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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Problems at Seckman Elementary School

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

The Arnold-Imperial Leader article stated that:

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

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

Bakers will keep Fox Jobs
Arnold-Imperial Leader

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Extremely Bad Decision at Fox C-6!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why It Took So Long To Get Fox C-6's Credit Card Statements

It took nearly 6 months to obtain copies of the Fox C-6 School District's credit card statements for the 2013-2014 school year. I can't help but wonder if Superintendent Critchlow would have attended the May 2014 graduation ceremony if the district's credit card statements had been made public prior to graduation. The reaction from the community has not been very positive after reviewing Dianne Critchlow's credit card charges.

Recent events may have taken a much different path if I had paid the $170 fee the district wanted to charge me for the credit card statements back in April.

I didn't pay the fee because the district shouldn't have been charging a fee. In fact the credit card statements should have been part of the monthly board meeting packets that our school board members review each month prior to approving payments. The Fox C-6 school board was simply approving the lump sum payments each month to the credit card companies and trusting that the cards were being used wisely and according to school board policies.

We've now learned that most of our school district administrators weren't using district credit cards according to district policy. It also became very clear as to why there was such a resistance to making the credit card statements available to the public. Even the updated Bill Payment reports that were modified in April 2014 didn't provide the proper information as required by school district policies.

Request for State Audit
For these reasons, I suggested that the Fox C-6 BOE or acting superintendent request a State Audit of the Fox C-6 School District at the June 30, 2014 Fox C-6 School Board meeting during Public Comment. It costs less for the school district to request a State Audit than it does to have an audit forced by a signature petition. The Fox C-6 BOE has called a Special Meeting for Tuesday August 12, 2014 at 7PM to approve the request of conducting a state audit of the district.

I would like to see the district request that the State Audit review the last 5 Fiscal Years rather than the 3 suggested by Mr. Brazeal in his letter to the school board. The review should go back to when leadership changes were made in the district during the fall of 2009. Documents should should still be available for the past 5 years.

A State Audit can also check for compliance with state and federal regulations as well as proper certifications, etc. It's very important to know that our superintendent was recommending individuals who were properly certified for the positions to which they were being hired or promoted to within our district.

Unbelievable Credit Card Purchases
The credit card statements really woke up the Fox C-6 community to the fact that there are problems in our district's leadership after reading many of their comments on Facebook. Wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars is an embarrassment to the community. The community's trust of our district's leaders and school board has been shattered. Not only were Central Office Administrators being overpaid, they were also using taxpayer dollars to purchase meals on an almost daily basis when they were the ones who could have most easily afforded to pay for their own meals.

School district policies cover Credit Card usage and Payment Procedures. But it's very obvious that many of our administrators using district supplied credit cards weren't following district policy. Superintendent Critchlow appears to have been the worst offender. She refused to correct the bill payments earlier in the year when asked to include a payment description or reasons for payments as required by district policy.

I'm glad that documented evidence of wrong doing has made it to the public. Now the school board has proof that there have been problems in our district for quite some time and should be able to take action towards terminating those involved. Even the school board shares responsibility for not verifying credit card statements.

One of my concerns currently is the fact that some of those in charge of overseeing and investigating these issues were also participants in the incorrect usage of district credit cards. The credit card companies should be able to provide the statements for the cards and destruction of that data would not look good at this point in time.

I thought it would be helpful for the community to understand why it took so long to obtain the credit card statements by publishing my exchange of emails with the district. The emails start after pointing out at the February 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting my concerns that the district had already paid $2 Million dollars in credit card bills for the school year but credit card statements to document what was purchased was not provided in the board packets.

Accountability means that billing statements must be reviewed each month before the payments are approved by the board of education. Spending $2 Million dollars on credit cards is a lot of money to be spending without checking where and what it's being spent on.

As you can see from the email exchanges below, I requested that the district waive the $170 fee per Missouri Sunshine Law. Eventually I received a response to my request from Dr. Rizzi's on May 1, 2014 near the end of the email chain. My request to waive the fee was denied as quoted below!

Your request to waive the fee of $170 has not been granted. We would be happy to complete the request upon payment.

I asked in a follow up email when the school board decided that they would NOT waive the fees. I never received a response to that question. I had backed them into a corner with my questions so there was no way to answer the question.

I think it is quite clear why Superintendent Critchlow didn't want this information public. That's why my request to waive the fees were denied. But, now that Superintendent Critchlow is no longer pulling all the strings, my most recent Sunshine Request for the credit card statements was supplied FREE of charge.

You'll also notice in the exchange of emails that the district wanted me to forward all of my questions to the district prior to asking them at school board meetings so the district could be more "proactive" rather than "reactive". This request from the district certainly singled me out for asking questions that they don't like to answer. They could have just kept doing what they had been doing by not answering questions but then that's a completely different problem.

Receiving copies of the credit card statements has awakened the Fox C-6 community. It seems that a lot more people are paying attention now and are taking the time to review the data. It's definitely amusing to listen to people's comments as they read through the credit card statements for the first time. There are those purchases that just jump out at you such as "The Disney Store", the "Drunken Noodle", payments to Political Action Committees for school district administrators as well as Red Light Traffic tickets and the almost daily purchase of meals from local or out of town establishments such as the "Swinging Doors Saloon". Then there was the $1000 purchase at Walmart on the same day of another $418.07 purchase at Walmart.

