Bad Education - The Movie on HBO About the Roslyn School District on Long Island

The other day my sister told me I needed to watch this movie that was just released on HBO titled, "Bad Education".

My sister was right. The lack of oversight of district credit card usage in the Long Island school district brought back memories of Fox when I asked Fox's BOE if they were getting credit card statements in their board packets.

The movie spotlights the importance of your school board and the need for good oversight by the people serving on your school board.

I highly recommend watching this movie. For even more details about what happened in the Long Island school district, the 2004 New York Magazine article is a must read.

If you don't have HBO, sign up for the free trial just to watch this movie.

"Bad Education" was inspired by the true story of an admired superintendent of the Roslyn, Long Island School District.

The movie was directed by Cory Finley, who grew up in the St. Louis metro area.

The screenplay was written by a student who attended middle school at Roslyn when the story occurred.

Student Reporter Raises Questions About School District Budget

The movie has a student reporter who was assigned to write a story about the school budget. As she starts asking more questions, she gets push back from the business manager. The student reporter tells the school's business manager that it's public record. So, the student reporter is allowed to go look at the records in the basement. In doing so, she finds a purchase order for a pizza oven that should be at her high school but isn't. She asks about the pizza oven and is told it's at the middle school. This prompts more questions which leads to reviews of check warrants which leads to phony companies, etc.

After watching the movie, I found a very in depth article in the New York magazine that was written in 2004. It's well worth the read. It talks about how the school board handled things as a result of the superintendent's input.

The Bad Superintendent - New York Magazine (September 2004):
https://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/features/9908/

Grandview School District went through a similar situation in 2017.
Former Grandview district business manager sentenced to more than five years in prison - Leader Publications (October 2017):
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/police_fire/former-grandview-district-business-manager-sentenced-to-more-than-five-years-in-prison/article_f5f7dd24-b06c-11e7-8734-736a1afc182c.html

There's also an article from 2005 detailing the findings from the New York State Comptroller's audit of the Roslyn School District. The audit was a result of what happened at Roslyn and it led to audits of other school districts in the state:
http://www.parentadvocates.org/nicecontent/dsp_printable.cfm?articleID=5525

Bad Education: Watch the Official Teaser (HBO Films)

Breaking News! Fox C-6 State Audit to be Reviewed at June 14, 2016 School Board Meeting

Breaking News!

Tuesday June 14, 2016 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting will include a Review of the

May 2016 State Audit Report

The Fox C-6 School Board Meeting agenda for Tuesday June 14, 2016 was updated today to include a review of the May 2016 State Audit Report. The links below go to the Fox C-6 School District BoardDocs pages for the agenda items.

Fox C-6 received a rating of "POOR" on the May 2016 State Audit Report which is the lowest rating given by the state auditor's office.

Fox C-6 State Audit Report Review Agenda Item

A draft budget for the 2016-2017 school year is also included on the agenda.

Public Comments

Anyone wishing to make a Public Comment at the June 14, 2016 meeting must submit an outline of your remarks on the Public Comments Information form by 6:45PM.

A link to the policy for making Public Comments can be found on the Patrons Comments Agenda Item below or download the Public Comments Information form directly using the second link:

Patrons Comments Agenda Item and Form

Download Public Comments Information Form

Education Is Key To Keep From Repeating the Past!

Fox C-6 made it onto the front page of the St. Louis Post Dispatch again yesterday. It is impressive as to the number of times that Fox has been front page news.

The Monday November 10, 2014 issue of the St. Louis Post Dispatch had an article stating that Fox would most likely be announcing a new superintendent for the district at the November 18, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting.

The article also covered the invoices that have been sent to Dianne Critchlow for repayment to the district over the last couple of months. Dianne Critchlow has NOT paid any of the invoices because her attorney says that she's done nothing wrong. 

It seems hard to believe that it's OK to use a school district credit card to pay for a traffic ticket. It's also hard to believe that it's OK to entertain administrators after a high school football game and charge it to Professional Development funds. How are doing those types of things not wrong? 

There was a quote in the article from Jamie Critchlow that was sent to John Brazeal in an email that said that Brazeal had "gone way past the point of harassment" in regards to sending invoices to the Critchlows and that Mr. Brazeal should contact their attorney rather than them for any future inquiries. That's certainly an interesting response considering the fact that the majority of defamatory comments posted online were directed at myself and others for voicing our concerns to our school board about what was going on in the district over the last several years.

You can read the Post Dispatch Article on STLTODAY.COM using the following link:

New Fox superintendent to be named, but unfinished business remains

So, if you or your neighbors or friends aren't familiar with what's been finally uncovered and exposed to the public as to what's been happening in the Fox C-6 School District for nearly a decade, it's important that you start educating yourself, friends and neighbors in our community so the community doesn't have to go through this again in the future.

The embarrassment brought to our community by some of our Fox C-6 administrators will linger for decades to come.

So, if you haven't been in the loop, now is a good time to start reading, watching or listening to some of the nearly 100 news stories that have been written or broadcast over the last couple of years about the fraud, theft, nepotism, cyber bullying and more that's occurred in the district. You can read and watch these news stories by clicking on the link below to my Fox C-6 School District is In The News article.

Fox C-6 School District In The News!

You can also read the more than 150 articles that I have published over the last several years on this blog about what's been occurring in the district for more than 6+ years. Most of what I've written has been first hand experience in dealing with Dianne Brown-Critchlow, Dan Baker, Gee Palmer and many former and current Fox C-6 school board members. The experience has been like researching for writing a thesis. It will certainly make for a very intriguing documentary some day.

It's also good to know that sharing this information has been helpful to many people in our district as well as others across the state and the country. Hopefully, the information will help deter others from doing the same thing that several of our administrators and board members did or failed to do in fulfilling their duties to both the students of our district and our community.

Waiting for Documents from Sunshine Requests

In the meantime, I'm still waiting for most of the documents from my September 12, 2014 Sunshine Requests to get fulfilled. I have received and posted the 2012-2013 DISCOVER CARD statements. I am still waiting for the DISCOVER card and AMERICAN EXPRESS card statements. I am also waiting on purchase receipts and invoices from the law firm.

Below is a copy of my September 12, 2014 Sunshine Request to the district:

Mrs. Davis, 

The following email is a Sunshine Request to the Fox C-6 School District for documents for the Public's interest. Therefore, I ask that you waive any fees associated with the production of the documents requested per Missouri Sunshine Law. 

I am making the following request for documents related to purchases and expenses incurred by taxpayers of the Fox C-6 School District since 2005 when Dianne Brown-Critchlow was promoted to the position of the Superintendent of the Fox C-6 School District. 

It has become public knowledge that former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow exercised very poor judgement during her tenure in the use of credit cards and the use of legal counsel to hide or deter exposure of her actions during that time. Cease and desist letters were sent by the school district's former law firm to individuals such as myself related to exposing issues within the Fox C-6 School District. 

It has also become public knowledge that former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow used school district credit cards and possibly petty cash to purchase items for personal use rather than school district use. It has also become public knowledge that Dianne Brown-Critchlow borrowed credit cards from others in the district to make some of those purchases as well. 

Documents Requested:

• Electronic copies of all Fox C-6 DISCOVER credit card statements for the 2005-2006 to 2012-2013 school years to present.

• Electronic copies of all Fox C-6 AMERICAN EXPRESS credit card statements for the 2005-2006 to 2012-2013 school years.

• Electronic copies of all Fox C-6 VISA credit card statements for the 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 school years to present.

• Electronic copies of all receipts that were purchased using Petty Cash since the 2005-2006 school year to present for personal related items for Dianne Brown-Critchlow.

• Electronic copies of all invoices from the Mickes Goldman O'Toole law firm for the 2007-2008 school years to present. When redacting the invoices from the law firm please ensure that only names are redacted and that the descriptions or purpose of the legal fees incurred remain on the invoices. I previously made a similar request years ago and was informed that the district did not receive detailed billing.

