A March 21, 2015 article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch states that the Fox C-6 School Board candidates vow to restore the public trust.
There are 6 candidates running for the Fox C-6 school board election on Tuesday April 7, 2015. This past year has put our school district into extreme turmoil as we are seeing an exodus of talented teachers leaving the district encouraged by the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program which used to be called the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program prior to 2014.
David Palmer is an incumbent. His wife, Gee Palmer, is currently the Director of Nursing for the Fox C-6 School District and his son is a teacher in the school district. The article also states that David Palmer has a niece that is a teacher in the district as well.
David's wife was nominated by Dianne Brown in 2006 to be promoted to the Director of Nursing position while David Palmer was the president of the Fox C-6 School Board. Gee Palmer's promotion was approved by the school board in June 2006. She was given a 75% pay raise rather than a stipend amount as previous Directors.
The Post Dispatch article states that Gee Palmer "is about to retire". However, Gee Palmer's name hasn't appeared on any of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) lists that have been provided to the public so far. If she is retiring and walking away with 50% of her pay, her name won't be appearing on the VSIP list until after the April 7 election.
David Palmer certainly hasn't helped to improve transparency during his years on the school board. I' made requests for years for the board to publish the board packets on the website and publicly acknowledge the district's problems with ED OCR and USDA OCR.
Mr. Palmer also wasn't a fan of talking to the public about issues in the district because of his fear of being misquoted at the November 5, 2013 board workshop. That's when the school board voted in Closed Session not to have "Listening Posts" with the public like I was informed they would by former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow in an email. Fox's former legal counsel Ernie Trakas voiced his concerns for having open discussions with the public which caused our school board to vote against doing what they do in the Rockwood School District.
Mr. Palmer also wasn't a fan of talking to the public about issues in the district because of his fear of being misquoted at the November 5, 2013 board workshop. That's when the school board voted in Closed Session not to have "Listening Posts" with the public like I was informed they would by former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow in an email. Fox's former legal counsel Ernie Trakas voiced his concerns for having open discussions with the public which caused our school board to vote against doing what they do in the Rockwood School District.
You can read about David Palmer's comments in my article below about the November 5, 2013 workshop.
David Palmer has kept the public in the dark far too long and DOES NOT need to be on the Fox C-6 school board anymore. Mr. Palmer is the last of the "old regime" school board members left. He was first voted onto the school board in 2002.
To say that Sherry "Chellew" Poppen is vowing to restore Public Trust seems disingenuous. Sherry Poppen DID NOT mention or tell the Lone Dell Parents club parents that she has a son that is a teacher in the district and a daughter that is a secretary in the district. I knew that she had a daughter who was a secretary in the district but I had not researched to see if she had any other family members working in the district. So I first learned about her son being a teacher in the district in the Post Dispatch article. What's even stranger is the fact that Fox alumni classmates of hers wrote into this past week's Arnold-Imperial Leader telling the Fox C-6 Community to vote for Sherry Poppen. Her classmates telling Fox patrons to vote for Sherry Poppen live in Festus. There is certainly a strong effort in signage to get Sherry Poppen's name out in front of the public along with her brother's name Jim "Chellew" who was Fox's superintendent prior to Dianne Brown-Critchlow.
You can read the details of the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program in Regulation 4740.1 which can be found on the district website by clicking on the link below. The program was changed in February 2014 by Dianne Brown-Critchlow with suggestions from Fox's former legal counsel and approved by the board to become the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program.