Fox C-6 Watchdogs: Angie Burns Baker

Showing posts with label Angie Burns Baker. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

My Open Letter to the Fox C-6 BOE Regarding the Hiring of School District Leadership

I emailed the Fox C-6 School Board the following letter this morning regarding the hiring of future leaders in our school district.

I emailed board president John Laughlin and Dr. Wipke very early Monday morning in which I expressed my concerns about the hiring of the next Seckman Elementary School principal. I never received a response to my email.

I decided to send this email after I noticed last night that Angie Burns Baker, the wife of assistant superintendent Dan Baker, was listed as the 2015-2016 Director of Federal Programs in the March 2015 board meeting packet that was posted online Friday March 13, 2015.

The link below contains a copy of the Employment of Certified Employees Report from the March 2015 Fox C-6 school board meeting packet.

March 2015

Fox C-6 Employment of Certified Employees Report

The Fox C-6 Board of Education (BOE) will be meeting tonight in Closed Session at 5:30PM prior to Public Comments. Therefore the board will most likely be making hiring decisions prior to hearing any Public Comments from the community.

Fox's BOE is expected to be making hiring decisions for the Fox High School, Seckman High School and Seckman Elementary School principal positions as well as the Fox C-6 Food Nutrition Director.

Below is the letter I emailed to the Fox C-6 BOE Tuesday morning March 17, 2015.

It is critical that the Fox C-6 school board be completely transparent in the hiring of future leaders of the Fox C-6 School District. This includes the Fox and Seckman High School and Seckman Elementary principals as well as the next Food Nutrition Director.
The school board failed miserably in December 2012 when it approved the hiring of Kelly Nash as Fox’s Food Nutrition Director over individuals who already possessed the credentials required for the job. That one decision was the straw that broke the camel’s back and the one that led to the public disgrace of our school district and the embarrassment and humiliation of the Fox C-6 community.
School board policy requires that the superintendent only recommends individuals to the board for hire who already possess the proper certification and education. School board policy was not followed when the board hired Kelly Nash in 2012. It was obvious then and now that she was chosen because she was the daughter in law of former Fox C-6 board member Linda Nash who was the board president at the time of her hiring. The taxpayers paid the price for that decision as well as members of the community who spoke out about that decision.
Kelly Nash’s hire was very similar to the hiring of Gee Palmer, the wife of current school board member and incumbent school board candidate David Palmer as the Director of Nursing in June 2006.
David Palmer was the president of the Fox C-6 school board in 2006 when his wife was promoted to Director of Nursing position and given a 75% pay increase ahead of other nurses who were more qualified and who had many more years of service with the district.
You are now faced with another decision that will forever shape the legacy of the Fox C-6 School District and the Fox C-6 board when you select new leaders for Seckman Elementary, Seckman High School and Fox High School.
The individuals you choose to lead our teachers and our students should not bring with them any immoral or unethical baggage from the past.
You are practicing Willful Blindness by even allowing Dan Baker to be a finalist for the position as Seckman Elementary School principal given his past misdeeds and inability to ensure that Fox C-6 was compliant with federal law as assistant superintendent for more than 6 years.
You will forever be judged by the community by the decisions in choosing new district leadership.
I am extremely disappointed to learn that you have already given notice in the March 2015 board packet that Angela Burns Baker will be the 2015-2016 Director of Federal Programs.
Since you are elected officials and represent the taxpayers and patrons of the Fox C-6 School District you are entrusted to make the best choices for our school district.
How did Mr. Baker become one of 3 finalist for the Seckman Elementary principal position given the fact that derogatory comments were traced to his home and a cell phone owned by the Bakers? Were any Fox school board members part of the screening process for the principal position? Please provide a list to the Public of the candidates for the principal positions in the school district and the members of the committee panels that interviewed the candidates and made recommendations to the selections. It’s imperative that the Fox C-6 school board be transparent and represent the community in an honest and open manner and that all decisions are made aboveboard according to school district policy.
I am requesting that you please email me a list of all persons that served on the interview/hiring committees and all candidates for the recent job openings in the school district for the Fox and Seckman High school principal positions, the Seckman Elementary principal position and the Food Nutrition Director position. It’s imperative that this information be published on the school district website in order to rebuild the trust of the community. There are rumblings that individuals that participated on the selection committees were chosen in order to narrow the selection to favor our disgraced assistant superintendents.
It’s hard to believe that anyone in our community would have considered Dan Baker as a potential candidate for the Seckman Elementary School principal position. Very few people are going to believe that Mr. Baker was ranked above other candidates in terms of integrity and honesty given his past indiscretions. His selection as one of the best candidates gives the impression that our district is still not operating aboveboard.
In order to maintain any trust with the community everything done by the board needs to be done with full disclosure to the community. If not, all hires will be extremely scrutinized by the public!
I certainly hope that you can face the public and be proud of your decision after approving the hiring of new leadership in our school district.
Thank you,
Rich Simpson