• Electronic copies of any and all receipts associated with purchases made by former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow using ANY district credit card since it has been determined that she borrowed or used credit cards assigned to other people within the district.

• Electronic list of all items recovered to date from former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow.

I realize that the production of the above documents may take some time. Please forward any documents related to the above request as they become available. If any of the documents from my Sunshine Requests have already been made by other patrons or media outlets and fulfilled, please make them available as soon as possible if the entire request cannot be fulfilled at once.

Thank You, 

Rich Simpson

More Fox C-6 Credit Card Data! 2012-2013 DISCOVER Card Statements

I've been waiting weeks for the 2012-2013 DISCOVER card statements and prior years. I was especially looking forward to reviewing the June 2013 statement. It had the hotel charges for the MarzanoGate Conference. You know, the conference that was more like an all expenses paid luxury vacation for 6 couples from the Fox C-6 school district rather than a Professional Development Conference!

The MarzanoGate Conference was the one that Dianne Critchlow offered to pay for meals for spouses even though they weren't employed by the district. Fox's newest but not yet employed Assistant Superintendent Andy J Arbeitman was invited to go to the conference by Dianne Critchlow even though he hadn't officially started working for the district yet.

The DISCOVER card statements were scanned in color at high resolution and sent to me the other day so the file size is over 70MB at the moment. I then scanned them using PDF-XChange Viewer to run Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software built into PDF-XChange viewer in order to make them text searchable in a PDF viewer. I will work on exporting the pages to black and white at a lower resolution to shrink the file for slower internet connections. To make the statements easier to read, I assembled the individual statements into a single file and posted them online.

After I received the statements I noticed a few unusual charges and asked Fox's CFO about them. One of them was for a BALANCE TRANSFER of -$502.50 on 04/05/2013 and a $502.50 charge to MACY'S EAST #0054 LANGHOME PA on 03/25/2013 which appeared to be related. At first glance this appeared to me a charge had mistakenly been made on a school DISCOVER card for a purchase at MACY'S and the amount was later corrected using a BALANCE TRANSFER.

It was explained to me in an email from Fox's CFO that Jerome K's credit card had been compromised and that a new card was issued and a BALANCE TRANSFER was done to correct the charge. Brazeal said it seemed odd to him as to how it was corrected.

I found it odd as well that a BALANCE TRANSFER was made by DISCOVER to correct a compromised card rather than issuing a CREDIT as was done by VISA when Dan Baker's VISA card was compromised and charges were made at a Colorado WALMART store. Ultimately the MACY'S charge for $502.50 was corrected and the school did not have to pay for the charge.

There was also a mistaken charge made by former Fox C-6 CFO Jim Berblinger for $20 on 05/16/2013 to MERCY CLINIC SURG SPEC CREVE COEUR MO which was repaid to the district by Mr. Berblinger.

2012-2013 Fox C-6 DISCOVER Card Statements

Taxpayer Money Used to Pay For After Football Game Party! - Updated 10/14/2014!

It's going to take quite a while for the district and the auditors to dig through all of the credit card payments and check payments that were spent on things as an after football game party for administrators at Dianne Critchlow's home and order $606 worth of food from Qdoba Mexican Grill. Then there's still the ongoing research into the luxurious vacations conferences where Fox C-6 administrators and some of their spouses went for Professional Development. We still don't know if anyone actually attended the conference or if registrations fees were paid. We know that 4 of them played golf on the first day of the conference.

Oct. 2, 2014 Demand for Repayment Letter to
Dianne Critchlow for Qdoba Grill PDC Charges

We've now learned that Critchlow is being asked to reimburse the district for a meal she purchased on a Saturday at McDonald's while she was on Family Medical Leave on April 5, 2014.

Sep. 30, 2014 Demand for Repayment Letter to

Dianne Critchlow for MOASBO Golf Tournament

and McDonald's PDC Meal

Hopefully it doesn't bother you that your tax dollars were being used to pay for some of these parties, trips and meals. Surely, Critchlow was thinking about our kids while she was working on her Professional Development during these parties and conferences.

And then there was the infamous charges for the logging tongs and other logging equipment. Please notice that Dianne Critchlow had those items shipped directly to her home.

The demand letter from Fox's CFO has the following language which most will find quite humorous:

The District is aware that some of the items in the Amazon.com order have recently been transferred to District possession. Upon receipt of your payment those items will be returned for your personal use and enjoyment.

Below is a copy of the October 3, 2014 Demand for Repayment letter to Dianne Critchlow for the Amazon.com items.

Oct. 3, 2014 Demand for Repayment Letter To Dianne Critchlow for Amazon.com Items

Former Fox superintendent Dianne Brown always told me that "we put our money in the classroom". I guess that would be whatever money might be left over after paying $550 a night for a room at an educational conference at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando Florida. She could have gotten the conference rate of $99 per night at the DoubleTree Universal Hotel that hosted the conference and where they were originally booked to stay.

However, Dianne had so much professional development money left over that she opted to pay for the more expensive rooms where she and other Fox admins  and their spouses could "Live Like a Rock Star" as they say at the Hard Rock Hotel.

I wonder how many books she could have purchased for our kids in the district for each night that was doled out at the Hard Rock Hotel?

Speaking of books, Dianne and all of the other Fox admins that attended the Marzano Conference could have purchased the book I purchased a couple of years ago for less than $15. It was written by Richard Dufour and Robert J. Marzano. I bought it to learn a little more about what our administrators are supposed to be doing. The Marzano name probably looks familiar.

Every educator in the district could have purchased a copy with Professional Development funds for less than it cost to send 12 people to the golf outing Marzano conference in Orlando.

Leaders of Learning:

How District, School, and Classroom Leaders 

Improve Student Achievement [Kindle Edition]

Many parents and taxpayers are probably starting to doubt Dianne's comments about "putting our money in the classroom" or that she was doing it "for the kids". It seems more like she was living the life of royalty in a district that has more than 30% of our students receiving FREE or REDUCED lunch. It's no wonder kids want to be school superintendents when they grow up. They see how much money our superintendent makes and how she gets to use taxpayer dollars to fund business startups and parties at her home. Who wouldn't want to be a school superintendent!

It turns out that Dianne even submitted a request for reimbursement for a golf tournament that she allegedly didn't even pay for. Fox's Chief Financial Officer states that doing so is fraud.

Perhaps Dianne never found the time to read the two 3 inch binders she told me she had in her office that held Fox's Policies and Regulations. There's a section about Fraud and Fraud Prevention in our district Policies and Regulations.

You can read all about this week's financial discoveries surrounding Dianne Critchlow and the Fox C-6 School District in the this weeks Arnold-Imperial Leader.

Check Gate:

Brazeal: Critchlow reimbursed for golf

fees she didn’t pay

The article states that Dianne Critchlow couldn't be reached for comment.

Surely Dianne has explanations for all of the charges and would want to share them with the community!

Quote From 2013 - "We're Not Hiding Anything!"

While searching for information from some of my older articles, I ran into the following article from March 2013. This was during the scandal of hiring former board member and board president at the time, Linda Nash's daughter in law, as Fox's Food Nutrition Director. Amongst all of that fiasco, Fox finally started posting the board packets on the district website for the community to download and review. This hadn't been done in the past even though I had been asking for them for almost 2 years. The board packets contained the bill payments that were approved by the board each month.

The first time I attended a school board meeting was in December 2010. As I watched the meeting unfold, I wondered how the school board was able to approve the bill payments without having any time to look at the bills. Especially if they just received some of the bill payments in their Late Materials at the board meeting that night.