Of course, there were legitimate purchases made by Family and Consumer Science (FACS) teachers that were purchasing "instructional materials" for their classrooms. So please know, that many purchases for Save-A-Lot, Walmart and Shop-n-Save are valid purchases. But, you shouldn't be finding that many charges from our superintendents at Walmart, Shop-n-Save or Save-A-Lot.

The cost to obtain Fox's credit card statements was originally $170 but was eventually FREE! 

Watching people's reactions as they review the credit card statements, PRICELESS!!

It's pretty easy to see why people are upset. Just read what school district administrators were spending our taxpayer dollars on while telling the public that the district didn't have money for various things.

Below are the emails documenting my correspondence with the Fox C-6 Board of Education, Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lorenzo Rizzi for the months of February through May of 2014 as I attempted to obtain the district's credit card statements. Getting answers to questions has been a problem for several years despite what Superintendent Critchlow told the public as you will see when I had to repeat my questions and email multiple times.

Hopefully, this documentation will give the public a lot better understanding as to how these problems have been allowed to go on for so long without anyone knowing about them.

It also helps to know that school board meeting minutes don't document very well what was said during Public Comment like audio or video recordings do. If they had, the public might have known much sooner what was being investigated which may have led to more people questioning our board and things might not have gotten so out of hand.

Email Exchange To Obtain Credit Card Statements

and Correct Bill Payment Reports

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From: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Date: February 19, 2014 1:08:40 PM CST

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary, Critchlow, Dr. Dianne, Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Subject: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting

Mr. Simpson,

Thank you again for your time and public comments at our board meeting last night.  With regard to your requests to;

-include more information in our board packets online

-more detailed credit card bills

-the district budget online

-more descriptions of payments

-the statement according to your calculations the district has approximately $2,000,000 in credit card bills to date 

The district actually has $1,993,799 in credit card bills to date and a lot of schools utilize credit cards/purchasing cards to pay bills for added cash back rebates.  This allows for more value of the school district dollar.  Most of the credit card bills during the current year are electric bills district-wide, monthly copier costs, and as much of our office/teacher types of supplies when the credit card was still allowed for those types of charges. We have received approximately $35,000 in rebates to date.

In order to better meet your needs, thoughts, and questions, we would like to be more proactive with your monthly public comments rather than reactive.  That said, I am requesting that if you know what your questions, opinions, thoughts, or desires are prior to our board meetings, that you to please call me in advance so that we can better serve you and your comments.  This will in no way stop you or prevent you from making monthly public comments, but rather it will allow more validity and affirmation for our board of education that you are following the proper chain of command as per board policy.  If you choose not to contact me in advance, all further responses from your public comments will be a “thank you” response and that we look forward to responding to you in the future when you are willing to communicate with district employees first.  At this time, your request for more detailed credit card bill descriptions, the district budget posted online, and more detailed descriptions of monthly payments are being requested from only one individual and we can make those available to you upon request.  The board appreciates your comments and they will continue to be taken under consideration.

Finally, you added a comment about administrative salaries that was not on your public comment request sheet.  I will be happy to look into this for you upon receiving a return phone call.  My number is listed below.  I look forward to your call.

Andy Jay Arbeitman

Assistant Superintendent of Instruction

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From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 7:24 AM

To: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Dan E. Smith; David Palmer; Steve Holloway; John Laughlin; Laughlin, John; Cheryl Hermann; Linda S. Nash; Dan Kroupa

Subject: RE: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting

[Responses to Mr. Arbeitman's email in red]

From: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 1:09 PM

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Subject: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting

Mr. Simpson,

Thank you again for your time and public comments at our board meeting last night.  With regard to your requests to;

-include more information in our board packets online

Yes, my request to the Fox C6 School Board on 2/18/14 included that all the credit card statements (full originals less account numbers) be included in board packets.

-more detailed credit card bills

Actually, this statement is not completely accurate.  My request to the Board of Education on 2/18/14 was that the Board make available to the public the actual original credit card invoices/statements.  I asked the Board to provide the original statements from the credit card company to the public by including them, in their entirety, in the board packets that are then made available to the public on the District's website. By copying this correspondence to Dan Smith, I renew my request to the Board and ask that a member of the Board respond to my request. 

-the district budget online

My request to the Board of Education on 2/18/14 was that the Board publish the district’s budget(s) on the District’s website. The district recently provided the Board with the 2014-2015 district budget. Please publish the 2014-2015 budget on the district website like they do in other districts such as Rockwood.

