me that his grandmother named Clyde Hamrick Elementary School. His children attend school in the Fox district as well.

There has been a lot to write about, just not enough time to get it all written. I have started many articles but haven't had time to finish them.

I did want to mention, that I was told after last month's board meeting that the district doesn't need any more negative publicity. I was also told that it would be helpful if I could concentrate on the positive things going on in the district. I would certainly like to do that. But, some matters shouldn't be swept under the rug.

I brought up concerns at last month's meeting because so many people have been questioning some of the recent hiring decisions. The district has made a lot of good hires recently. In fact, Fox C-6 board member Dan Kroupa spent 5 minutes during the board comments at last month's meeting exuding all of the great things that the board has done over the past year. You can listen to his comments on Fox's YouTube channel recording of last month's board meeting. You can also be assured that I didn't say that our school board was "worthless" as Mr. Kroupa said you would think they are after hearing my Public Comments. It's too bad that the board hadn't done much for the prior 8 to 10 years when things were brought to their attention.

It's probably much easier to dismiss people's concerns since they didn't have to endure years of having online derogatory comments made about them for bringing concerns to their school board. It's also amazing how some people continue to ignore some of the things that have occurred. 

Listen to Dan Kroupa's board report at the April 2015 Board Meeting

For years it's been pretty easy to overlook things going on in the district that shouldn't have been going on because everyone who worked for the district who weren't in the "inner circle" were afraid to speak up. They still are. The culture still hasn't changed as much as it needs to.

After last months board meeting I was also told that we have a new "hiring process" in place and that we need to trust that hiring process to find the best candidates for the job.

Prior to last month's board meeting, I emailed the board and asked to be put onto the Closed Session agenda per board policy to discuss the recent hiring of the Seckman Elementary principal and Seckman High School principal.

At 1:30PM the day of the board meeting, I received the following response from our school board president.

The Board of Education does not typically meet with members of the public during closed session. Members of the public are encouraged to speak during the public comments portion of the regular Board Meeting. If you wish to contact Board Members or the superintendent to schedule private meetings to discuss confidential matters, you may do so. Any such meetings will be at the discretion of those specific individuals.

I understand that the Board of Education does not typically meet with members of the public. But our board policies specifically state that we are supposed to contact that board if we wish to meet with the board on matters that involve specific individuals which is what I did.

I also tried to meet with our school board in September 2008 during Closed Session. But in 2008, I was told by our former superintendent while at the board meeting that night that the board had already decided not to meet with me on my issue. She was telling me that while the board president at the time was putting me on next month's agenda. He had forgotten to put me on that night's agenda after speaking to him earlier in the day. I guess she didn't realize that he wasn't in on the board's decision not to meet with me.

Below is a link to the Public Comments I made at the April 2015 Fox C-6 School Board meeting. I spoke during Public Comments since I wasn't given the opportunity to speak with the school board in Closed Session prior to the meeting.

Listen to my Public Comments at the April 2015 Fox C-6 Board Meeting

I was also told after last month's meeting that I had been trying to influence the hiring process with my comments and emails.

So, what were the Seckman Elementary teachers that spoke during Public Comments at the March 2015 board meeting and all of the emails they sent the school board telling them who they would like to see hired as their new principal doing? 

It was stated that the teacher's influenced the board's decision to approve the hires. 

Don't Forget to Vote on April 7 for Two "New" Fox C-6 School Board Members!

On Tuesday April 7, 2015, the Fox C-6 community must vote for two NEW board members to serve on the Fox C-6 school board for the next 3 years.


There are 6 candidates running for the Fox C-6 school board. Two of them are graduates of Fox High School. Another candidate is married to a Fox High graduate.