I found out later that typically the board packets were sent to the board members the Friday before the board meeting for them to review. It included the bill payments for the month that they were going to vote to approve at the meeting the following Tuesday. However, not all of the bill payments are sent to them before the meeting. Typically there would be another round of bill payments that are presented to the board when they arrive at the meeting that night. There's really no time to for board members to review all of those payments right there at the start of the meeting. Therefore, the board is having to approve payments blindly because the information is provided to them just before the meeting.

Depending on what checks are slated in the early bill payment presented ahead of time verses what's presented at the meeting makes it pretty easy to pass off expenses that someone may not want the board to scrutinize as much. This is especially a concern after when your superintendent tells you "We're Not Hiding Anything!". That's what prompted the article I wrote in March 2013. You have to read the article to see what I'm talking about with regards to the bill payments.

Board member John Laughlin began going to the school to review bill payments after I brought up this issue a couple of years ago when I was getting charged for board packets. John also made sure that I no longer got charged for obtaining the board packets after he found out I was getting charged.

It's easy for everyone to criticize the board as a whole. But, there were 7 old school board members until John Laughlin was elected in 2011. There's no telling what Critchlow told the the newest "outside" member of the board that things were great and there's no need to question things. I'm sure that my questioning of things was easily dismissed by Critchlow. She had been doing that for years at board meetings during my Public Comments and in her email responses to myself and the board. As she recently was quoted, "Trust me".

Board Packets Posted Online - NO Bill Payments
Finally after nearly two years, the district started posting board packets on the district website but they left the bill payments out of the packets. Why did they leave out the bill payments? That was the whole point of posting the board packets in the first place. I had to pay obtain the board packets per my Sunshine requests prior to the district posting them online for free. However, the district only provided me with the board packets dating back to April 2010. The district wanted to charge me hundreds of dollars to go and research and copy the board packets prior to that date. Charging lots of money for documents is an easy way to deter someone from obtaining the information and should always throw up red flags.

Critchlow wanted to charge me $170 for the credit card statements for the 2013-2014 school year. This was her way of keeping the statements from the public. The same thing was done for the board packets prior to April 2010. Since then I even asked several times for those prior board packets to be posted to the district website and Critchlow refused. I think the community should press to get those documents posted on the district website knowing what we know now.

Prior to the April 2010 date there was most likely quite a bit spent on attorney fees with all of the time and money the district put into preparing for a Due Process Hearing that was held in May 2010. I've made a recent Sunshine request for copies of all of the invoices from the former law firm dating back to 2008. When I first requested this information a couple of years ago it was going to cost several hundred dollars to obtain. Just remember that Critchlow wasn't trying to hide anything.

Check out the article below and read the response from former board member Ruth Ann Newman as to why the district didn't publish the bill payments when the district first published the board packets on the district website in 2013. I have the exchange of emails with the board and the responses I received.

It's hard to believe Dianne Critchlow's statement of "We're Not Hiding Anything!". It's especially hard to believe after reviewing the credit card statements and finding out that she had district purchased property at her home and had to be asked to return it.

Critchlow never openly provided the credit card statements to the school board. She just asked the board to approve the charges as a whole each month by asking the board to approve the bill payments that included checks to the credit card companies. The board shouldn't have had to ask to obtain the credit card statements. Critchlow as the superintendent should have been providing them to the board each month per school board policy like they do in many other school districts.

On the flip side, our school board should have asked to see the credit card statements since many of the statements totaled between $50,000 and $300,000 or more each month. The words Due Diligence comes to mind.

It's going to take quite a while for the auditors and the district to dig through all of the charges and receipts to find out what was purchased and paid for by the district that the district might not have in it's possession. More things might still be at Critchlow's house. It was something that was easily done.

I certainly hope that the district and the state audit reviews all of the charges dating back to 2005 when Critchlow started as superintendent. We need to recover as much taxpayer money as possible.

Read the article from 2013 by clicking on the link below to see if you think former superintendent Dianne Critchlow wasn't trying to hide anything back then.

Fox C-6 Superintendent Says: "We're Not Hiding Anything!"

Critchlow Getting Invoiced for Money She Owes the District - UPDATED: 10/03/2014

This week's Arnold-Imperial Leader is reporting that former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Critchlow is getting invoiced by the district for money that she improperly charged the district. If the community wasn't already mad enough about the fact that she was purchasing meals and personal items using her district credit card, we now learn that she was double dipping. She was getting reimbursed for personal miles while driving a district owned Chevy Tahoe and filling the tank of the Tahoe using her district credit card while raking in more than $260,000 in salary.

It's really hard sometimes to even come up with the words to write after uncovering or learning about all of the things that we have so far about the misdeeds and dishonest things former superintendent Dianne Critchlow did while "leading" the district. She took advantage of the system in just about every possible way she could.

It's obvious that she used intimidation and fear to keep anyone from reporting what was going on inside the district. If you discovered things and you weren't an employee of the district, she sent you Cease and Desist letters to try and stop you from publicly exposing her misdeeds and shedding light on the problems and cover ups by the district. Her deception and obfuscation worked well in hiding the money that she was collecting both in salary and for items she was purchasing for personal use with her district credit card.

It was also reported in the Arnold-Imperial Leader that Critchlow had the district reimburse her for eye glasses even though the district was already paying for her vision insurance. It was like a FREE RIDE using taxpayer dollars.

UPDATED: 10/03/2014

Demand Letters to Critchlow for Repayment

09/24/2014 Demand Letter for Mileage

09/25/2014 Demand Letter for Eyeglasses and Traffic Ticket

What little trust anyone had for her should be completely shattered by now. Facts are being uncovered that are irrefutable and indefensible. People can't even make up some of the things she has done because so many of them are so egregious that they are just too incredible to conceive. As a person who was touting on almost every single document sent out by the district and on banners throughout the district how Fox was a National District of Character, she was far from being representative of a person of character.

I commend all of the teachers, staff, volunteers and administrators who have had to put up with the abuse and intimidation that everyone has put up with for the past 9+ years under our former superintendent's reign of fear. I've been told so many stories in the last couple of months and I'm sure that I will hear many more in the years to come as to what went on behind closed doors was kept from being discussed in public through fear and intimidation.

I certainly hope that morale continues to improve as new leadership gets hired and policies protecting employees are put in place. Bad behavior should result in eventual dismissals or demotions and hopefully fear won't be a factor anymore.

In order for an organization like our school district to truly succeed and excel, there must be that feeling of trust that everyone will always do the right thing and will always take the high road no matter what. You can't have people fearing for their jobs or fearing for their safety. They must be able to trust their supervisors, administrators and coworkers to do the right thing.

There must also be a mutual level of respect for everyone in the organization and outside the organization with the community in order to succeed. Otherwise, it will just be a job for many and students, staff and the community will suffer as a whole.

Our district has a lot of great teachers and staff and despite the lack of respect that they have received from Central Office administrators over the years, they have still gone above and beyond expectations and do what's best for the kids. I would like to say thank you for doing what you do every day despite what you've been through for the past 9+ years. I can see that things are improving albeit not as fast as everyone would like. We know it's going to take time and that there will be many challenges ahead that we will have to overcome and we will overcome them.

It's been very rewarding to hear from so many people who work or have worked in our district tell me that they are so glad that things have finally been exposed and brought to the public's attention. They say that many people have known for a long time but were afraid to speak for fear of retaliation.

I've also been told by many in the district that the start of this school year has been one of the best that they've had in years and that morale has improved quite a bit and that's a good thing!

Hearing those types of comments lets me know that all of my work was worthwhile and that I wasn't wasting my time as some may have wanted you to believe. I won't name any names but I'm sure you might know a few people who didn't want anyone to know about what was getting documented on this blog. <g>

I'm glad I could help and I'm glad that many people are now aware of what's been going on. Societal pressure is what's needed in order to maintain a certain level of trust. Most people expect people to always do the right thing but that doesn't always happen as we've learned here at Fox.