Saturday, March 7, 2015

A Tax Increase Is Not "A Common Sense Approach to Leadership!"

Last month the Lone Dell Elementary parents club had a meet and greet with school board candidates Mark Jones and Sherry "Chellew" Poppen. About 12 parents were in attendance as well as a Lone Dell teacher and Lone Dell's assistant principal.

I attended the parents club meeting so I could find out more about Sherry "Chellew" Poppen and why she was running for the Fox C-6 school board. I was also curious as to why she was using the "Chellew" name on her campaign flyer.

Sherry "Chellew" Poppen handed out campaign flyers to everyone at the parents club meeting that night. The following text was at the bottom of the front cover:

"A Common Sense Approach to Leadership!"

The back cover of Sherry "Chellew" Poppen's campaign flyer had the following text:

Fox C-6 School Board

Sherry "Chellew"

POPPEN

Common Sense Leadership

Paid for by Committee to Elect Sherry Chellew Poppen, James Chellew, Treasurer

The inside of her campaign flyer noted some of her Personal and Professional background information as well as some of her Goals if elected to the Fox C-6 school board.

First impressions are important. The meeting was posted on the Lone Dell Parents Club Facebook page with a start time of 6:30pm. Sherry showed up to the meeting around 6:45pm.

There were a few things that stood out that evening as the candidates talked to the parents. But the number one thing that stood out was when Sherry Poppen responded to the teacher's question as to what the candidates would do if they were faced with having to make cuts in the district.

Sherry Poppen responded by saying that she would consider a tax increase.

Sherry Poppen's response was met with an immediate response from the parents telling her that a tax increase would not pass in our district for quite some time given what's been uncovered over the last year.

It was very apparent that her response didn't sit well with the parents at the meeting. A tax increase doesn't sound like, "A Common Sense Approach to Leadership!"

Sherry Poppen may want to reconsider her approach to solving potential cutbacks in our district.

Asking the Fox C-6 community for more money after all of the payouts that have been handed out over the past year to people who were rewarded for bad behavior or for not doing their job is NOT a good idea.

Other Campaign Concerns
Sherry Poppen's brother is Jim Chellew. Jim Chellew was the superintendent of the Fox C-6 School District prior to Dianne Brown-Critchlow. Mr. Chellew was responsible for getting Dianne Brown selected as the next Fox C-6 superintendent in November 2004. Dianne Brown was the only person that applied for the job according to the news article that was published on the Fox C-6 website as documented by the INTERNET ARCHIVE from 2004 (use the link below).

Article posted on 2004 Fox C-6 Website

"Brown hired as New Fox Super"

I hadn't formally met Sherry "Chellew" Poppen prior to attending the parents club meeting. I may have met her in the past and didn't realize or know that she was related to former Fox C-6 superintendent Jim Chellew. I've known Jim Chellew since I was in elementary or middle school when my father was an assistant superintendent in the district over secondary education.

Jim Chellew is listed as the treasurer for Sherry "Chellew" Poppen's campaign. His involvement concerns me because of some of the conversations that I had with Mr. Chellew several years ago about what was going on in our school district.

I haven't spoken with Mr. Chellew since it was publicly announced that derogatory comments that were posted online about me and others were traced back to the home of our former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow and her husband Jamie Critchlow who was the former director of the Bridges program at Fox.