The Fox C-6 School Board Candidates are:

• Mark Jones (1985 Fox High Graduate)
• Dr. Robin Hanson (attended high school in Kansas)
• Drew Kriese (1997 Crystal City Grad, married to 1994 Fox High Grad, Endorsed by MSTA)
• Chris Hastings (Endorsed by NEA)
• Sherry "Chellew" Poppen (1961 Fox High Graduate)
• David Palmer - (Incumbent 4 term board member)

Also check out Jefferson County Penknife's endorsement article of Fox C-6 school board candidates using the link below in which he lists his reasons as to why is voting for or not voting for each of the individual school board candidates:

Jefferson County Penknife's Fox C-6 Board Endorsements Article

You may also want to read my previous article discussing the Hodge Elementary PTO meeting with the Fox C-6 board candidates using the link below after reading this article:

Hodge PTO Hosts Fox C-6 Board of Education Candidate Meeting

You can also read more about the candidates in the Voter's Guide from the March 26, 2015 Arnold Imperial Leader using the link below. There was incorrect information in the original Arnold-Imperial Leader Fox C-6 Board Candidate Guide regarding Dr. Hanson which was corrected in the April 2, 2015 Arnold-Imperial Leader.

Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Guide
March 26, 2015 Arnold-Imperial Leader

Fox C-6 Board Candidate Information

Mark Jones
Mark Jones is a 1985 graduate of Fox Senior High School. He does not have any family members or relatives working for the school district.

Mark has a son that graduated from Fox High School in 2013. Mark also has a son who currently attends George Guffey Elementary school.

Mark Jones is a senior consultant for Intervolve Inc., a software company that services beer distributors and energy companies across the country. Mark is also the owner of Jones Creative. Mark served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Mark Jones ran for the school board in 2013 and 2014 and wasn't well known back then. Since then, Mark has spoken to the board several times during the 3 minute Public Comments time regarding various issues in the district. I believe there have been fewer than 5 people who have spoken more than once during Public Comments in the past 5 years at Fox C-6 board meetings.

Mark Jones is also an advocate for transparency and has reviewed board meeting packets and Bill Payments Reports.

Mark Jones voiced his concerns about the changes to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan (VSIP) at the November 18, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting. You can listen to his Public Comments and others by clicking on the link below which links directly Fox's Board Meeting Audio on YouTube at the time Mark asked the board to make changes to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan.

Listen to Mark Jones's Public Comments

about the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan

at the November 18, 2014 Fox C-6 Board Meeting

Mark has also taken the time to personally speak with several of our current board members to discuss issues after board meetings. He has met with bus drivers and other staff to listen to their concerns in order to gain a better understanding of the district as a whole. Mark is very well spoken and would be an asset to our school board.

https://www.facebook.com/MissouriForJones
http://www.missouriforjones.org/
http://patch.com/missouri/arnold/meet-fox-school-board-candidate-mark-jones


Dr. Robin Hanson
Dr. Robin Hanson does not have any family members or relatives working for the school district. Dr. Hanson teaches American history, American government, cultural anthropology and sociology part-time at Jefferson College and St. Louis University.

Dr. Hanson stated at the Hodge Elementary PTO meeting that she personally ordered 4 new lab books online to send in with her daughter since her daughter's lab book was in such disrepair. She also spoke about teaching students at Jefferson College and St. Louis University and seeing the number of students that need to take remedial classes in college. She would like to see that change.

Dr. Hanson discussed the need for transparency at the Hodge PTO meeting which is necessary for accountability.


https://www.facebook.com/DrRobinAHanson


Drew Kriese
Drew Kriese has 4 children attending schools in the Fox school district. He is a 1997 graduate of Crystal City High School. His wife Christy is a 1994 graduate of Fox High School.

Drew is an area director for Taco Bell Missouri. His wife Christy was on the selection committee for the Seckman Elementary School principal position.

Drew Kriese was not able to attend the Hodge Elementary PTO meeting for the candidates because he was out of town. So I did not get a chance to meet him in person.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drew-Kriese-For-Fox-C-6-School-Board/865497216793678


Chris Hastings
I've spoken to Chris Hastings a few times via email and in person since he first decided to run for school board in 2014. Chris has two young children who will be attending school in the district in the future. He is employed by ICS Construction Services.

ICS Construction Services did some of the 2013 bond issue work for the Fox district. Chris responded to questions presented to him from JC Penknife regarding his relationship with ICS and whether or not he expected ICS to bid on future work at Fox.

JC Penknife shared Chris's response with me regarding ICS after I independently pointed out possible concerns to JC Penknife after review board meeting packets.

Chris Hastings stated in his response to JC Penknife that he is only an employ of ICS and does not own the company or have any shares as an owner in the company. He is just an employee. Chris stated that ICS bid the work on the open market in the public sector and that ICS was the low bidder.