-more descriptions of payments

Again, this is not completely accurate.  My request to the Board of Education on 2/18/14 was that the Board include a description for each line item payment/disbursement.  Currently there is no description at all, so it’s not accurate to state that I am requesting "more descriptions" when none currently exist. The only information that the Board currently makes available to the public is the name of the Payee to whom payment is made.  No information regarding what the payment is for is included and, therefore, the information is not useful to the average citizen.  My request to the Board on 2/18/14 was that the Board provide information about the intended purpose for each payment.  The example I provided was the recent payment of $24,000 to "The Bridal Shop" which may seem unusual to the average resident but would be immediately clarified if accompanied with a simple description statement indicating that this payment was for "choir robes".  This was practice in our District previously and it currently is the standard in other area school districts. Since the Board that approves spending based on this information, my request is directed to the Board.  Board policy 3150 states that list of bills for approval, “will be supported by invoices, approved purchase orders, properly submitted vouchers, or in accordance with salaries and salary schedules approved by the Board.” Therefore I renew my request to the Board. 

-the statement according to your calculations the district has approximately $2,000,000 in credit card bills to date 

The district actually has $1,993,799 in credit card bills to date and a lot of schools utilize credit cards/purchasing cards to pay bills for added cash back rebates.  This allows for more value of the school district dollar.  Most of the credit card bills during the current year are electric bills district-wide, monthly copier costs, and as much of our office/teacher types of supplies when the credit card was still allowed for those types of charges. We have received approximately $35,000 in rebates to date.

Thank you for this information; however, to clarify, my concern was and is not that the District utilizes a credit card(s).  My concern is that the Board provides no descriptive information about credit card purchases to the public and does not include credit card statements like they do in other districts in their board packets.

In order to better meet your needs, thoughts, and questions, we would like to be more proactive with your monthly public comments rather than reactive.  That said, I am requesting that if you know what your questions, opinions, thoughts, or desires are prior to our board meetings, that you to please call me in advance so that we can better serve you and your comments.  This will in no way stop you or prevent you from making monthly public comments, but rather it will allow more validity and affirmation for our board of education that you are following the proper chain of command as per board policy.  If you choose not to contact me in advance, all further responses from your public comments will be a “thank you” response and that we look forward to responding to you in the future when you are willing to communicate with district employees first.  At this time, your request for more detailed credit card bill descriptions, the district budget posted online, and more detailed descriptions of monthly payments are being requested from only one individual and we can make those available to you upon request.  The board appreciates your comments and they will continue to be taken under consideration.

This is where we disagree, and where I seek your further very specific clarification. Please provide me with a copy of the Fox C6 school board policy to which you refer above.

Perhaps you may be referring to school board Policy 1480 regarding “School/Community Relations - Public Complaints”. It states:

“Although no member of the community shall be denied the right to petition the Board of Education for redress of a grievance, the complaints will be referred through the proper administrative channels for solution before investigation or action by the Board. Exceptions are complaints that concern Board actions or Board operations only.”

Obviously, Policy 1480 is not applicable here since my concerns meet the stated exception, i.e. the concerns I addressed at the 2/18/14 school board meeting are about “Board actions” and “Board operations” and I am therefore not subject to any “chain of command”.  My concerns/questions were not about student or personnel issues, instruction, discipline, or learning materials.  But perhaps there is another policy that applies of which I am unaware?

Furthermore, I find it shocking that you have made a threat to me on behalf of the school Board-- “If you choose not to contact me in advance, all further responses from your public comments will be a “thank you” response and that we look forward to responding to you in the future when you are willing to communicate with district employees first.”

Therefore, at your earliest convenience, please provide me with any school Board policy, documentation, or correspondence that supports your claims that:

• the School Board may refuse to respond to a public question/concern about Board actions unless the resident “first” submits their concern to you
• you, Andy Arbeitman, an employee of the school district, hold the authority to prescreen questions and concerns from members of the public to determine if, in your assessment, the concern is “valid” or not “valid” for consideration by the Board
• the Board has made the decision to abdicate its responsibility and has expressly delegated its authority to you to determine if questions/concerns from the public are “valid” or not “valid” and deserving of a reply from them

Finally, you added a comment about administrative salaries that was not on your public comment request sheet.  I will be happy to look into this for you upon receiving a return phone call.  My number is listed below.  I look forward to your call.

Your request seems silly since my only availability for phone calls is outside of regular business hours when you would not normally be in your office.  My question, as asked to the School Board on 2/18/14 is that the School Board of Education include the administrative salary schedule on the district website. It should also be included in the board packets with actual salaries and not just “X”’s for the salary amounts. It doesn’t provide the public with any information to only place an “X” for a salary amount. Generally, I can be reached by phone at home between the hours of 6 and 7 a.m. or between 8 and 10 p.m. Or, if it's more convenient, please simply include this information, along with your responses to my other questions contained in this email, in your response.

I also request that the Board of Education delay approving the Board’s updated Policies, Regulations and Forms until the April 2014 Board meeting. The District and the Board should have properly notified the public that they were available for review and recommendations. No announcements or notifications were posted on the district website or in the local paper notifying the public that the updated Policies and Regulations had been posted for the public to review.

Prior to approving the updated Polices, Regulations and Forms, please remove Vickie Hanson as a point of contact. She retired from the district in 2008.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

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From: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Date: March 19, 2014 11:23:46 AM CDT

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary, Crutchley, Tim - CO Admin., Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Subject: Response to Public Comments at the March 18, 2014 board meeting

The district has their revised board policies on the website for review; however, we will add a public notice so that the patrons can be more informed.