Derogatory comments were also traced to the home of Dan and Angie Baker as well as former assistant principal Bill Brengle.

Dan Baker was an assistant superintendent in the district and is currently the principal at Seckman Elementary School after the previous principal was moved to an assistant principal position in the district. Dan Baker's wife Angela Burns Baker is the Director of Federal programs at Fox C-6.

If you remember, Dan Baker played golf on the first day of the MarzanoGate Conference that was paid for with Todd Scott's school district credit card that Jamie Critchlow "borrowed "for the trip to Florida. Dan Baker also paid for a $749 meal using his school district credit card at the MarzanoGate Conference as well.

In December 2011, I mentioned some of my concerns about Fox to Mr. Chellew when I saw him at the Arnold Target store. I told Mr. Chellew during that conversation that Dianne Brown and Dan Baker should be fired for making false statements to me and to the school board about various issues. Mr. Chellew told me he was the one that put Dianne in her position as superintendent and that he would fight to make sure that she didn't get fired.

Mr. Chellew also told me that he was sure that they weren't intentional lies and that sometimes people get confused about what they've said to people because they talk to so many different people. I told him that was not the case.

I told Mr. Chellew about other concerns I had about our district. Several times during our conversation he told me that I shouldn't let these school things eat at me and that things aren't perfect at Fox. He said Fox isn't a Camelot, but Fox is way ahead of most other schools out there.

It was certainly strange that Mr. Chellew was mentioned in the cease and desist letter that was sent to me by Fox's former law firm in August 2012. Mr. Chellew is the "former Superintendent of the District" that's referenced in my cease and desist letter. You can read the cease and desist letter using the link below:

August 2012 Cease and Desist Letter

It bothered me back then that Mr. Chellew was referenced in my cease and desist letter and the fact that he disregarded my concerns about Dianne Brown and Dan Baker. My conversation with Mr. Chellew took place prior to Dianne marrying Jamie Critchlow. It bothered me even more that our conversation made it back to Dianne and into the cease and desist letter that threatened me with legal action if I didn't stop speaking with people about my concerns in our school district.

I've written about the cease and desist letter before. My conversation with Jim Chellew took place on December 3, 2011. I documented my conversation with Jim Chellew back then with others in an email right after it happened so I would remember what we discussed. When I saw Mr. Chellew at the store, we first chatted about scouts. After a few minutes, I told him that I wished that we could put some Character back into our district leadership. That's when I started telling Mr. Chellew about some of my concerns about what was going on in the district and the problems that I had been having with Dianne Brown and Dan Baker and the district's attorneys.

Fox C-6 Is Hoping to Silence Critics Using Cease and Desist Letters

Events Related to "Cease and Desist" Letters Were Troublesome!

I told Mr. Chellew how the district was violating federal law and how we were put through a charade of a Due Process Hearing and that Dianne Brown and Dan Baker should be fired for not doing their jobs and for not following the law.

During our conversation I also told Mr. Chellew that I was pretty sure that Dianne Brown and/or Jamie Critchlow were posting defamatory comments about me in an online forum. I told him I went to the December 2010 school board meeting and that I asked the board questions about Jamie Critchlow and how he got his job because of his lack of credentials and prior arrest record. Derogatory comments were posted online about me right after I spoke at the December 2010 board meeting. More derogatory comments were posted about me and my parents a week later in December 2010 just two days before an article appeared in the Arnold-Imperial Leader newspaper about Jamie Critchlow and his DWI arrest in Texas.

Jefferson County Penknife first posted an article on February 21, 2015 documenting Jamie Critchlow's most recent two DWI arrests. Jefferson County Penknife has the "must read" police reports from both the July 3, 2014 Iron County arrest and the January 31, 2015 Arnold Police Department arrest.

Jamie Critchlow Charged with Double DWIs

Jefferson County Penknife

February 21, 2015

On February 25, 2015, the Arnold-Imperial Leader newspaper published an article about Jamie Critchlow's most recent DWI arrests.

More Trouble

Arnold-Imperial Leader Article on DWI Arrests
February 25, 2015

Fox C-6 School Board Elections are April 7, 2015
Dismissing my concerns back then and over the years might be something you may want to consider when casting your vote for Fox C-6 school board members on April 7, 2015!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Fox C-6 Administrators Dan Baker, Todd Scott and Andy Arbeitman have applied for Early Retirement!