Chris requested to oversee the project since it was in his school district and so close to home. Chris wanted to work on the project because he had a vested interest since he lives here and it's his school district. Chris stated that if any work comes up in the near future, and he is voted onto the board, he will request that ICS does not bid on the work so there will be no issues or conflicts of interest.

According to Bill Payments Reports obtained from school board meeting packets, Fox C-6 paid ICS Construction Services LTD $3,018,829.18 for the bond issue work they performed in 2013. I have posted the pages from the bill payments reports from the board meeting packets online.

It's important that the community knows what Chris's relationship is with ICS Construction Services and that he responded to the concerns presented to him.

https://www.facebook.com/hastings4foxc6

The Rockwood School District saw board member Steve Smith resign days after the release of their state audit that concluded that Mr. Smith should not have voted on projects that helped the construction company where he was employed.


Sherry "Chellew" Poppen
Sherry "Chellew" Poppen graduated from Fox High School in 1961. She has a son who teaches at Seckman Middle School and a daughter who is a secretary at Seckman Middle. Mrs. Poppen didn't mention that she had a son and a daughter working for the district when she spoke to the Lone Dell parents club. I knew she had a daughter who was a secretary at Seckman Middle School but did not know that her son was a teacher as well. Sherry "Chellew" Poppen is the sister of former Fox C-6 superintendent Jim Chellew.

At Monday's meet the board candidates at Hodge Elementary School, Sherry Poppen said she would like to see more information made available besides just the agenda for board meetings like they used to have.

Updated: 6:05PM 04/05/2015
I received a phone message from Sherry Poppen at 3:24PM about my comments regarding the board meeting agendas additional information that she talked about in the meeting after her son had read this blog post.

I called Sherry back around 4:45PM and talked to her about the additional information besides the agenda. The additional information is the board packets that get supplied to the board members each month prior to the meetings. She remembered her brother taking them around to board members each month. She also remembered getting emailed copies of the board meeting minutes each month. I told her that when her brother was superintendent that you could sign up to get notified about the board meeting minutes.

Sherry wanted to let me know that she knew about the board meeting packets being available online. Sherry told me that she knew I had been instrumental in getting the board packets posted online and that's how she knew they were available online.

It took nearly 3 years of my asking the board to post the board packets online before the district finally began posting them. That delay was mainly due to our former superintendent providing different excuses as to why it couldn't be done.

Anyway, Sherry said that what she mentioned at Hodge Elementary was that she would like to have printed copies of the board meeting packets available at board meetings for people who don't use or have computers.

My apologies for the confusion about knowing about the board packets being available online.

I told Sherry that I checked some of the board packets before writing this article to see how many pages they contained because I knew she had talked about having printed copies available. One of the board packets I checked contained 354 pages. Sherry didn't realize that the board packets had that many pages in them.

I did more checking since I spoke to Sherry. The board packets for the 2014-2015 school year vary in size between 168 pages to 324 pages. Several of the board packets contain more than 300 pages.

Dan Kroupa pointed out to Mrs. Poppen that the district recently purchased BoardDocs for posting board meeting information like the board packets online. Many school districts have been using BoardDocs for years. Many of the school districts break up their documents into smaller sections using BoardDocs making it easier to download specific sections of the board packets each month. Not everyone may want to read all of the bids for a project. They might just want to download the Bill Payments Report.

Having BoardDocs should also make it much easier to search payments rather than the currently scanned Bill Payments Report as long as the documents are printed to PDF rather than being scanned. I've asked several times to have the Bill Payments Reports printed to PDF rather than scanned so the payments would include searchable text rather than an image of the text. This would make it easier to find checks for specific vendors.

I explained to Sherry that the district started charging me for copies of the board packets because Sunshine Law allows them to. However, the board should have made sure that the board packets were available to the public for free. John Laughlin made sure that I wasn't charged for the board packets after he found out I was getting charged for them. John Laughlin and Steve Holloway made sure that the board packets were posted online. So thank you for their help in improving transparency.

Sherry "Chellew" Poppen is a very nice lady. She wants to restore our district's image. I believe that restoring the district's image is important. However, I'm concerned that issues may get overlooked or swept under the rug as they have been in the past. The community needs to know what's gone on to keep from repeating them in the future.