The board of education continues to be in consideration of Mr. Simpson’s comments and suggestions.  In the meantime, upon request via email or phone, hard copies of the budget and such will be made available to Mr. Simpson.  Please contact Andy Arbeitman at 636-296-8000 or arbeitmana@fox.k12.mo.us.

Andy Jay Arbeitman

Assistant Superintendent of Instruction

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From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 7:35 AM

To: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent; Dan E. Smith - Board President; David Palmer - Board Vice President

Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Steve Holloway; John Laughlin; Cheryl Hermann; Linda S. Nash; Dan Kroupa

Subject: RE: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting

Thank you for delaying the decision to approve the school board policies at the March 2014 school board meeting and for posting a link to them on the front page of Fox’s website.

Since the March 2014 school board meeting, I discovered that the entire section of Employee Evaluations was left out of the board policies Forms section even though they are listed in the Form’s Table of Contents. I was able to locate the Employee Evaluation Forms in the 2012 draft version of the board policies on the district website and review them. These should be added back into the Forms section of the document.

Contrary to Superintendent Critchlow’s statement at the November 5, 2013 board workshop, all questions from Public Comments are not answered. Many questions have gone unanswered.

At the February 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting I asked the following questions that are still unanswered despite renewing my requests in my previous email:

How can the school board approve Bill Payments when there are no payment descriptions documenting what each payment is for?

How can the school board approve paying the credit card bills when they aren’t provided with the credit card statements to document what was purchased with the credit cards?

I also asked where I could find a copy of the Administrator Salary Schedule? Could it be found on the website? The copy from last year’s board packets for the 2013-2014 school year only had “X”’s for the Administrator Salary amounts.

I haven’t received answers to these questions. I was simply told by Mr. Arbeitman in his email that if I wished to have him look into the matter that I should give him a call.

Fox has now paid more than $2 Million in credit card bills for the 2013-2014 school year and the board packets did not include credit card statements. There needs to be accountability for this spending. Fox’s board policies states that Bill Payments need to be supported by Invoices, Purchase Orders and Vouchers. Those aren’t provided in the board packets. If a board member wants to know what a payment is for, they must make a request for the documentation. If there aren’t any descriptions on the payments, it’s difficult for them to know what to ask for.

Please email me electronic copies in PDF format of the Credit Card statements for the American Express, Visa and Discover card for the 2013-2014 school year.

Also, please email me a PDF copy of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Fox C-6 Administrator Salary schedules that include salary amounts.

The Fox C-6 school board needs to request that the district post the school district budget on the district website like they do in other school districts. If Northwest, Camdenton, Rockwood and Parkway can afford to take the 30 seconds that it takes to copy the documents to their district website, Fox should be able to do the same as well.

I haven’t received a response from Mr. Arbeitman documenting the policy that he alluded to about following the “chain of command”.  Mr. Arbeitman spoke about this at the November 5, 2013 school board workshop.  At that workshop, when Mr. Arbeitman suggested that the district put a policy in place, Superintendent Critchlow stated that the district already had rules in place. Board member Cheryl Herman said that “It’s not a must.” that the community has to contact district administrators prior to speaking to the school board.

Please review our school board policies and provide me with the section that states that questions concerning board actions or decisions requires patrons to first speak with district employees prior to speaking to the board.

I look forward to your response.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

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From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 7:50 AM

To: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent; Smith, Dan - Board President; Palmer, David - Board Vice President

Cc: Crutchley, Tim - CO Admin.; Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Holloway, Steve - Director; Laughlin, John - Director; Laughlin, John; Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Nash, Linda - Director; Kroupa, Dan - Director

Subject: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board and Missouri Sunshine Law Documents Request

Last week on March 28, 2014, I emailed everyone on the Fox C-6 School Board my questions which I posed at the February 2014 school board meeting. I have not received a response to my questions as required by school board policy.

I didn’t even receive any acknowledgements that anyone in the district or on the school board received my email. I did receive two Auto Replies stating that Superintendent Critchlow and a school board member were out of the office.

In last week’s email, I renewed my request for answers to my questions from the February 2014 board meeting and the questions posed in my March 18 email to the board. I also made a request for electronic copies (PDF) of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Administrator Salary Schedule as well as electronic copies (PDF) of the credit card statements for the 2013-2014 school year that the school board approves payments for each month as listed in the Bill Payments.

Please consider this email a Missouri Sunshine Law request for electronic versions of the documents requested above as well as the requests for information that I emailed to the board on March 18, 2014.

I also requested from Mr. Arbeitman a copy of the board policy that states that persons wishing to speak to the school board must follow a “chain of command” for questions that are board actions. My review of our board policies was documented in my March 18 email. Please provide the policies as requested that states a “chain of command” requirement for board actions.

I also renew my request to the school board to post the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school district budgets on the school district’s website like they do in many other school districts such as Northwest, Parkway, Rockwood, Camdenton and many more. It takes less than 30 seconds of time to publish the documents on the district website. Hearing Superintendent Critchlow state that there is no state law or mandate that requires our school district to even have a website is not a good excuse for not publishing the data. As a school board, you should be requesting that this data be made available to the public on the district website.