According to the December 19, 2014 edition of The Countian - Jefferson County newspaper, Fox C-6 assistant superintendents Dan Baker, Todd Scott and Andy Arbeitman have all applied for Early Retirement.

Mr. Arbeitman had previously submitted his request to retire early to Fox's Board of Education (BOE).

You can expect to see Dan Baker, Todd Scott and Andy Arbeitman walk away from our district with 50% of their current salary due to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP).

Based upon their current contract amounts:

Dan Baker will walk away with: $74,167.50

Todd Scott will walk away with: $72,693.00

Andy Arbeitman will walk away with: $66,747,50 (despite only working for Fox for 2 years)

Both Dan Baker and Todd Scott had each completed 20 years of service with the Fox C-6 School District at the end of the 2013-2014 school year according to Missouri DESE records.

Dan Baker's Contracts
Dan Baker's current contract has his salary listed at $148,335.00 for the 2014-2015 school year which reflects the 5% Voluntary Pay Cut he agreed to take.

Dan Baker's February 2014 contract had his salary listed at $156,142.00 for the 2014-2015 school year.

On June 4, 2014 Dan Baker and his wife Angie Burns Baker were placed on paid administrative leave after derogatory comments directed at district critics were traced to the Bakers' home computer and cellular phone.

However, in July, acting superintendent Tim Crutchley told the media that only one comment was posted from the Bakers' home computer. Mr. Crutchley's statement was incorrect.

Mr. Crutchley's incorrect statement gave the public the impression that what the Bakers had done wasn't that bad and that's why the Bakers got to keep their job.

Below is Mr. Crutchley's statement that appeared in the July 24, 2014 Arnold-Imperial Leader:

"School officials investigated the claims made in the lawsuit and decided only one comment was posted from the Bakers' home computer and that the two could keep their job, following disciplinary measures, Crutchley said."

Not only was Mr. Crutchley's statement incorrect about the number of posts, but it didn't reflect the fact that multiple posts were traced not only to the Bakers' home computer but also to their cellular phone.

Mr. Crutchley should have also pointed out the fact that when the online comments were posted by the Bakers, Dan Baker was Fox C-6's Section 504 Coordinator. As the 504 Coordinator for the District, Mr. Baker was responsible for ensuring that the District properly followed Section 504 Law.

In fact, Mr. Baker was responsible for signing an Assurance Agreement each year stating that the district would comply with Federal law including Section 504 Law as documented in board meeting minutes.

Section 504 Law prohibits retaliating against anyone that files an OCR complaint or advocates for a right protected by Section 504 law. Since one of the derogatory comments traced to the Baker's was directed at me and I had filed complaints with OCR as well as advocated for a right protected by Section 504, the Bakers violated Section 504 Law.

According to the exhibits in the amended lawsuit petition filed on November 14, 2014, multiple posts were made on the Topix forum from the Bakers' home computer and cellular phone. I covered this issue in more detail in the following article which lists some of the comments posted by the Bakers:

Was the Fox C-6 School Board Misled by the Bakers?

Dan Baker had a Loss of Compensation and Rank?

Also, Mr. Crutchley stated in his December 19 response to Nikki McClain that Mr. Baker had "a loss of compensation and rank" when he responded to Ms. McClain's concerns about Dan Baker being appointed as the interim principal at Seckman Elementary School.

If Mr. Baker had a loss of rank why wasn't his salary reduced?

Was Mr. Baker's salary reduced at the December 16, 2014 Fox C-6 BOE meeting?

Mr. Baker's most recent contract was provided to me by the district on December 2, 2014 and it is only 5% less than his previous contract.

Mr. Baker is expected to start working as the interim principal at Seckman Elementary School on Monday January 5, 2015. This was a very bad decision by the District. Mr. Baker should not have even been considered for the position at Seckman Elementary School.