Going forward we need to learn by our mistakes of overly trusting those in charge to do the right thing and not listening to those that speak up and try to bring issues to everyone's attention.

There were many times when I felt like I was working on a huge thesis on how school systems should function as demonstrated by other districts and at the same time documenting how badly a district can behave because there was no pressure or oversight to do the right thing. After several years of not getting anywhere you begin to wonder if things will every change. Now we know it can. It just takes lots of perseverance and motivation. It was a lot like running a marathon but a LOT longer. It was probably more like running the 90 miles to Jefferson City on the Katy Trail but over and over again as the years went by.

As we move forward we need to remember and document what happened so we can put measures in place to keep this sort of thing from happening again in the future. We don't want to go down this road again.

Pay It Back
Critchlow Article on the Cover of October 2, 2014
Arnold-Imperial Leader

Waiting for Information!

I've made quite a few Sunshine requests and submitted questions to the district over the last several weeks in an effort to get the public the information everyone's been asking about. They want to know what's been going on in the district for the last decade.

I realize that the audit started last week so the accounting staff and CFO are probably very busy looking up information for the auditors.

For years there was very little information flow to the public outside of the school board meeting minutes. The board meeting minutes contained very little information especially with regard to Public Comments. So nearly everyone was kept in the dark about what was actually occurring in the district.

As soon as I get the information I'll get it posted. Some of the information I've requested is:


• Credit card statements for Discover, VISA and American Express dating back to the 2005-2006 school year. I've been waiting for the Discover card statements for several weeks. The Discover cards for both the board secretary and the central office custodian were used often by former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Critchlow.
• Receipts for purchases made by former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow using her district credit cards. This request had already been made by her attorney.
• More information regarding the Orlando trip such as how many cars were rented for the 3 day conference. $1700+ dollars in car rental fees is a lot of money for a 3 day conference.
• Information about the Flip Flippen training. The district paid $10,000 at the start of the 2013-2014 school year for an hour long keynote address. When I asked about it at the August 2013 school board meeting assistant superintendent Andy Arbeitman told me that 9 administrators were able to attend Flip Flippen training for FREE for that $10,000 hour long keynote address. So I've asked questions as to who attended the training. The district ended up spending more than $62,000 with the Flip Flippen training company in 2013-2014.
• Who attended the trips to Rochester, NY, Kansas City, MO and Washington, D.C.?
• How much was the stipend amount was that was paid to previous head nurses in the district compared to the 75% pay raise that Gee Palmer received when she was promoted to district head nurse in June 2006?
• Salary information for our district head nurse. When Fox's current district head nurse Gee Palmer was  promoted to the district head nurse position she was given a 75% pay raise in June 2006. Gee Palmer is the wife of current Fox C-6 school board vice-president Dave Palmer. Mr. Palmer was the board president in June 2006 when his wife was promoted by Dianne Brown to the district head nurse position.
• All invoices from the district's former law firm dating back to the 2008-2009 school year. This was the law firm that sent out the Cease and Desist letters to myself and others. We don't know how many may have been sent over the years but we know of at least 4 of them.

For your information, per Missouri Sunshine Law, anyone can go to the Fox C-6 Central Office during normal business hours and request to view documents such as board meeting minutes, board packets, invoices, etc.

Hopefully I'll receive the credit card data soon so I can get that information posted for the public. Everyone is very curious as to how far back all of this spending without oversight has gone on.

It was stated on the news recently in a Fox 2 News You Paid For It report that the board approved all of Critchlow's credit card charges. The payments to the credit card companies may have been approved. But the individual charges weren't approved by the board since the credit card statements weren't being provided to them in their board packets. It was the board's responsibility to be checking the charges but they weren't being provided that information. It was the superintendent's job to ensure that charges were being properly made by employees in the district prior to asking the board to approve the payments.

I had asked Critchlow to provide the credit card statements in the board packets to the board members and she did not. However, after reviewing the credit card statements it's pretty easy to see why Critchlow didn't want the school board members to see them.

Hopefully more data will be made available soon so it can be shared with the community. 

Transparency is what allows people to trust an organization such as your school district which everyone has trusted for years but has now learned that it was a big mistake to trust as much as we did.

Here's a really good book about trust that I recommend. It's called Liars and Outliers. It explains how trust is needed in order for an organization to thrive and succeed. If there is no trust, the organization will wither and die. It also explains how societal pressure is needed to ensure that people do follow the rules and do the right thing.

Liars & Outliers

Ah! The Arrogance of Wealth Gained From Taxpayer Dollars! Critchlow Saga Continues!

Another tidbit of information was posted on Topix this afternoon which led to another stone uncovered in what is turning out to be a huge pile of stones to overturn. It's just another amazing discovery about what's been going on behind closed doors in the Fox C-6 School District. Those who have been posting on Topix since 2010 have known for a long time what's been going on inside our school district but were too afraid to speak for fear of retaliation. I'm sure that's what's led to the recent Whistleblower Policy.

Since everyone was afraid to speak up about what they saw happening in the district, things were allowed to get out of control and continue to spin out of control for years and years.

Without some sort of employee protection, no one in the district was going to speak up!

If it weren't for Topix, most people wouldn't have known what was going on inside the district. Of course, there were a few people posting on Topix who were denying that any of those things were actually happening and it's probably not too difficult to guess who may have been making those posts after all that's been uncovered.

It was December 2010 when I first learned about Mr. Critchlow and started looking into his credentials because of several posts on Topix. I took my questions about his credentials and his salary to the December 2010 Fox C-6 school board meeting. Of course I didn't get any answers just a comment from Cheryl Hermann telling me that I could call the district the next day to find someone who could answer my question. My question was directed at the board because they were the ones who approved his hire. Of course I didn't mention names, but they all knew who I was talking about.

Somehow though someone posted on Topix right after that night's board meeting about me speaking at the board meeting. What's so strange about that is the fact that there were only 7 people in attendance at the board meeting that night outside of the administrators and school board members. So whoever conveyed that information to whoever posted on Topix that night was pretty limited. Those 7 people were 2 students who spoke at the meeting, 2 parents, Kim Robertson from The Leader, a representative from Dan Jones and Associates and myself.

Since board meeting minutes weren't posted for over a month back then, it really narrows down who could have known that I spoke at the meeting that night. Who do you think would have told someone to post on Topix that night? The libelous posts really began to take off after that meeting that were directed towards me. Just a week later is when someone stepped over the line with their posts on Topix. Hopefully we'll soon learn who where that post came from.

For those afraid to speak about what they know, Topix is still a good way to get the information to the outside for others to investigate.

Board Kept in the Dark?

The public hasn't known much of what's been going on because Dianne Brown-Critchlow has done a great job of keeping information out of the board meeting minutes and by telling everyone that now is a good time to leave the board meeting right before the start of Public Comments.

Dianne Brown-Critchlow was also telling the board not to speak with people on issues. She emailed the school board in 2012 informing them not to speak to me due to pending litigation even though there was no pending litigation. Her email was written proof that she was telling the board not to speak to me. So speaking to the board was like speaking to a brick wall.

I was told prior to Dianne's email verifying what she was telling the board that the board members were told that the attorneys were taking care of things. So, no one on the board for years would respond to my concerns. They would just thank me for my information.

Dianne Brown-Critchlow used the same language during board meetings to keep from answering my questions at public meetings by stating that she couldn't talk about things because of "pending litigation". That's just another way that the public and the board was kept in the dark for so long.

New Limited Liability Company Formed By Critchlows

Well it turns out that the Critchlows formed a new Limited Liability Company on April 22, 2014 named CASH LANDING.

CASH LANDING was formed for the following purposes:

Land and Timber Improvement/Sales

Educational Consultation Services

Invention Development/Sales

CASH LANDING is quite an unusual name for an LLC that's going to be doing Land and Timber Improvement/Sales and at the same time doing Educational Consultation Services. The arrogance from the Critchlows never ceases to amaze me. Many of the slanderous posts on Topix conveyed a similar arrogance factor. Hmmm!