As Fox C-6 school board members, you were elected by the community to represent us. You took an oath and are required to follow the Code of Ethics as documented in our school board policies. You are required by the Code of Ethics to “maintain the public trust through full and open communication” and“Insist that school funds be spent prudently and effectively to provide maximum educational benefits.”

Can you please explain how failing to respond to emails from parents or patrons or failing to respond to Public Comments follows our school district’s Code of Ethics which state, “As a member of the school Board, I shall maintain the public trust through full and open communication.”?

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

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From: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary

Date: April 8, 2014 11:39:41 AM CDT

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Hermann, Cheryl - Director, Critchlow, Dr. Dianne, Dan Kroupa, Smith, Dan - Board President, David Palmer - Board Vice President, Davis, Debby - CO Secretary, Laughlin, John, Linda Nash, Steve Holloway

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board and Missouri Sunshine Law Documents Request

Mr. Simpson,

Attached is a letter in regard to your Mo Sunshine Law request and the items that you requested that the District does have in a pdf format.  The letter will explain the procedure to follow in receiving the remaining documents you requested.

Thank you,

Debby A. Davis

Administrative Asst. to the Supt/BOE

Fox C-6 School District

---

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2014 7:42 AM

To: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary

Cc: Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Dan Kroupa; Smith, Dan - Board President; David Palmer - Board Vice President; Laughlin, John; Linda Nash; Steve Holloway

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board and Missouri Sunshine Law Documents Request

Thank you for your reply.

No one on the school board has addressed my questions that I presented at the February 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting and that I included in my March 28 and April 4, 2014 emails regarding Bill Payments and credit card payments. When will these questions be answered by our school board?

The administrator salary schedule that I requested is the one that was included in the board packets in the past. It lists all of the administrator's names and positions along with their salaries for each of the upcoming school years. I have attached a copy of the report from the 2013 school board packets as an example. However, the Administrator Salary report that I attached from the 2013 board packet did not list the salary amounts. The report only had the letter “X” where the salary amounts were to be listed. Please provide the Administrator Salary Report in PDF format similar to the one attached for the 2013-2016 school years with salary amounts included. Also, please include Superintendent Critchlow’s 2014-2015 salary amount as well.

Regarding my question on “chain of command”, I have read the board policies on Public Complaints. My questions to the school board regarding Bill Payments are not complaints. They are simply questions for the board asking them how they can approve bill payments without being provided descriptions for the bill payments or the credit card statements for them to review each month. Nowhere in our board policies does it state that I cannot ask our school board questions at a school board meeting during Public Comments without first contacting district administrators or personnel for board actions.

As our elected school board members, Fox's Code of Ethics states that "As a member of the school Board, I shall:" accept and follow each of the items listed in the Code of Ethics; following our district’s Code of Ethics is not optional.

My request for the credit card statements for this school year was for the public interest and not a request for personal or commercial interest. Therefore, I am requesting that ALL fees for locating and copying the credit card statements for the 2013-2014 school year be waived as documented on the Missouri Attorney General's website so the credit card statements can be provided to the Fox C-6 community so they can review and understand where their tax dollars are being spent.

http://ago.mo.gov/sunshinelaw/requestform.htm

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

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From: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary

Date: April 11, 2014 1:57:38 PM CDT

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Hermann, Cheryl - Director, Cheryl Hermann, Critchlow, Dr. Dianne, Dan Kroupa, Smith, Dan - Board President, David Palmer - Board Vice President, Laughlin, John, Linda Nash, Steve Holloway

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board and Missouri Sunshine Law Documents Request

Mr. Simpson,

I apologize for the confusion but in your request for records you asked for (“In last week’s email, I renewed my request for answers to my questions from the February 2014 board meeting and the questions posed in my March 18 email to the board. I also made a request for electronic copies (PDF) of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Administrator Salary Schedule”).

Thank you for the clarification of what you were requesting.  Attached are the Administrator Salaries for the 2013-2014  and the 2014-2015 school years.

Debby A. Davis

Administrative Asst. to the Supt/BOE

Fox C-6 School District

---

From: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin

Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 2:52 PM

To: Rich Simpson

Subject: response to public comments

Mr. Simpson,

I would like to thank you for your public comment last evening.  I am writing to inform that beginning with the BOE May meeting, the payment of bills will show more detail which includes credit card purchases.  These will be included in the board packets and posted on the website each month. I have scanned an example for your viewing.

I hope you have a great Easter Break!

Sincerely,

Dr. Lorenzo C. Rizzi

Assistant Superintendent

Secondary Education

National District of Character

Achievement - Character - Excellence

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Monday, April 28, 2014 7:07 AM 

To: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin; Laughlin, John - Director 

Cc: John Laughlin 

Subject: RE: response to public comments 

Dr. Rizzi and Mr. Laughlin,

I appreciate your efforts in providing more transparency for the Fox C-6 community. However, in order for the transparency to be meaningful, the reports must be accurate. As I pointed out to Dr. Rizzi a couple of weeks ago in my email, the Vendor Names will need to be correct on the report for credit card payments otherwise the new reports will raise even more questions about the purchases.

The credit card payments should also have a transaction description listed with them other than CARD SERVICES or AMERICAN EXPRESS similar to the check payments. Perhaps the empty LINE AMOUNT column can be used to populate the credit card account on the report. If the community cannot trust the information being supplied by the district, the district will need to provide the credit card statements along with the Bill Payments Report in the board packets as I have previously requested.

I have not received a response from my Sunshine Request regarding the waiving of the $170 fee to obtain the credit card statements for the year. As I stated at the April 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting, the credit card statements are public record and are not for personal or commercial interest. Providing the credit card statements to the community is for the interest of everyone in the Fox C-6 community. Therefore, I renew my request for the district to provide PDF copies of the credit statements for the 2013-2014 school year and that the school district waives any fees for providing that information. The new copiers recently procured by the district have a scan to PDF or network function making it very easy to produce a PDF document of the credit card statements.

Once the new Bill Payments Report format is updated to provide the correct information, I ask that all of the 2013-2014 school board packets be updated to include the new information provided in the new report. This will help reduce questions regarding this year’s payments. The board packets are already quickly updated each month with the late materials bill payments and replacing those pages with the new report should not take very long.

I attached a copy of the sample Bill Payments report that Dr. Rizzi emailed me on Wednesday April 16, 2014. I rotated the report 90 degrees to make it easier to read.


Thank you,

Rich Simpson

---

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 6:39 AM

To: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin

Subject: RE: response to public comments

Dr. Rizzi,

Thank you for emailing a sample report. That’s good news and will greatly help the board and the community in knowing how our tax dollars are spent by the district.

I would like to suggest changing the column order of the report to having the VENDOR NAME listed prior to the TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION.

In the final version, will the Transaction Description for Check Payments post a description for the payment rather than duplicating the VENDOR NAME?

I hope you have a nice Easter break as well.

Sincerely,

Rich Simpson

---

From: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin

Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2014 11:32 AM

To: Rich Simpson

Subject: RE: response to public comments

Rich,

Thank you for the suggestions. I will pass them along and I will let you know whether or not there will be any more changes. I am not sure how long that will take.

Thanks again,

Lorenzo

---

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Monday, April 28, 2014 7:07 AM

To: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin; Laughlin, John - Board President

Cc: John Laughlin

Subject: RE: response to public comments

Dr. Rizzi and Mr. Laughlin,

I appreciate your efforts in providing more transparency for the Fox C-6 community. However, in order for the transparency to be meaningful, the reports must be accurate. As I pointed out to Dr. Rizzi a couple of weeks ago in my email, the Vendor Names will need to be correct on the report for credit card payments otherwise the new reports will raise even more questions about the purchases.

The credit card payments should also have a transaction description listed with them other than CARD SERVICES or AMERICAN EXPRESS similar to the check payments. Perhaps the empty LINE AMOUNT column can be used to populate the credit card account on the report. If the community cannot trust the information being supplied by the district, the district will need to provide the credit card statements along with the Bill Payments Report in the board packets as I have previously requested.

I have not received a response from my Sunshine Request regarding the waiving of the $170 fee to obtain the credit card statements for the year. As I stated at the April 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting, the credit card statements are public record and are not for personal or commercial interest. Providing the credit card statements to the community is for the interest of everyone in the Fox C-6 community. Therefore, I renew my request for the district to provide PDF copies of the credit statements for the 2013-2014 school year and that the school district waives any fees for providing that information. The new copiers recently procured by the district have a scan to PDF or network function making it very easy to produce a PDF document of the credit card statements.

Once the new Bill Payments Report format is updated to provide the correct information, I ask that all of the 2013-2014 school board packets be updated to include the new information provided in the new report. This will help reduce questions regarding this year’s payments. The board packets are already quickly updated each month with the late materials bill payments and replacing those pages with the new report should not take very long.

I attached a copy of the sample Bill Payments report that Dr. Rizzi emailed me on Wednesday April 16, 2014. I rotated the report 90 degrees to make it easier to read.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

---

From: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin

Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 9:40 AM

To: Rich Simpson; Laughlin, John - Board President

Cc: John Laughlin; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Cheryl Hermann; Steve Holloway; Vernon Sullivan; Kroupa, Dan; Mullins, Dawn; David Palmer - Board Vice President

Subject: RE: response to public comments

Mr. Simpson,

I apologize for the delayed response.  Here are the answers to your questions and suggestions:

• The bill details will be posted on the website and placed in board packets as conveyed in the sample bill descriptions I provided to you previously.
• The bill details will be placed on the website and in the board packets from this point forward. 
• Your request to waive the fee of $170 has not been granted.  We would be happy to complete the request upon payment. 

I have highlighted your questions to verify that I have answered them.  Thank you for your suggestions and concerns.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lorenzo Rizzi

---

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 6:45 AM

To: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin; Laughlin, John - Director

Cc: John Laughlin; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Cheryl Hermann; Steve Holloway; Vernon Sullivan; Kroupa, Dan; Mullins, Dawn; David Palmer

Subject: RE: response to public comments

Dr. Rizzi,

Thank you for your reply.

When were these matters discussed and who made these decisions?

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

---

From: Rich Simpson

Date: May 6, 2014 6:39:52 AM CDT

To: Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin, Laughlin, John - Board President

Cc: John Laughlin, Critchlow, Dr. Dianne, Cheryl Hermann, Steve Holloway , Vernon Sullivan, Kroupa, Dan, Mullins, Dawn, David Palmer - Board Vice President

Subject: RE: response to public comments

Dr. Rizzi,

These decisions were not discussed or made during the Public Session of the April 15, 2014 board meeting.

Were all of the issues discussed and decided during Closed Session under Agenda Item 8.0 - Sections 610.021.14 Records and 610.021.22 Credit Cards as listed on the April 15, 2014 Fox C-6 Board Meeting Agenda?

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

How the Fox C-6 School Board Handled Questions and Suggestions?

How does your school board handle Questions and Suggestions?

Do they respond?

Below is a compilation of emails I sent to our school board members last fall along with the responses I received if a response was sent. This doesn't include questions I may have asked during Public Comments unless they were mentioned in my emails. The emails below provide you with an idea of what I have been asking our school board to do for several years. The responses did not come from our school board. My requests or suggestions were denied by Superintendent Critchlow or it was recommended by the district's legal counsel that the district not do things such as hosting open discussions with the public.

You may wonder why Superintendent Critchlow was the only person to provide responses to my questions and requests. You may also sense some hostility in her responses to answering questions that the school board should have been answering, especially with regards to doing her job as a superintendent. It's the superintendent's job to keep the school board and public informed.

It took years to get individual email addresses for our school board members posted on the district website. It also took years to get school board packets and financial data published on the district website so the public could review the same information provided to our school board members just like other school districts have been doing for years.

It was almost as if Critchlow didn't want the public to know what was going on in our school district. Did her actions violate school board policy?

The real question is why hasn't the school board been able to stand up to Superintendent Critchlow and demand answers and demand that the data is published on our district website?

Due to the recent change in leadership, things have changed. The school board is running our school board meetings as they should be. Dr. Rizzi no longer states before Public Comments that you cannot mention names or positions during your Public Comments. Our new Chief Financial Officer John Brazeal told me that he is very interested in improving transparency and keeping the community informed about the district's financial picture. Yesterday he responded to my email request for legal fees dating back to the 2007-2008 school year. Mr. Brazeal also informed me that he plans to "have multiple years of audited statements uploaded to the website disclosing past financial activity."

As you read through the exchange of emails below, you will see that Superintendent Critchlow flat out refused to publish financial data and told me that I could make Sunshine Requests for that data. I was also told, I would have to pay for data many times that should have already been published on the district website like credit card statements. Credit card statements should have been included in school board packets each month for board members to review. They do it in other school districts.

Years of emails and Public Comments thoroughly document refusal after refusal or excuse after excuse as to why our district couldn't post data for the public. Perhaps if our community would have been kept apprised more on our financial situation, the district might not have gotten into the financial crisis that it's currently in.

The last email in this exchange of emails has Superintendent Critchlow washing her hands of communicating with me and passing that job off to Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman. Since then, that job was passed off to Dr. Rizzi.

For the amount of money that the taxpayers of the Fox C-6 School District (52%) and the taxpayers of the state of the state of Missouri (41%) were paying to support our superintendent's salary and the salaries of our administrators, she should have been willing and able to provide the information being requested, that so many other school districts have been providing to their taxpayers for years. But in doing so, it would have empowered the community to ask questions about what was going on in the Fox C-6 School District, thus ending her reign of control.


Now the public is asking questions and looking for answers!

Fall 2013 Emails Sent to the Fox C-6 School Board

and Responses from the District

=================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2013 7:35 AM

To: John Laughlin

Subject: Administrator Salary Schedules

Importance: High

John,

Did you ever receive the Administrator Salary Schedule for 2013-2014?

I'm sure you would have in order to approve it. The one that was included in the board meeting packets for the public didn't have any amounts in the schedule. It had "X"s for the amounts.

I also made a request to Debbie Davis to provide the 2013-2014 Budget on the district website at the June board meeting but nothing has been posted. 

I think the real issue for our district is the lack of transparency. We also have a real issue of sweeping the problems under the rug and hiding them from the public like in the board meeting minutes when recording Public Comments topics. Dr. Rizzi stated at the August 2013 board meeting in response to my concern that Fox follows the law and that all the district has to record is a Motion, a Second and a Vote. Well, that's not true. The minutes are supposed to be a "journal" of the meeting. I know why things are left out of the minutes but the public doesn't. Doing this doesn't provide a good example of a National District of Character.

For an example of incredible transparency, you can take a look at Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina. This is the school district that Dianne Critchlow spoke about at the August board meeting where kids can earn their associates degree and high school diploma at the same time.

The Wake County Public Schools has 75,000 students, 170 schools, a budget of $1.3 BILLION Dollars and 864 square miles. Compare those numbers to Fox.

Their superintendent's salary for 2012-2013 was $250,000.

Here is Wake County Public Schools Finance page on their website. 

http://www.wcpss.net/domain/98

The Wake County school's finance page has budget reports dating back to 2007 on their website as well as their 2013-2014 budget.