Dan and Angie Baker's 2014-2015 Employment Contracts Before and After Settlement Agreement and 5% Voluntary Pay Cut

Todd Scott's Contracts
Todd Scott's current contract has his salary listed at $145,386.00 for the 2014-2015 school year which reflects the 5% Voluntary Pay Cut he agreed to take.

Todd Scott's February 2014 contract had his salary listed at $153,038.00 for the 2014-2015 school year.

Todd Scott's 2014-2015 Employment Contracts Before and After 5% Voluntary Pay Cut

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Was the Fox C-6 School Board Misled by the Bakers?

Everyone makes mistakes. What’s important is that we recognize when we make a mistake so we learn from it, thereby increasing the likelihood that we won’t repeat it. I'm not really sure that Fox C-6 Assistant Superintendent Dan Baker and his wife Fox C-6 Director of Federal Programs Angie Burns Baker learned much from their mistake.

I question whether or not the Bakers fully disclosed their online activities with the Fox C-6 Board of Education (BOE) in order to keep their jobs. It does not appear that they did.

Also, Mr. Baker didn't apologize for his transgressions as Mr. Crutchley would like you to believe. Mr. Baker didn't apologize to the people that he made derogatory comments about.

Mr. Baker read a very well crafted statement at the August 4, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting in which he admitted NO wrongdoing or culpability. He apologized for getting caught!

Mr. Baker was not remorseful to his victims. He was checking a box to save his job!

Without honestly taking responsibility for our mistakes, and learning from them, it’s very difficult to genuinely move forward. I’d say that’s especially true for those who were injured by someone’s “mistake".

Dan and Angie Baker apparently made “a mistake” when they wrote derogatory posts about me and others on a public online forum. At the time the posts were made, Dan Baker was Fox C-6's Section 504 Coordinator. That's an important fact because my wife and I had been advocating for our daughter’s right to have a Section 504 plan in the district for over 4 years when online comments were being made by the Bakers.

Mr. Baker originally provided our daughter with a 504 plan in May 2008, but then revoked it a few months later. For the next 6 years, including the time period during which “the Baker household” made the derogatory posts, we continued to pursue with the District our daughter’s right to have a 504 plan.

We firmly believed the District (i.e. Mr. Baker) was not fulfilling their obligations to our daughter, and we repeatedly sought the help of our school board to rectify this mistake. When the school board refused to help us, we sought the assistance of federal agencies to investigate the District’s management or should I say mismanagement of Section 504. It was Missouri DESE's former Compliance Officer who suggested filing a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights because he believed what the district was doing was wrong.

Missouri DESE's former Compliance Officer was correct. Both the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) and the USDA's Office for Civil Rights (USDA OCR) have been investigating and monitoring Fox C-6 since 2008 and 2009 respectively to determine whether or not the District was fulfilling its legal obligations to our daughter and other students in the district properly.

In August 2011 Fox C-6 and Missouri DESE were notified in a Final Agency Decision from USDA OCR that they were found non-compliant with Section 504 and the ADA AA. They were told to correct the problem immediately. It took 3 years after the notification to immediately reinstate the 504 Plan for the district to properly correct the problem. In the meantime, we continued to email the federal agencies to follow up on the progress of their investigations and the progress with enforcing compliance. We also contacted our U.S. Senators and Congressman in hopes of expediting a resolution. Fox's former legal counsel also emailed our U.S. Senators in an attempt to curtail the investigations.

Persistence Leads To Backlash
Apparently, persisting in one's efforts to get your school district to do the right thing can lead to backlash from administrators who aren't properly doing their job and are being questioned in front of the school board.

What truly stands out is the great amount of effort that Dan Baker and Dianne Brown-Critchlow spent in order to avoid writing a 504 plan for our daughter, not to mention all of the time they spent posting in online forums from their homes, cell phones and school district computers.

Now that Dan Baker is no longer the Section 504 Coordinator for Fox C-6, students who were previously denied 504 Plans are now being found eligible and obtaining them.

This fact seems to document that Dan Baker wasn't properly managing and implementing Section 504 in our district for the 6 years that he was the Section 504 Coordinator, yet he continued to receive very large raises just like Dianne Brown-Critchlow and her husband received.

Did our school board not review Mr. Baker's performance as the district's Section 504 Coordinator given all of the money spent in legal fees related to Section 504 issues in our district battling the federal agencies?

Problems at Seckman Elementary School

That leads us to the next problem which involves the appointing of Dan Baker as the interim principal at Seckman Elementary School despite being named in a lawsuit for posting derogatory comments in a public online forum about myself and others.

Perhaps they posted comments because I had been questioning Mr. Baker's gross mismanagement of Section 504 in the district and had to file complaints with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) as well as the USDA's Office for Civil Rights (USDA OCR) as he tried to subvert Section 504 Law for the past 6+ years.

August 2011 USDA OCR Final Agency Decision
In August 2011, Fox C-6 was sent a Final Agency Decision from USDA OCR directing the District to immediately reinstate our daughter's Section 504 plan that Dan Baker removed in September 2008.

The following paragraph was included on the next to last page of the USDA's Final Agency Decision. The language in the paragraph quoted below clearly spells out in fine detail that Section 504 Law PROHIBITS any form of retaliation against any person who files a civil rights complaint.

This is an extremely important paragraph. Dan Baker and Dianne Brown-Critchlow were very familiar with the USDA's Final Agency Decision and had even forwarded it to our Fox C-6 school board members in 2011. Dianne Brown-Critchlow forwarded me the email that she sent the Fox C-6 school board in December 2011 after I questioned her and Dan Baker as to whether or not the school board was even aware of the Final Agency Decision since Dan Smith and Ruth Ann Newman knew nothing about it when they were asked about it.

Here is the paragraph from the USDA's Final Agency Decision regarding retaliation:

No person shall be subjected to reprisal or harassment because he or she filed a discrimination complaint, participated in or contributed to the identification, investigation, prosecution, or resolution of a civil rights violation in or by a recipient of Federal financial assistance from USDA; or otherwise aided or supported the enforcement of Federal or USDA civil rights laws, rules, regulations, or policies. Any individual alleging such harassment or intimidation may file a complaint with USDA.

The language in the paragraph above didn't deter some of our administrators from participating in the online harassment and posting of derogatory comments on Topix that were directed at me and others. We filed complaints regarding retaliation but without have names and proof, nothing could be done. Now we have names and well documented proof.

I wrote an article about the Dear Colleague Letter that was issued by ED OCR in April 2013 to all school districts in the country regarding Retaliation. Here is a link to that article as well:

Dear Colleague Letter On Retaliation Law from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights

My pursuit to get the Fox C-6 School District to properly comply with Section 504 Law and the ADA AA and simply do the right thing led to an onslaught of online defamatory and derogatory posts that were traced back to the Bakers and the Critchlows.

Misled By the Bakers?
On July 24, the Arnold-Imperial Leader published an article titled, Bakers will keep Fox jobs. The article explained why the Bakers were allowed to keep their jobs based on a press release sent out by the District. The information provided by the District lead everyone to believe that the Bakers only made one comment from their home computer.

(UPDATED: 01/05/2015 - I've been informed that Fox's BOE was aware of the fact that more than one comment was posted and traced to the Bakers contrary to what was published in the Arnold-Imperial Leader. Then you have to question why the information wasn't properly documented by the Arnold-Imperial Leader. Supposedly, the District informed the paper that only one comment traced to the Bakers rose to a derogatory level. What was published in the Arnold-Imperial Leader with regards to the Bakers posting of comments mislead the public.)

The Arnold-Imperial Leader article stated that:

"School officials investigated the claims made in the lawsuit and decided only one comment was posted from the Bakers' home computer and that the two could keep their jobs, following disciplinary measures, Crutchley said."

The Bakers must not have fully informed school officials about all of their online activities related to Topix. Online posts were traced back to their cellular phone's browser as well. They didn't make just a single post from their home computer as stated in the Leader. They made many posts.

Bakers will keep Fox Jobs
Arnold-Imperial Leader

I've published some of the posts traced to the Bakers that are listed as exhibits in the lawsuit. It's interesting to note the language used by our dedicated educators. It's also interesting to note the statements that were made in respect to their children and grandchildren.

I know that Dan Baker's wife's daughter teaches at Seckman Elementary were Dan Baker was recently appointed to be the interim principal.