We need board members who are going to hold people accountable for their actions as well as ensure that the superintendent and other administrators are following district policies, regulations and state and federal laws.


David Palmer
Incumbent David Palmer's wife Gee Palmer has been the Director of Nursing for Fox C-6 since she was promoted to that position in 2006 and given a 75% pay increase rather than a stipend. Mr. Palmer was school board president when his wife was promoted.

Mr. Palmer has a son and a niece who teach in the district as well.

Mr. Palmer has been willfully blind to the issues going on in our school district for years. He never replied to a single email that I sent the board.

Mr. Palmer did not even respond to Hodge Elementary PTO's invitation to attend the meet and greet with parents.

I brought it to the boards attention in 2012 that the district didn't have enough books for all students to take books home to study. Kristen Pelster pointed this out in an email regarding stating that teachers don't hand out books because the don't have enough. In Mr. Palmer's response to the Arnold-Imperial Leader, he said, "We must give kids the supplies, books and technology they need to be successful." Mr. Palmer didn't do resolve the book shortage for nearly two years and now he says we must give kids books. Interesting!

Hopefully, the community has become better educated over the past couple of years about what's been going on in our school district while Mr. Palmer served on the school board. He served on the board while former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow's salary skyrocketed to being the second highest superintendent salary in the state before she took "early retirement".

Mr. Palmer also wasn't interested in having open discussions with the public as he pointed out at the November 5, 2013 board workshop. I wrote about this issue in November 2013.

I certainly hope everyone remembers what happened to our school district during David Palmer's 12 years as a school board member when you cast your vote on Tuesday April 7th, 2015!


Who you elect for to the Fox C-6 school board can either help or hinder moving our school district in a positive direction when you vote on Tuesday April 7, 2015.


Honesty and integrity are very important character traits for those serving on our school board.

School board members are elected to represent the community.

From the Missouri School Board Association's Principles of Effective Governance guide:

The school board is supposed to engage in ongoing two-way conversation with the entire community. The purpose of the conversation is to enable the board to hear and understand the community’s educational aspirations and desires, to serve effectively as an advocate for district improvement and to inform the community of the district’s performance.

Effective community engagement is essential to creating trust and support among community, board, superintendent and staff.

Principles of Effective Governance Guide

from the Missouri School Board Association

It's also the school board's job to do proper oversight of how your tax dollars are being spent and ensure that the community is kept well informed. For years our school board members did not review credit card statements. I also doubt that they have reviewed the legal bills from the district's former law firm.

Open Government and Transparency
In order to serve the best interest of the community and the taxpayers who elect them, our school board members must believe in open government.

Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government (ie. our school district) to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction it opposes reason of state and other considerations, which have tended to legitimize secrecy.

Former Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich tweeted the following on February 18, 2015 after publicly releasing the St. Joseph School District audit, "If we want accountability in or schools, we must demand transparency."

Transparency has been an issue in the Fox C-6 School District for nearly a decade. Transparency has improved but not to the level that it needs to in order for the community to fully trust the decisions of our school board and administration.

Full disclosure by school board candidates is also very important in maintaining a healthy level of trust. Withholding information from the public should be cause for concern as to why it may have been withheld.

As a community, we want our school district to do a great job at educating our children. We want a school district that our children and students can be proud of when they are asked the question everyone in the St. Louis area always asks:

"Where did you go to high school?"

Our school board members need to make good decisions that represent the concerns of the community in order to restore the integrity and reputation of the Fox C-6 School District.

The recent unanimous decisions of (6-0) by our school board to hire assistant superintendents Dan Baker and Todd Scott as principals in the school district has certainly cast doubt in the community that our district is headed in the right direction.

The screening of candidates for the positions for the positions at Seckman Elementary and Seckman High were biased despite what our board members told the media.

How many of the 59 candidates for the Seckman Elementary School (SES) principal position were linked to online derogatory comments made against parents in their school district?

How many of the 59 candidates for SES principal are currently named in a libel suit for making derogatory comments against parents and patrons in their school district?

How many of the 59 candidates for SES principal played golf using taxpayer dollars while they should have been attending the educational conference they traveled to Orlando, Florida to attend?

How many of the 59 candidates for SES principal had their school district supplied credit card taken away from them due to misuse?