I'm certain that the community will be very happy to know what their tax dollars were being spent on when the Critchlow's purchased those logging tongs using a school district credit card. Now we have to go and look to see if a district credit card was used to pay for the fees to register the LLC.

The finds are so amazing that no one could even dream this stuff up.

As usual, the documentation behind this latest find can be found on the Missouri Secretary of State's website. 

Below is a link to the Missouri Secretary of State search page for the Critchlow's latest adventure:

CASH LANDING LLC

MO Secretary of State Search Results Page

Below is link to the Articles of Organization for the Critchlow's Limited Liability Company filing which was dated April 22, 2014. This public document has the Critchlow's address listed as their company's registered agent. It also has their address listed as the organizers of the company.

What I find really funny (but common in district documents) is the fact that their street address is misspelled next to Dianne Critchlow's name. I just had to laugh when I saw it. It reminded me of the mailer sent out about the 2012 Bond Issue by Friends of Fox!

CASH LANDING LLC

Articles of Organization Documents

JCPenknife did an excellent job as usual of writing about today's find for those of us who have been investigating the misdeeds of those in charge of our taxpayer dollars.

Here is a link to JCPenknife's thoughts on today's find:

JCPenknife Article:
That's What the Logging Tongs Were For

I'm sure we'll be uncovering a lot more unbelievable finds in the continuous discovery of facts being revealed in the nearly decade long rule of Dianne Brown-Critchlow of the Fox C-6 School District.

Looking Back In Time - State Audit Begins Today of the Fox C-6 School District!

The state audit begins today for the Fox C-6 School District. The state auditors will be looking back in time at school district records to review what's gone on in the district over the last several years. Hopefully the auditors will be reviewing some records as far back as the 2005-2006 school year when Dianne Brown-Critchlow began her tenure as the Superintendent of the Fox C-6 School District considering what's been uncovered in the last month or two regarding credit card purchases, trips to conferences and having district property in her personal possession.

The state auditor can also look at teacher and administrator certifications as well. There have been a number of people employed by the district over the years that didn't have the proper certification for the job that they were hired for. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the school board wasn't necessarily being provided with much information about the recommended promotions or new hires from former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow.

Last month was a perfect example of this when it wasn't pointed out very well to the board that school board member Cheryl Hermann's daughter was being hired for a position in the district. This lead to a special meeting in which the board re-voted and rescinded their vote to approve the hire. It wasn't a matter of qualifications. It was a lack of transparency.

Getting The Board On Your Side

How is it that things have gotten so bad and out of control over the last 10 years?

A school district superintendent is supposed to work closely with the school board. But, sometimes the relationship between the school board and the school district superintendent gets a little too cozy which usually leads to a lack of oversight which is what I believe happened at Fox.

There's no doubt that former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow wanted to have a good working relationship with the Fox C-6 Board of Education. She was a fellow Fox C-6 graduate and alumni. During her first year as the Fox C-6 superintendent she promoted Gee Palmer to the district head nurse. Gee Palmer is the wife of current Fox C-6 school board Vice-President Dave Palmer.

However, in June 2006, Dave Palmer was the Fox C-6 school board President. There were at least 10 nurses working in the school district that had more years of service than Gee Palmer. Some of those nurses had nearly double the number of years of service or more. But, somehow, Gee Palmer was chosen for the job over those other nurses. Do you think it had anything to do with the fact that Dave Palmer was the school board president at the time?

I mention this because Dave Palmer spoke about nepotism at the last Special School Board Meeting regarding the hiring of Cheryl Hermann's daughter as a Teacher's Aide in the district for $9.87 an hour. The right thing to do would have been for Cheryl Hermann to step down from the school board so her daughter could work for the district. The community wouldn't have had a problem with that based on comments from most of the people I've spoken to. However, hearing Dave Palmer talk to the community about nepotism knowing full well that his wife has been paid 75% more than the other nurses in the district for the last 8 years just didn't sound right.

Gee Palmer's promotion in June 2006 came with a 75% increase in pay. Her contract was lengthened by 2 months. Adding two months to her contract shouldn't have resulted in a 75% pay increase. That was a pretty sweet deal back then for the school board President's wife. That's why listening to Mr. Palmer speak at the last school board meeting about nepotism and the hiring of Cheryl Hermann's daughter just seemed so wrong. But, most of the general public doesn't know about the things that have gone on the past and how much the Palmer's have benefited over the last 8 years with that 75% increase in pay. From what I understand, previous district head nurses were paid at the normal rate on the pay scale since their contract was not any longer than any other nurse. If anyone knows that this was different, please let me know so I can update this article.

Would your decisions as a school board member or school board president be swayed if your wife was given a 75% increase in pay?

How Much Extra Does It Pay to be Related

to a Fox C-6 School Board Member?

More Historical Information

It's been nearly 4 years since I first posted on this blog concerning issues in the Fox C-6 School District. You can read about my early attempts to get Fox to become more transparent by reading some of the very earliest posts on the FoxC6Watchdogs blog. This was well before the Internet scandal broke earlier this year.

Asking our school board questions or asking them to make changes was truly like speaking to a brick wall back in 2010. My speaking at the December 2010 school board meeting is what lead to many of the slanderous posts being made online in 2010 and 2011. Cheryl Hermann was the school board president at the time and nothing was done back then. That's when the board was definitely ignoring my requests for information or help in stopping the online posts. No one on the board wanted to listen or act on things. They chose to be Willfully Blind!

However, the Fox C-6 school board has changed dramatically since 2010. Five of seven school board members have been replaced since then and I doubt very much that the two remaining school board members (Cheryl Hermann and Dave Palmer) would get re-elected in April 2015 if they decided to run again.

I ask that you read my early articles on this blog to get an understanding about how long it's taken to try and get things turned around and heading in the right direction. I'm certainly glad that more people are paying attention now and that things are beginning to move in a positive direction for both the teachers and staff in the district as well as the community and the students. Improving morale in the district can go a long way towards improving the district's overall success.

Below are links to the 2nd and 3rd articles that I wrote back in July and August 2012. Hopefully they can shed a bit of light as to why it's taken so long to get things changed at Fox. Of course it would have helped quite a bit if the public knew what was going on at school board meetings had former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow been more forthcoming with information in the board meeting minutes about what was being asked at the school board meetings.

Do You Trust Your School
Superintendent and School Board?

My 2nd article posted on the blog was what started the ball rolling for Superintendent Critchlow to send me a Cease and Desist Letter. My article was written explaining my reasons why I thought that Fox C-6 taxpayers should vote no on the $18.5 Million Dollar Bond Issue in August 2012. My concerns about the bond issue wasn't about the bond issue itself, it was about what the money was going to be spent on and the fact that the district wasn't being very transparent with the community about where a large chunk of that money was being spent.

Now, the state auditor will be reviewing how the monies were spent after Fox's new CFO John Brazeal discovered that some of the Bond Issue money may have been used to pay down deficits. This may explain why only $16 Million dollars of the Bond Issue was listed in the Bond Issue budget back then which was promptly removed from the district website after the bond issue passed.

Why You Should Vote NO on Fox C-6's

$18.5 Million Dollar Bond Issue!

I'll need to find the original bond issue budget and post a link to it on this article as soon as I get the chance.

You may wish to read all of my articles from August 2012 to get a better understanding of what was going on and being researched back then.

August 2012 FoxC6Watchdog Articles

Wow! More Items Recovered from Former Fox C-6 Superintendent Dianne Critchlow!

Soon the Fox C-6 community is going to learn just how much former Fox C-6 Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow used her district credit card to make purchases for personal use with taxpayer monies.  I've submitted a Sunshine Request to the district asking for credit card information dating back to when she started her tenure as the Fox C-6 School District Superintendent in 2005 since it appears that this has been going on for quite some time.

