Fox C-6 Watchdogs: March 2022

In 2019, I wrote about why it’s important and sometimes very eye opening to see what other school districts do to help their community and voters meet their school board candidates.

Many of the surrounding school districts post information on their district website about the candidates running for school board each year.

It's great to have that information on the school district's website, because it's important for the community to get to know their candidates.

It's usually posted under a What's New or News category on the district's website.

Some Examples From Surrounding School Districts

Lindbergh School District

https://go.lindberghschools.ws/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=12349&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=46763&PageID=1

Rockwood School District

https://www.rsdmo.org/Page/6055

Parkway School District

https://www.parkwayschools.net/Page/3535

Mehlville School District

https://www.mehlvilleschooldistrict.com/news/what_s_new/BOE_candidates_2022

Affton School District

https://www.afftonschools.net/article/616540

Valley Park School District

https://www.vp.k12.mo.us/boardcandidates

Fox C-6 School District

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c-6-schools-heated-race-on-to-fill-three-seats-on-board/article_888aa484-abac-11ec-9444-d3aeb133c11d.html

Here's the article from 2019:

What Other School Districts Are Doing to Help Their Communities Meet Their School Board Candidates

Leader Publications posted their Voters Guide for the Fox C-6 school board candidates today. You can also find the Voters Guide in this week's Arnold-Imperial Leader newspaper. The community will be voting for 3 Fox C-6 school board members on April 5, 2022. Two board members for 3 year terms. One board member to fill the remaining year of the position vacated by Bob Gruenewald which he resigned from on May 19, 2021. Candidates for the two 3 year term seats are: Kenneth Woolsey Todd Scott Brandon Williams Cathey Michalski Curtiss Frazier Tara Hagin

Candidates for the one 1 year term seat are: Travis Lintner Vicki Hanson David Knoll Ryan Giesler (No Longer Running But Still On the Ballot)

2022 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voters Guide

ROCKWOOD VOTES TO HAVE TWO PUBLIC COMMENTS SESSIONS
The Rockwood School District recently voted to have two Public Comments sessions at their school board meetings starting March 17, 2022.

The first public comments session is limited to topics on the agenda for that night's school board meeting.

The second public comments session near the end of the meeting after all regular board meeting agenda items have been completed. The second public comments will allow speakers to talk about anything, including items that weren't on the agenda.

You can read about Rockwood's new Public Comment policy in the Eureka Leader article noted below (until the page expires):

Eureka Leader March 3, 2022 (Page 5a) Let's Talk article

Fox C-6 Planned To Have Listening Sessions beginning November 2013
Rockwood's new public comment policy is similar to the open forum that I had asked Fox's school board for in October 2013.

In fact, I was told by former superintendent, Dianne Critchlow in an October 4, 2013 email that:

"The board is going to host listening sessions beginning in November before each board meeting."

That meant that Fox would begin hosting listening sessions like they were having in the Rockwood School District. The whole idea of listening sessions was to improve transparency and have open discussions with our school board.

However that idea was short lived. Fox's attorney, Ernie Trakas told Fox's board during the November 5, 2013 board workshop that he felt that community listening sessions were a bad idea.

I wrote about this in the article noted below:

The Fox C-6 School Board Fails the Public Again!

Additionally, Fox's attorney decided that the board workshop needed to go into closed session during the open session discussion. That move prompted the following article: