WOW!! NO MORE FEES at Fox C-6!

For the parents in the Fox C-6 School District this will be one of those articles you're going to appreciate for a very long time!

What's With All the Fees?
It's about those fees that the Fox C-6 School District has been collecting for years for everything under the sun where you felt like you were being nickel and dime'd to death at the beginning of each and every school year.

You know the fees ($6 for a locker, $7 for art, $10 for a lab, $60 for shop class) just to name a few!

Real quick, before writing this article, I wanted to verify what the fee was for a planner at Fox that I know I had paid for before. I remembered being charged for a planner and a locker at Ridgewood last year for my child. So, I did a quick search on Google to see if I could find out what the fee was and the results from my search were both pretty funny and pretty cool.

When I did a Google search for "Fox C-6 Planner cost", Google returned the following results:

About 81,400,000 results (0.48 seconds)

What's so funny about that?

It's the fact that the FoxC6Watchdogs blog was listed as #8 out of the roughly 81,400,000 results!

And, I found what I was looking for. I had written about this issue in August 2013 in the following article:

We Have A Problem!

Fox's Superintendent Was The 4th Highest Paid

in the State for 2012-2013!

In my August 2013 article above I wrote the following:

"This year Ridgewood Middle School is requesting a $6 fee for a locker combination and a school planner. I thought the lockers were already in the building."

This year the charge for a locker combination at Ridgewood cost $8.

You're probably now thinking that by charging all of those extra fees that perhaps former Fox C-6 school superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow was able to help funnel more of our taxpayer dollars towards paying for her outrageous salary and you may be correct. There had to be some way to "balance" the budget and afford to write your own ticket to wealth and prosperity on the backs of a demographic that in no way supported the amount of salary that she was receiving for all those years.

I'm sure that former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow probably didn't worry too much about having to pay $6 here or $10 there for all of the fees while she was "earning" more than $260,000 a year in salary.

Also, it probably didn't dent Dianne Critchlow's budget too much since to of her sons were employed by the Fox School District as "student workers" during the 2013-2014 school year to "shred paper". Her sons were paid an hourly wage of $15.00 and $12.50 per hour according to information CFO John Brazeal supplied to JCPenknife who forwarded it to me. One of her sons was paid $25,800.00 and the other was paid $11,412.50 during the 2013-2014 school year.

Her sons are not currently employed by the district. We'll have to discuss the issue of her sons being employed by the district as "student workers" without a contact in a future article. I don't want anyone's blood pressure to rise too high while reading this!

Of course, Dianne Critchlow also had a bit of help in paying for her son's college tuition thanks to the several Fox C-6 Scholarships that they were awarded by her. But I digress!

So on top of having to pay fees each year for miscellaneous things at the start of the school year, students and parents have been asked for years to do fund raisers for our schools so our schools could afford to pay for all of the things they needed for their daily operation.

Missouri Constitution Article IX says that we are to maintain free public schools so every child receives a FREE Education.

However, that really wasn't happening at Fox C-6 for quite some time. You knew you were having to pay quite a few fees at the start of school every year. Even this year, you can see some of the fees that were asked for at the top of this article. There were fees for art supplies, shop supplies, lab supplies and locker combinations just like in years past.

Guess what? All of these types of fees were put to an end at the September 16, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting! There was some discussion about it at the August 19, 2014 board meeting that I missed but found out from others that did attend. Fox's new CFO John Brazeal did some research and found out the following that he presented during his Financial Report at the September 16, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting:

 "We've also confronted an issue with regard to fees. As you know the Missouri Constitution requires that we provide a FREE education. But for many years we've been assessing fees for certain courses like lab fees, shop fees, art fees, etc.. We solicited a legal opinion on that practice and we've been advised that those fees are not allowable. So we've directed the buildings to stop collecting those fees. 

At first glance, those discontinued fees appear to replace a greater burden on the budget. However, generally those supplies were being purchased from budget accounts that were tax supported. While the fees were being posted to revolving accounts. There was a disconnect there. 

Going forward we should be able to sustain the necessary expenses in the budget. And, uh, the revolving accounts may have less discretionary funds in them."

You may have to read through Mr. Brazeal's remarks a few times to catch the fact that the supplies were being purchased from budgeted accounts that were tax supported while the fees were being posted to revolving accounts. The main point being that Missouri Constitution Article IX states that public schools must be free and the district cannot collect fees for supplies that are required for a course.

Click on the following link to listen hear John Brazeal's comments at the September 16, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting during his Financial Report. The good news was that Governor Nixon released money last week to Public Education. Mr. Brazeal also discussed some of the policies and procedures that the district has been working on to improve internal controls. Those controls cover petty cash, credit cards, gift cards, scholarships and more.

Listen to Fox C-6 CFO John Brazeal's
Financial Report and
Discuss No More Fees

A New Era in the Fox C-6 School District

The June 30, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting was very different than the board meetings that I've attended over the last several years. First, there were more than 200 people in attendance at the meeting. This was the largest turnout of citizens that I've ever seen at a school board meeting.

For many people attending the board meeting, this was the first time they've ever attended a school board meeting. It's important to stay involved in your school district and ensure that your concerns and suggestions are heard. Thank you for attending and showing your support and desire to see changes in our school district.

Controversy and Budget Concerns Awaken Community
A little controversy and budget concerns within our school district appears to have awakened the community to the problems that have been plaguing the Fox C-6 School District for quite some time. It's going to take time to get things turned around but I believe we have enough new and concerned school board members to lead the school district in a positive direction. Board president John Laughlin addressed the public on many issues of concern during the meeting.

Public Comments
Four individuals made Public Comments at the board meeting. Kevin Harding, Rich Simpson (myself), James Osia and Matt Hay. It was good to see more people from the community voicing their concerns to our school board. I believe that the concern of the community is making the school board more responsive. The school board is realizing that they work for the citizens and taxpayers of the school district and not for the superintendent.

During my public comments I renewed my request to the school board to have open public discussions with the school board prior to board meetings like they do in the Rockwood School District.

I suggested that the school board and/or our acting superintendent request a State Audit to ensure that our district is following good accounting procedures and processes.

School Board Members Respond to State Audit Request
Board president John Laughlin and board member Cheryl Hermann responded to my public comments about requesting a state audit. Cheryl Hermann told the public that the district had a state audit before and that they "didn't find anything out of place". Perhaps Mrs. Hermann hasn't read Fox's 2002 State Audit Report for quite some time.

I've posted a link to the 2002 state auditor's report below her response to my public comments. The first sentence starting on page two of the 2002 Fox C-6 State Audit Report, states:

"The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Fox C-6 School District." 

Here's what Cheryl Hermann told the public at the school board meeting in response to my request that the district ask for a State Audit:

"Yes, I would like to point out that we have had the state auditor here, and that was back when we had a lot of concerns about our operating procedures. Even before she came we cleaned them up. As a school board and as a district when she came in she didn't find anything out of place. Since then we continue to have a yearly audit to make sure that our procedures are done above board and honestly."

It's obvious that Mrs. Hermann doesn't understand the difference between the yearly audit the district pays for and the rigor at which a State Audit is conducted. I don't believe that Mr. Laughlin has read many of the state audit reports to understand how in depth they really are compared to the district's annual audit. However, he said that he would look into the possibility of having a state audit. Cheryl Hermann's lack of understanding of the district's annual audit probably contributed to her surprise about the financial state of our school district at the June workshop.

Read the March 2002 State Audit Report of Fox C-6

After reading the 2002 State Audit, do you think Cheryl Hermann's comments about Fox's last State Audit are accurate?

It would appear that Cheryl Hermann was not aware of the fact that the 2002 audit did in fact discover problems as a result of the audit. It was a nice statement to toss out for the public. However, her statement was not accurate.

It would also help the community and the school board if they reviewed the Rockwood School District's Annual Budget Report. The Executive Summary in Rockwood's Annual Budget report explains things very well. Fox needs to have a similar report and perhaps we will be getting one in the future from Fox's new Chief Financial Officer John Brazeal.

Audio of Public Comments at the June 30 Board Meeting

You can listen to my audio recording of the Public Comments from the Monday June 30 Fox C-6 school  board meeting by clicking on the link below. The audio levels were adjusted to help you hear everyone's comments since everyone doesn't speak into the microphones at school board meetings.

Listen to my Public Comments and 

Board Member's Responses

Listen to All Public Comments from June 30 Meeting

Some notable points about the meeting:

• More than 200 citizens attended the school board meeting.
• School board president John Laughlin answered patron's questions during Public Comments.
• The school board procedurally approved the 2014-2015 budget but plans to be making amendments to the budget over the next several months.
• School board president John Laughlin responded to Kevin Harding and informed the public that the school board did not request/authorize sending out Cease and Desist letters to citizens in the community. (NOTE: Board policy allows the superintendent to use legal counsel for school matters without prior authorization for most issues.)
• The board has been operating without a Chief Financial Officer for several months.
• The new CFO (John Brazeal) will start on July 9th.
• No administrators told the audience that they could leave prior to Public Comments. (Typically Dianne Critchlow would inform the audience that now was their chance to leave the meeting just prior to Public Comments.)
• KSDK, KMOX and Fox 2 News were at the board meeting and interviewed board president John Laughlin and citizens attending the meeting.
  

New Chief Financial Officer Hired at Fox C-6

Fox C-6's Chief Financial Officer's recent and sudden departure from the school district has been kept pretty quiet. The district hired a new CFO at the May 20, 2014 school board meeting during Closed Session. There was no mention of a need for a new CFO or any mention of the departure of the current CFO in the board packets that were posted on the website ahead of the board meeting. Fox's CFO was not at the May school board workshop held on Wednesday May 14, 2014. However, information about his departure was included in the Staff Separations in the Late Materials given out to the school board members at Tuesday night's board meeting. The Late Materials information was not provided to the public at the board meeting.

The May 20, 2014 board meeting packet was updated on Wednesday May 21st. The updated included Mark McCutchen, Fox's now former CFO, in the Staff Separations report. The report shows that Mark McCutchen will be leaving the district as of June 30, 2014.

From what I understand, the new CFO at Fox is Affton School District's current Chief Financial Officer who is John Brazeal. John Brazeal is a former City of Arnold councilman and former city administrator.

I look forward to working with Mr. Brazeal on making more improvements to Fox's Bill Payments and Credit Card purchase reports. Fox posted the new formatted reports in the May 20, 2014 school board packets but they didn't provide much more information than the previous reports. You can download and view the updated May 20 school board packet from the link below. The new report simply duplicated the Vendor Name in both the Vendor Name and the Transaction Description columns for the check payments. I mentioned this during Public Comments at the May 20 school board meeting. I also discussed it after the meeting briefly with Assistant Superintendent Rizzi and Superintendent Critchlow.

On Monday of this week I emailed the Fox C-6 school board members a copy of Wentzville School District's Bill Payments report as an excellent example of a bill payments report that Fox could use as a model report for enhancing Fox's reports. The public should be kept better informed as to how the district is spending taxpayer dollars especially when the district is trying to cut costs. Currently, Fox is set to deficit spend $4.5 Million dollars next year. The recent school board workshop had the Board of Education asking the district to cut it's deficit spending to zero by 2017.

Hopefully Fox will start publishing their credit card statements in the monthly school board packets like the Affton School District has been doing for years. Being full transparent is the only way for a school district to operate if they expect the community to trust them.

The Board of Education needs to realize and demonstrate that they understand that they represent the community and our concerns. It's their job to ensure that the Fox School District is nothing less than completely transparent. Sweeping things under the rug or hiding them from the public is not acceptable.

Fox's May 20, 2014 School Board Packet

View Wentzville's Bill Payments Report