It's definitely hard to believe that Dianne Critchlow would use taxpayer dollars to make purchases for personal use given the fact that she was making more then $260,000 a year in salary. Our district has already hit national headlines related to the cyber-bullying scandal. This will just add to the unwanted publicity!

The taxpayers of the Fox C-6 School District and the public in general are going to be amazed at what's already been recovered from former Superintendent Dianne Critchlow's home or property. I'm certainly glad that we have former Fox High School graduate John Brazeal as Fox's new CFO. He has been working on uncovering things and recovering property. He was thrown into the fire and is doing an excellent job of going through the receipts and keeping the public informed about what he has uncovered.

It's pretty easy to understand why former Superintendent Dianne Critchlow asked Fox's former law firm to send out Cease and Desist Letters to individuals working to uncover and expose what was going on in the school district under her watch. It's even easier to understand why she didn't want school district credit card statements made public and why they weren't being included the board meeting packets each month for the school board to review.

This is one news story you won't want to miss!

Russell Kinsaul from KMOV News 4 posted a news story about the items recovered so far from Dianne Critchlow's home:

Fox School District Under investigation

for misuse of taxpayer money

Russell Kinsaul tweeted a photo of some of the items recovered so far:

Tweeted Photo of Recovered Items

Stepping through the video from KMOV I noticed that Easton ball bats still have the plastic wrappers on them. It also appears that there are 2 Asus Memo Pad tablet computers and they appear to both still be in shrink wrap as well. Why were these items still shrink wrapped?

The digital cameras appear to have been purchased over a number of years based upon their model numbers. I looked up the cameras from the model numbers in the video footage and posted their MSRP prices as well as when the cameras were introduced.

The inventory sheet from CFO Brazeal stated 1 ASUS Memo Pad but from the video it appears that there were 2 ASUS Memo Pad tablet computers. No prices have been included below for any of the extra lenses that can be seen in the camera bag for the Nikon D5000 since there's no information about them. But, spare lenses can run from $150 to $1000 or more.

Based on MSRP prices, the district has recovered more than $4000 in equipment just for those items with prices listed on them below. That does not count the laptop, air compressor and air brush nozzle or phone and tablet cases.

Some of the items recovered so far include the following:

• 4 Digital Cameras
• Nikon 1 (red camera) (MSRP: $599) + Accessories
  (TARGET: 12/13/2011 - $674.90 + 12/15/2011 - $145.15)
• Nikon D5000 Digital SLR (MSRP: $850) + additional lenses
  (Circa 2009) 
• Pentax K100D Super Digital SLR camera (MSRP: $600)
  (Circa: July 2007)
• Unknown camera from video & photo
• Camera bag for digital cameras
• 2 - iPad Airs - $499 each
• 2 - Asus Memo Pad - $149 each (look to be brand new still in shrink wrap)
• 1 - HP Color LaserJet PRO printer M177 - $349.99
• 1 - Sony wireless stereo headphone system - $299
• 1 - Easton S500 baseball bat - $99
• 2 - Easton S50 slow pitch bats - $24.99 each
• 1 - Lenovo laptop
• 1 - Easton bag containing
• 1 -  Otter Box
• 1 -  Paint machine air compressor (air brush) 
• 2 smart phones
• 12 cell phone cases
• Logging tongs and chains
• and more...

It's easy to see why the Fox C-6 school board took school district credit cards away from ALL Fox C-6 School District superintendents in June 2014. 

There were a couple of superintendents that used their credit cards responsibly. However, the merry band of friends that didn't use their credit cards responsibly and per district policy got away with quite a bit for quite a while before the credit card statements were made available. Apparently the Fox C-6 school board hadn't been reviewing monthly credit card statements for years or they would have noticed what was going on long ago. Dianne Critchlow wasn't providing the credit card statements to the board members in their board packets. 

News from all of the debacle is most likely going to get worse before it gets better! So stay tuned.

MarzanoGate - TRULY The Luxury Conference for Fox C-6 Administrators!

Marzano Conference - Orlando, FL - June 19-21, 2013

UPDATED: 09/08/2014 - 10:00PM
(with information obtained from Fox CFO John Brazeal)

Mr. Brazeal wasn't able to answer all of the questions that I sent him early this morning regarding this conference, but he answered quite a few and will be updating me as more information becomes available.

There were 9 Fox C-6 employees and 3 spouses (non-employees) that (Several of the Fox C-6 Central Office Administrators and and at least one spouse) attended the Marzano Conference which was held June 19-21, 2013 in Orlando Florida.

Those that attended the Marzano Conference for Teacher and Leadership Evaluation were:

• Dianne Critchlow
• Jamie Critchlow
• Dan Baker
• Angela Baker
• Tim Crutchley
• Kirstin Pelster
• Andy Arbeitman
• Andy Arbeitman’s spouse (not a Fox employee) [she returned from Orlando a couple days earlier than everyone else]
• Jeremy Donald
• Jeremy Donald’s spouse (not a Fox employee)
• Stacy Dockery
• Stacy Dockery’s spouse (not a Fox employee)

I never would have expected our district to send so many people to a 3 Day Teacher and Leadership Evaluation Conference.

Did those that attended the conference learn that much to justify the cost?

What did they bring back to the district and how well did they educate and mentor others in our district with what they learned at the conference?

Or, was this a boondoggle paid for with taxpayer dollars?

There are still quite a few unanswered questions that Mr. Brazeal is still looking into. I am very glad that Mr. Brazeal is working for the district. He is doing a very thorough job and has been very open and transparent about what he has found.

You're going to probably need to go for a run, bike and/or swim after reading what Mr. Brazeal has uncovered so far about the June 2013 3 Day Professional Development conference in Orlando Florida.

Fox C-6 taxpayers aren't going to like the fact that taxpayers paid for Fox C-6 employees to attend a conference only to find out that 4 of the Fox C-6 employees attending the conference played a round of golf that was charged to a district credit card. The charge for golf was dated the same day as the first day of the conference.

How much time did those individuals that played golf get to spend at the conference during the conference's first day if they played golf that day?

Fox C-6 taxpayers won't like the fact that Todd Scott DID NOT attend the conference even though the credit card assigned to him was used at the conference.


Mr. Brazeal's Response to My Questions
I think it's much easier to simply provide Mr. Brazeal's email response to my questions since he summed things up so well (in italics below):

I am short two staff members this week, so data production is slower than normal.

I do not yet have answers for all of your questions at this time, but I will share what is known.

There were 12 people at the Marzano conference held June 19 – 21, 2013 in Orlando, Florida. Nine attendees were Fox employees. Three attendees were spouses. Attendees include:

1. Dianne Critchlow
2. Jamie Critchlow
3. Dan Baker
4. Angela Baker
5. Tim Crutchley
6. Kirstin Pelster
7. Andy Arbeitman
8. Andy Arbeitman’s spouse (not a Fox employee) [she returned back from Orlando a couple days earlier than everyone else]
9. Jeremy Donald
10. Jeremy Donald’s spouse (not a Fox employee)
11. Stacy Dockery
12. Stacy Dockery’s spouse (not a Fox employee) 

Todd Scott did not travel to Florida for the conference. Various charges related to the Florida conference do appear on the credit card assigned to Todd Scott due to the fact that Dianne Critchlow borrowed the VISA card from Todd Scott. It appears the card was used by Jaime Critchlow during the Florida trip.

The charge on Todd Scott’s VISA card at The Villas of Grand Cypress in the amount of $336.54 on 6/19/2013 was golf fees for 4 (Jamie Critchlow, Andy Arbeitman, Jeremy Donald and Dan Baker). This was later reimbursed in full via a personal check from Dianne Critchlow dated 8/9/2013. 