How many of the 45 candidates for the Seckman High School (SHS) principal position had their school district supplied credit card taken away from them due to misuse?

How many of the 45 candidates for the SHS principal position had appeared on the news for hiring an someone who didn't possess the credentials for the job but was very enthusiastic?

Those are valid questions that should have been asked and considered when candidates were being screened for those positions.


School Board Member Ethics
It's worth taking the time to read the Missouri School Board Association's Sample Policy on School Board Member Ethics. It will give you an understanding of what should be expected of our school board members.

Here are a few of the more important points listed in the School Board Member Ethics Policy:

• Remember that the first and greatest concern must be the educational welfare of all students attending the public schools.
• Render all decisions based on the available facts and independent judgment rather than succumbing to the influence of individuals or special interest groups.
• Encourage ongoing communications between Board members and stakeholders.
• Obey the laws of Missouri and the United States.
• Become informed concerning the issues to be considered at each meeting.
• Refrain from using their Board position for the benefit of family members, business associates or themselves.

Sample School Board Member Ethics Policy

from the Missouri School Board Association

One of the items listed in the Ethics Policy states that school board members are to follow the laws of Missouri and the United States.

Does that imply that school board members are to ensure that our school district follows federal Civil Rights laws such as Section 504, the ADA and ADA AA as well?

If so, then how do we educate our school board members on these laws so they aren't willfully blind to the Non-Compliance notices that the district has received over the years?

It was the Non-Compliance issues that led to the discovery of all of the wrong doing going on in our school district that has been uncovered and made public in recent years.

It's too bad that it took so many years to expose the problems going on in our district to the public because past school board members sat silent as questions and concerns were brought to their attention for years.

Hopefully you have done your research and you've had the opportunity to meet our school board candidates so you can make an informed decision when you cast your vote for Fox C-6 school board members on Tuesday April 7, 2015.

Hodge PTO Hosts Fox C-6 Board of Education Candidate Meeting

The April 7, 2015 School Board Election is only one week away!

It's very important that you learn as much as you can about the candidates who are running for the Fox C-6 school board so you can make an informed decision.

This past year has definitely been a pivotal year for our school district. This past year will easily overshadow all of the previous problems that have occurred in the history of our district.

I don't remember any time in the history of the district where almost every single Central Office administrator left the district or was demoted/moved out of the Central Office.

The election of the next two school board members for the Fox C-6 School District is a very important decision and one that needs to be well researched. You need to talk to your neighbors and make sure that they get out and vote and are well informed.

It's important that we elect two new board members who will represent the taxpayers and not special interest groups or family members. We need school board members who are going to represent the community.

We need board members who are approachable and willing to listen to the concerns of parents and the community and stand up for those concerns.

There is only one long time incumbent left on the Fox's Board of Education. That is Mr. David. He is up for re-election. I certainly hope the community is educated enough by now to know that David Palmer sat silently for years and was willfully blind to the problems being brought to his attention. Enough said!

Meet the Candidates
Last night Hodge Elementary's PTO hosted a meeting with the Fox C-6 Board of Education candidates at 6:30PM at Hodge Elementary School. Hodge is located on off of Prairie Hollow Road.

There was a fairly light turnout of parents and concerned citizens. Less than 25 people in attended the meeting. I believe the meeting was only announced on Facebook and Twitter. I didn't know about the meeting until this past weekend.

It would have been much better if there had been a meet the candidates meeting at the Service Center or at Rickman Auditorium. When Rockwood went through their big scandal a couple of years ago, they hosted large meetings for their candidates to meet the public.

Four of the six Fox C-6 BOE Candidates attended

• Dr. Robin Hanson
• Christ Hastings
• Mark Jones
• Sherry "Chellew" Poppen

Drew Kriese could not attend the meeting because he was out of town. Mr. Kriese had a handout available for those who attended the meeting.

Fox C-6 Board of Education BOE incumbent David Palmer did not attend attend the event. No reason was given as to why he did not attend.

Each of the four school board candidates that attended gave a short introduction explaining why they were running for the board.