However, I did not realize that they had grandchildren that were old enough to attend school in our district as stated in one of their online comments.

It should also be noted that the online comments linked to the Bakers spanned nearly two months in time for those comments that were documented in the exhibits. So, the statement from the Leader that "only one comment was posted from the Baker's home computer" was misleading due to the misinformation provided in Fox's Press Release regarding the board's decision that allowed the Bakers to keep their jobs.

So, did the Bakers not tell the board members about all of the online posts that they made?

I documented the derogatory comment that the Bakers made about me in an article I wrote two weeks ago:

Another Extremely Bad Decision at Fox C-6!

Here are some of the online comments posted on Topix that were traced back to a Baker owned cell phone:

Seriously wrote on 01/24/2013 at 7:16AM
The thing is no one says anything about being dissatisfied with any particular situation concerning a student. Because our children are well taken care of! Here is a thought...the main goal of the school district isn't about who did or didn't get the job they wanted. It is are our children able to succeed in the real world upon graduation? I can only speak for mine and mine graduated at the top of their class. And my grandchildren love their school and because of that I am grateful to our district employees from the bottom up.

Seriously wrote on 02/09/2013 at 7:19PM
This is the most stupid thread I have ever read. Not one thing ever gets said about students. It is all about what adult didn't get the job they wanted or who wants to make a jab because they are jealous and bitter. I support our district leaders and teachers. They get a better job done than most districts on a fraction of the cost. If you care so much about kids, step away from the keyboard and go spend some quality time with a child. When's the last time you read to a child, played catch or prayed with one? You want to see a positive change in this world, start with YOURSELF!

Haha wrote on 02/09/2013 at 9:28PM
Imagine "pulling kids into this" you big idiot it should be all about the kids and not what adult was chosen for the job and is all jealous and ticked, or the Hoosier custodian that got fired or the hag ex wife. Imagine, actually thinking about kids in a forum about children's education.

Haha wrote on 03/12/2013 at 9:23PM
If you had something worth real value to say you wouldn't find it on a public, free, anonymous forum. Really, truth be told this is nothing more than thinking out loud. Sorry but even people with screwed up views think a lie is the truth if enough (even anonymous people) agree with them. And just a word of advice to the common posters on here...you could only be backed by 2 or 3 people who are signing on in different names. No offense intended to anyone but really this is like the "National Enquirer" of the Internet.

Haha wrote on 03/12/2013 at 9:54PM
Then send help because I just found out my cousin is an alien.

It appears from one of the post's above, that the Bakers weren't fond of the ex-wife or a custodian at Fox. People are certainly entitled to their opinions. Perhaps I just expect a lot more from individuals who are touted as dedicated professional educators.

Perhaps Fox's Board of Education should have questioned the Bakers and the Critchlows as to why there were making posts on a public internet forum in the first place about school district issues. They were high ranking officials in our school district and were expected to set good example for District employees, students and the community. I think they failed severely in that regard. Especially if you read the comments that were traced back to the Critchlows residence and to school district computers.

It's needless to say that their behavior was completely unacceptable but sometimes you have to state the obvious so people actually get it!

So, should Seckman Elementary School parents and teachers be concerned with the recent appointment of Dan Baker as the interim principal at SES?

Most people in the community I've spoken with want to know why the Bakers and the Critchlows weren't fired from the get go. I've been asked that question numerous times over the last 7 months.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Fox C-6 School District - In The News! (Again)

The amended libel lawsuit was finally filed today on Friday November 14, 2014 and the Post Dispatch has already posted an article about the lawsuit!

The lawsuit names the following people: Dianne Critchlow, Jamie Critchlow, Dan Baker, Angie Baker and Bill Brengle. There were numerous comments posted on the Topix.com website from computers traced back to Fox C-6 School District computers dating back to September 2010.

The Fox C-6 computers were connected to the internet through MORENET. There were also several posts linked to cell phones.

More than 100 posts that were made from the Critchlow's home.

The comments that were posted online and listed in the petition are pretty unbelievable considering where they came from.

Below is a link to the Post Dispatch article about the libel suit:

Ex-head of Fox District named in libel suit