There were two vehicles that exited the parking lot at Lambert at the same time and used the Todd Scott VISA as payment. It is currently unknown which vehicles belonged to which travelers. 

I only find two rental vehicles in Orlando. One rented by Tim Crutchley. The other rented by Dianne Critchlow. Please point out the third rental vehicle. [I asked why they needed rental cars for a 3 day conference since the conference was at a resort with shuttles.]

Everyone stayed at the same hotel. 

The meal receipt at The Palms for $774 indicates there were 9 guests. 

All receipts are under review. Appropriate reimbursements will be invoiced and collected. 

Additional data will be provided as it becomes available. 

John Brazeal

Conference Hotel Cost Comparison

The November 2012 website link for the 2013 Marzano Conference for Teacher and Leadership Evaluation has a link to the 2013 Marzano Conference hotel which was the DoubleTree by Hilton in Orlando. Our Fox C-6 Marzano Conference attendees ended up staying at the Loews Hotels Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando which states that you can "LIVE LIKE A ROCK STAR". It's just that they probably shouldn't have been living like a rock star since their "Professional Development" conference was being paid for by taxpayer dollars.

Since the Hard Rock Hotel is part of Universal Studios Resort, it is a much more expensive than the DoubleTree hotel where the Marzano Conference was held. To get a rough idea as to how much more it cost to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel Universal Studios Resort where Fox C-6 employees and their spouses stayed during the conference, I clicked on each of the hotels Price and Availability links from their websites. Then I selected the same date range for each of the hotels and compared prices of their standard rooms with 2 Queen Beds. The date range selected was (Tuesday-Saturday June 16-20, 2015). Selecting these options provided a good cost comparison between the two hotels for the same time of year when the 2013 Marzano Conference was held.

Prices may be slightly higher in 2015 than they were in 2013, but I was looking for a general price difference between the two hotels.

Checking prices without applying any conference discounts and standard room rates from their websites I found that the standard room rate for 2 Queen Beds during the dates of June 16-20, 2015 was $199 per night at the DoubleTree by Hilton verses $328-$350 per night for the Hard Rock Hotel. That's a difference of nearly $150 per night for a total of $600 for a 4 night stay per room paid for by the district.

That would explain why the cost for the Loews Hotels Hard Rock Orlando charge on Dan Baker's VISA card was $1493.34 for June 18-22, 2013 (5 days / 4 nights) which works out to $373.34 per night.

It seems that the Fox C-6 taxpayers were spared no expense on this trip!


My Original Post Below
This was a very expensive 3 DAY conference for Professional Development for the taxpayers of the school district.

Several concerned citizens put together some of the costs of the conference that spanned the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 VISA credit card statements and posted it on TOPIX yesterday. I have added in the additional information from the DISCOVER card as well as the airfare for Dan and Angie Baker that was charged to Tim Crutchley's VISA card as well.

There are a lot more charges that need to be accounted for in order to fully document the Total Cost of this conference for the Fox C-6 taxpayers. So far it's turning out to be a very expensive 3 Day Professional Development Conference.

Marzano Conference Total Cost (SO FAR): $9,045.73

This one conference alone cost the Fox C-6 taxpayer at least $9,045.73 based upon the charges posted on the VISA card and DISCOVER card statements available so far. 

Not all of the hotel and airfare charges have been accounted for so far for this conference. 

Missing Airfare Charges

Currently, the are no charges for airfare posted for Tim Crutchley, Todd Scott or Dianne Critchlow. We can reasonably estimate the additional cost of the airfare for those individuals to be the same as the airfare for the Bakers. The cost of airfare for the Bakers was $591.80 per person which includes the $25 upgrade charge per person per flight boarding.

Based on VISA card charges, it appears that at least the following people attended the conference: Dianne Critchlow, Tim Crutchley, Todd Scott, Dan Baker and Angela Baker.

So at a minimum the cost of the conference will increase by another $591.80 per person for Tim Crutchley, Todd Scott and Dianne Critchlow.  This will add an additional $1,775.40 to the overall cost of the conference.

By adding the additional airfare charges to the amount spent so far at the top of the article, the total cost for this 3 Day Conference would total: $10,821.13.

Wow!! That certainly seems like a lot of money for a 3 Day Conference for 5 people to attend based upon only the amounts that have been accounted for so far.

Missing Hotel Charges

Not all of the hotel charges have been accounted for as well. There are some hotel charges posted on Todd Scott's VISA credit card at the Villas of Grand Cypress for $336.54. There are also charges posted on Dan Baker's VISA card for the Loews Hard Rock Hotel for $1,494.34.

There were both credits and charges posted on Debby Davis's DISCOVER card for the Loews Hard Rock Hotel on the July 2013 DISCOVER card statement. But, since the total charges on her DISCOVER card resulted in a CREDIT to the Loews Hard Rock Hotel, we know there are charges for the hotel on her June 2013 DISCOVER card statement which we do not currently have a copy of. Once that statement becomes available we will update this article.

I'm not sure why some of the hotel charges were posed to Debby Davis's DISCOVER card. Debby Davis was Dianne Critchlow's secretary and the school board secretary. Did Debby Davis attend the conference as well?  Would there be a reason for a school board secretary to be attending a Marzano Educational Leadership Conference?

Did Spouses Attend?
I'm not sure why Angela Burns Baker attended the Marzano Conference. She is the Director of Title I or Federal Programs. She was previously an Assistant Principal but had been promoted to Director of Federal Programs. The Marzano Conference touts itself as an educational leadership conference. I'm not sure what the benefit was to the school district to have her to attend the conference as the director of Federal Programs.

If more spouses attended the conference, then the cost of airfare will increase as well if their airfare was charged to the school district. We will need to obtain the DISCOVER card statements in order to determine the total cost of this conference for the Fox C-6 taxpayers.

Rental Car Expenses - $1,757.20

The rental car charges for this conference were very expensive considering that the conference was in one central location and the attendees could have taken a shuttle bus to the conference. The total expenses for rental car charges accounted for so far is: $1,757.20.

View Marzano Conference Related
Credit Card Statements

Marzano Conference Related Charges on VISA Card

Todd Scott - Total: $561.44
June 18 $   20.90 - Burger King - 63145 (Food on way to airport)

June 19 $ 336.54 - (Luxury golf resort)-- The Villas of Grand Cypress - Orlando, FL
June 24 $ 102.00 - Lambert Airport
June 24 $ 102.00 - Lambert Airport

Dianne Critchlow - $1,160.11
June 18 $   362.04 - Margaritaville - Orlando, FL
June 18 $   770.16 - Alamo Rental Car - Orlando, FL
June 22 $       9.49 - Panera Bread - Orlando, FL
June 22 $     18.42 - MCO Enterprises (airport food) - Orlando, FL

Dan Baker - $2,638.72
June 18 $   128.18 - Loews Hotel Beach Club (check in June 18) - Orlando, FL
June 19 $     79.18 - Loews Hotel Beach Club (check in June 19) - Orlando, FL
June 20 $   774.29 - The Palm Restaurant - Hard Rock Hotel Orlando, FL
June 22 $       9.32 - Loews Emack & Bolio (Gourmet Ice Cream) - Orlando, FL
June 22 $     16.90 - Loews Hard Rock - Orlando, FL
June 22 $ 1493.34 - Loews Hard Rock Hotel - Orlando, FL
June 22 $     30.51 - MCO Au Bon Pain (airport food) - Orlando, FL
June 22 $   107.00 - Lambert Airport

Tim Crutchley - $3,008.79

June 07 $     12.50 - Southwest Airlines (Daniel Bryan Baker - Early Bird Check-In)

June 07 $     12.50 - Southwest Airlines (Daniel Bryan Baker - Early Bird Check-In)

June 07 $     12.50 - Southwest Airlines (Angela Marie Baker - Early Bird Check-In)

June 07 $     12.50 - Southwest Airlines (Daniel Bryan Baker - Early Bird Check-In)
June 07 $   541.80 - Southwest Airlines (Daniel Bryan Baker) - STL - ORLANDO - STL

June 07 $   541.80 - Southwest Airlines (Angela Marie Baker) - STL - ORLANDO - STL

June 17 $   987.04 - Alamo Rental Car Orlando
June 20 $     92.50 - Learning Sciences Int (Orlando Conference?)
June 20 $   288.44 - Hard Rock Orlando
June 22 $   314.53 - Bubba Gump Orlando
June 22 $     46.98 - MCO Au Bon Pain Orlando (airport food)
June 22 $     95.70 - The Parking Spot St. Louis


Marzano Conference Related Charges on DISCOVER Card
There are very few people in the district that have DISCOVER cards. Debby Davis who is the superintendent's secretary and the school board secretary has a DISCOVER card. I'm not sure why there were Hotel charges for the Marzano Conference on her credit card rather than on each individuals credit card. It could have been due to the limits placed on some of the credit cards.