A Current and Former Board Member Attended
Fox C-6 board member Dan Kroupa attended most of the meeting. Mr. Kroupa left a little early so the focus of the discussion could get back to the candidates rather than answering questions from parents and patrons about the recent decisions that were made at the March 2015 BOE meeting and some of the other decisions over the past year. Early questions from some of the parents wanted to know how the candidates would have handled the recent decisions which led to discussion with Mr. Kroupa. I would say that there was some anger and frustration over some of the decisions made by the board over the past year.

I mostly sat and listened. I did provide some information as to administrator salary schedules from the past and the recent 1% raise given to the administrators.

I asked the board candidates if they would support hosting listening posts prior to board meetings where the community can speak openly with the school board rather than the limited 3 minutes for Public Comments.

The Rockwood School District hosts listening posts with their community. I brought this to the Fox C-6 school board in September or October 2013. I was told in an email from former superintendent Dianne Critchlow that the district was going to start hosting them at the November 2013 board meeting. However hosting open discussions with the school board was shot down at the November 5, 2013 school board workshop. You can read more about that by clicking on the link below when I wrote about it back in November 2013:

Fox C-6 School Board Fails the Public Again

Former Fox C-6 school board member Linda Tramel also attended the meeting. Mrs. Tramel was asked to serve on the school board after board member Don Earl passed away. Mrs. Tramel was on the board after Bourisaw was fired by the district. This was also during the 2001/2002 audit of the school district by Claire McCaskill. My father also served on the school board during that time replacing Ron Clark.

Linda Tramel talked about the board training that all new board candidates have to attend by state law. She talked about how the board is responsible for hiring the superintendent and developing/approving school board policies.

Overall, there was some really good and healthy discussion that went on about some of the recent decisions with the board candidates. I don't have time to get into all of those points this morning but plan to write more and post an update to this article or write a more in depth article.

Several people thanked me for helping provide information to the community so they can be more informed. I also had a parent thank me for helping their child get a Section 504 plan which had been previously denied by the school district. I will continue to work on holding the district accountable and working towards getting them to do the right thing and follow board policies.

Here are a few of the items that were discussed:

• Board member responsibilities and who they represent.
• Transparency or lack thereof
• The hiring of Dan Baker and Todd Scott as principals in the district.
• Administrative Salaries and the 1% pay raise for the 2015-2016 school year
• Teacher raises for the 2015-2016 school year which ranged from 2% for new teachers to a small amount for long term teachers as explained by Mr. Kroupa.
• The Voluntary Incentive Separation Plan payouts which was responded to by Mr. Kroupa.
• Board Members visiting schools and talking to parents and teachers so they are more in touch with what's going on in the school district.

Wow! Dan Baker Chosen as Seckman Elementary Principal Over 58 Other Applicants

I do believe that Fox made some good decisions in the hiring of the new Fox Senor High School Principal, our new assistant superintendent in charge of Human Resources as well as Fox's new Food Nutrition Director.

However, it's quite obvious that Dr. Wipke, Fox's BOE and the selection committees never read the May 2009 Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) that Dan Baker signed on May 1, 2009.

Dan Baker was Fox's Section 504 Coordinator when he agreed to make corrections to bring Fox into compliance with federal law. It's now been nearly 6 years since Dan Baker signed the Resolution Agreement and it's still open.

It also appears that Dr. Wipke, Fox's BOE and the selection committee never read the USDA OCR's August 2011 Final Agency Decision that found Fox C-6 Non-Compliant with Section 504 and the ADA AA. That agreement told the district to immediately reinstate a Section 504 that was removed in September 2008. It took until August 2014 and the removal of Dan Baker as the Section 504 coordinator before the district complied with that decision.

Did Fox's board of education not take the district's Non-Compliance issues into consideration when the they voted 6-0 to hire Dan Baker as the next principal of Seckman Elementary School?

As Dan Baker and Dianne Brown-Critchlow told me many times at board meetings, they kept the BOE informed about what was going on with the Resolution Agreement, the District Wide Compliance Review and the USDA's Final Agency Decision. However, the district never publicly acknowledged the problems. David Palmer is the only person that is still serving on the board when the Resolution Agreement and District Wide Compliance Review was initiated and he is running for school board again.

Did David Palmer ever ask why the district still hasn't complied with the May 2009 Resolution Agreement?

David Palmer's wife Gee Palmer also played a huge part in the Non-Compliance issues as the Director of Nursing. She participated in 504 Team meetings and was deposed during the Due Process Hearing.