July 2013 DISCOVER Card Statement Charges

Debbie Davis - Positive Charges Only: $1676.67

Total of ALL Charges on Statement - ($905.7)

June 22 $-2306.03 - Loews Hotels Hard Rock - Orlando, FL

June 22 $  -276.34 - Loews Hotels Hard Rock - Orlando, FL

June 22 $ 1574.02 - Loews Hotels Hard Rock - Orlando, FL

June 22 $     57.51 - Loews Hotels Hard Rock - Orlando, FL

June 22 $     45.14 - Loews Hotels Hard Rock - Orlando, FL

More Information Needed (Airfare and Hotel)

More information will have to be obtained in order to fully appreciate the total cost of this "Professional Development" conference that is known as the Marzano Conference in Orlando, Florida which was held June 19-21, 2013.

You Won't Believe This! But Credit Card Statements and Photos Don't Lie!

Several things were discovered this week that are probably going to upset the Fox C-6 taxpayers and parents even more!

It turns out that former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Brown (Critchlow) made quite a few purchases using her district credit card to purchase items / equipment for her own personal use even though they were paid for with taxpayer dollars.

UPDATED 1:20PM: Mr. Brazeal provide me with updated information at 12:19PM from Angela Baker. The information related to any wedding ceremonies in Florida was incorrect. This article has been updated and the incorrect information has been removed. The June 2013 trip to Orlando Florida that Dan and Angela Baker took was related to the Marzano Conference in Orlando from June 19-21, 2013. My apologies to the Bakers for my mistake.

Critchlow Purchased Items for Personal Use
Former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Critchlow turned in receipts for items she purchased for the school district using her school district VISA card. However,  many of those items have been found at her home and were being used for her own personal use rather than being used as intended for school business.

One of the items located and recently recovered from her home just this past Friday, September 5, 2014 was a Nikon 1 Digital Camera. She purchased the camera using her school district VISA card on December 13, 2011 at the TARGET store in Arnold. It's hard to believe that a superintendent making more than $1000 per day would be out doing technology shopping for the district. But apparently she found the time to do so as she was "putting our money into the classroom". It's too bad that it actually ended up in her home rather than the classroom.

The $674.90 TARGET charge on December 13, 2011 stood out while I was reviewing the VISA card statements this past Monday. I flagged it as a charge to look into.

As it turns out, Dianne Critchlow made several large purchases just prior to her daughter's wedding on Saturday December 17, 2011. As someone told me the other day, you just can't make this stuff up it is so unbelievable. Of course, I verified the information from Facebook postings, tweets and photos that I found online before writing about it here. And yes, it was very easy to find and verify.

A coworker of mine told me a few months ago when all the stories about Fox C-6 began hitting the news that he had attended Critchlow's daughter's wedding back in 2011. So when I saw the credit card charges from back then I checked with him to see if he remembered when her daughter's wedding took place. He said the wedding was right before Christmas 2011. The weekend before Christmas that year was December 17, 2011.

After seeing some unusual charges from around that time on Dianne Critchlow's VISA card statement, I sent over several questionable charges to Fox's new CFO John Brazeal and asked him if he had receipts for the purchases in question.

"TECH FUNDS" Was Written On Receipts For Camera
Mr. Brazeal responded with detailed information from the receipts in question. He informed me that the December 13, 2011 charge at TARGET was for a Nikon 1 digital camera and a LEXAR SDHC memory card. That purchase totaled $674.90. The Nikon 1 camera cost $599.99 and the memory card cost $22.99. Mr. Brazeal stated that one of the common themes of Dianne Critchlow's purchases was that she typically paid state sales tax even though the district is exempt from paying sales tax. The amount of sales tax paid on that charge was $51.92.

There was another charge at TARGET on Thursday December 15, 2011 for a Nikon 1 Lens and another Nikon 1 accessory as well as spare batteries and another memory card. The total amount of that purchase was $146.15 and the amount of sales tax paid was $11.24.

According to Mr. Brazeal both of the receipts had "TECH FUNDS" written on them.

After questioning these charges and informing Mr. Brazeal that the charges were made right before Dianne's daughter's wedding, Mr. Brazeal sent an email to Dianne Critchlow asking her where the camera was. It turns out that that the Nikon 1 digital camera was at her house. The camera was recovered by the school district on Friday September 5, 2014.

According to Mr. Brazeal there have been a number of items that had already been recovered from the Critchlow's home as they've been preparing for the audit and reviewing credit card charges and receipts which Dianne's attorney Chet Pleban made a Sunshine Request for when he sent the Mr. Brazeal a Cease and Desist Letter.

Mr. Brazeal told me that earlier this week the district had picked up some chains, logging tongs and other items purchased by Dianne Critchlow on her VISA card for hauling trees. The items were still in the packaging and had not been used. The items were at the Critchlow's home and had to be recovered from their home by a two person team and brought back to the school. There was also some softball equipment as well. Of course that equipment could have easily been used by any school in the district but it had to be recovered from her home as well.

It's becoming quite clear that not only were purchases made using district credit cards by our superintendents that weren't "Instructional Materials" which is all that is allowed to be purchased using district credit cards according to current district policies. But, items were purchased using taxpayer money that were used for personal use rather than school use.

The auditors will be very busy documenting all of this during his review of the district. Now that the public is aware of this we would expect to see some references to this in the state audit when it is released to the public.

Very Serious Problems!
Our community should be very concerned about what's transpired over the last 9+ years after discovering that this has happened numerous times. Not only was former superintendent Dianne Critchlow earning the 3rd highest superintendent salary in the state when she retired, but she was purchasing items using taxpayer dollars and using them for her own personal use even though receipts were turned into the school district as a school purchase.

Hopefully the state auditor will be extremely thorough so as much money and items can be recovered as possible after all that's been discovered in the last month since the school district's credit card statements were obtained via Sunshine Request.

How Could This Have Happened?
Cheryl Hermann is probably still wondering how all of this could have happened still after all of the controls that were put in place by the district after the last state audit in 2002. Cheryl, it was your job to be checking these things for the last 15 years. You were part of the problem for not doing your job as a school board member to verify bill payments and credit card purchases.

Cheryl needs to step down from her position a school board member especially after everyone recently learned that her daughter was just hired into the district as a Teacher's Aide while all of this has been going on. It was not a smart move to hire her daughter and reflect poorly on the current situation.

A National District of Character?
This sort of behavior does not reflect well for a district that was always being touted everywhere as a National District of Character.

I never thought that I would find out that things were this bad in our district and how corrupt and arrogant some of our Central Office administrators had become. I'm also amazed as to how they thought they would get away with this and never get caught.

It is going to take a very long time for our school district and the community to recover from the damage done by a few individuals in our school district.

I certainly hope and believe that it will be a very long time before someone in our school district tries to do what a few individuals have done to embarrass our school district, our community and themselves.