Dianne Brown-Critchlow and Dan Baker have made comments about the Resolution Agreement and the District Wide Compliance Review during Public Sessions at board meetings but I don't believe any of their comments were documented in board meeting minutes. This all occurred before the district began audio recording school board meetings. Luckily, I've been recording meetings ever since I began attending them.

It would certainly be interesting to see if any of the other 58 applicants denied Section 504 protections to students for 6 years like Dan Baker did while he was the Section 504 Coordinator for the district.

It's interesting to note that after Dan Baker was removed as the district's Section 504 Coordinator in June 2014, students that had been previously denied Section 504 plans under his watch are now being found eligible for Section 504 and are being provided 504 plans in the district.

That fact alone should certainly be cause concern for the Fox C-6 community when being told that Dan Baker was the best candidate for the job.

Yes, Dan Bakers home was linked to derogatory comments that were posted online. But Dan has never admitted to actually making any comments online. However, he did apologize that his home was linked to those comments.

Fox's CFO John Brazeal told me that he asked Dan Baker directly if he had posted comments online and he said that Dan Baker did not answer.

So if Dr. Wipke did not read the USDA OCR's August 2011 Final Agency Decision that found Fox Non-Compliant with federal law, it would appear that he didn't have all of the facts that he should have taken into consideration when he made his decision to recommend Dan Baker to the Fox C-6 Board of Education as the best candidate for the job.

Reading the article in this week's Arnold-Imperial Leader about the hiring of Dan Baker and Todd Scott demonstrates that the "rigorous process" wasn't rigorous enough in it's screening of candidates.

Was Todd Scott still the assistant superintendent of Human Resources while he was going through the "rigorous process" when he applied for the principal position at Seckman Senior High School?

Fox C-6 board member Dan Kroupa told the Arnold-Imperial Leader that Todd Scott was selected after a "thorough and unbiased screening process." You can take that comment for what it's worth!

Acting superintendent Tim Crutchley, incoming superintendent Dr. Jim Wipke and the Fox C-6 Board of Education must be hoping that the community won't be able to see through all of the "smoke and mirrors" that they are feeding the public in the media.

Perhaps they're hoping that the community will eventually forget about all of the wrong doings and that everyone will just give up on trying to making changes in our district so they can get back to doing what they've been doing for years.

Should Fox's BOE publicly acknowledge the May 2009 Resolution Agreement with ED OCR that Mr. Baker agreed to uphold. It's very entertaining to read the years of "monitoring letters" that were sent to the district informing them that they still hadn't complied with the Resolution Agreement. ED OCR just kept giving the district new deadlines to meet which they never did.

How many years does it take a school district to comply with federal law?

Should the district publicly acknowledge the District Wide Compliance Review investigation that was initiated by ED OCR in March 2010 that is still an open investigation?

Since Dan Baker was responsible for all of the OCR Non-Compliance issues along with Dianne Brown-Critchlow that are still hanging over the district after more than 5 years, one would think that Fox's Board of Education would have taken that into consideration before they voted 6-0 to hire Dan Baker as Seckman Elementary School principal.

Did Dan Baker not know or understand Section 504 law when he was the district's Section 504 coordinator from 2008 to 2014?

Is that why the district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees between 2008 and 2014?

Did Fox's Board of Education ever review any of the invoices for legal services between 2008 and 2014 while Dan Baker was the district's Section 504 Coordinator to see why the district was spending so much money in legal fees?

It's certainly hard to believe that the other 58 candidates that applied for the principal position at Seckman Elementary School were given a fair chance considering who was on the screening committees and final interviews. It was stated that the Seckman Elementary School teachers heavily influenced the decision to hire Dan Baker as the new principal at Seckman Elementary. Are the teachers responsible for hiring their own boss?

You can read Tim Crutchley's response as to who participated in the hiring process in my previous article:

Fox's Rigorous Process that You Should Trust for the Latest New Hires!

Is moving an educator who denied services and protection to students for 6 years what's really best for our students and parents at Seckman Elementary School?

Read the Arnold-Imperial Leader article to learn more about what some of our school board members had to say about the recent hiring of Dan Baker and Todd Scott by using the link below.

March 26, 2015 Arnold Imperial Leader Article on Hiring Dan Baker and Todd Scott