The Fox C-6 community needs this type of information available to them so they can help keep our salary schedule in line with the community's expectations. Almost anyone that finds out that Fox's superintendent makes over $250,000 reacts in total shock. Who would have thought that we would be able to be handing out pay raises as high as 17% since she started as superintendent. Her salary is quite out of touch with reality. Even when comparing our administrative salaries in general, Fox had the 2nd highest Average Salary for Administrators in the state. Dianne Critchlow's salary was the 4th highest in the state. When you compare the demographics of our school district, it doesn't make much sense. I understand the whole Public School Retirement System issue that the average of the highest 3 consecutive years of of pay is averaged for computing retirement amounts. This means that Dianne Critchlow will be a huge burden on  the system for many years to come pulling in over $15,000 per month in retirement thanks to the generous pay raises she has received over the years.

Fox still doesn't have a Project Lead The Way program for science and engineering and only 56% of the graduates students at Fox are taking the ACT test. Fox is in the bottom 25% of the state in Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT. Dianne fails to mention that fact in her presentation each year. Compare that to Rockwood and Parkway where 95% to 96% of their graduates take the test. Rockwood and Parkway pays for each of their students to take the test one time. The cost of the test is $35. 

I was also quite disappointed with the fact that no one spoke up when Dianne stated that Fox had The Highest Score in Jefferson County on the MSIP 5 test. She also said that other districts in the county had scores in the 70's and 80's. Neither of those statements were true. Honesty, Trustworthy and Integrity are emblazoned as watermarks on many of the documents from Fox. However, Superintendent Critchlow doesn't set a very good example for those traits even during board meetings. 

There are so many things wrong with this picture. Things really need to change. The school board needs to start listening to and communicating with the community. Our district needs an advisory committee like they now have at Rockwood and other school districts in order to get things turned around and going in the right direction. It's very disappointing and embarrassing to see what has happened over the years since Dianne was appointed as Superintendent of Fox C-6.

Thanks,

Rich Simpson

================================================================

From: John Laughlin

Date: September 8, 2013 12:30:34 PM CDT

To: Richard Simpson

Subject: RE: Administrator Salary Schedules

Thanks for the info

John Laughlin, CTS

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 7:22 AM

To: Smith, Dan - Board Vice President; Kroupa, Dan - Director; Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Nash, Linda - Board President; Laughlin, John - Director; Holloway, Steve - Director; Palmer, David - Director

Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Superintendent; Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin

Subject: Questions, Concerns and Suggestions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Importance: High

Dear Fox C-6 School Board,

Thank you for your service to our community. As you are aware, I have presented several concerns to the board over the past several years. Some issues have been addressed but many have not. One of those concerns was one that I addressed at the August 2013 school board meeting again regarding what is recorded in board meeting minutes for Public Comments. Dr. Rizzi responded with a statement that wasn't completely accurate regarding what is required by state law for board meeting minutes.

Missouri Sunshine Law states as shown below states that a "journal or minutes" shall be taken and retained by the public governmental body, including but not limited to a record of any votes taken at such meeting. It is not accurate to state that board meeting minutes are only required to reflect a motion, a second and a vote. The board minutes shall be a journal of what occurred at the meeting. Leaving information out of school board meeting minutes gives the appearance that the district or the board is trying to hide things from the public. It reflects poorly on the board when you approve board meeting minutes knowing that there is information that has not been documented.

http://www.moga.mo.gov/mostatutes/stathtml/61000000201.html

A journal or minutes of open and closed meetings shall be taken and retained by the public governmental body, including but not limited to a record of any votes taken at such meeting. The minutes shall include the date, time, place, members present, members absent and a record of any votes taken. When a roll call vote is taken, the minutes shall attribute each “yea” and “nay” vote or abstinence if not voting to the name of the individual member of the public governmental body.

The board has been asked several times to audio or video record Fox C-6 board meetings like they do in other districts. This would preclude any problems or concerns with the way the board meeting minutes are being documented. Many other school districts, the City of Arnold and the Jefferson County council video record their meetings.

Why doesn't Fox audio or video record its school board meetings and post them for the public to view or listen to like they do in other districts?

My father told me that he audio recorded all board meetings when he worked for the district and when he was on the school board.

When did the school district stop audio recording school board meetings?

Another ongoing issue is about concerns being brought to the school board that are not addressed. Several people have informed me that they have emailed our board president Mr. Dan Smith and have not received a response or even an acknowledgement, myself included. Our school district is a community effort. The community elected you to represent us and deserves a response.

The Rockwood School District has gone through similar issues. Rockwood has a group of concerned citizens that have been bringing about positive changes in their district. One of those recent changes is more community involvement. As I mentioned to several board members prior to the August 2013 board meeting, Rockwood now sets aside 30 minutes prior to some of their board meetings for open discussion with the community. Fox should have the same type of meetings if it wants to regain respect and trust from the community.

Mr. Dan Smith stated at one of the recent board meetings that he would like to see more people in our community get involved with the school district. In order to get involved, the school board and the board president will need to respond to the community. Our board policies state that someone will respond to Public Comments within a week whenever possible. It appears that this policy is rarely followed. Perhaps, open discussions with the community could correct this problem. 

Below are some links regarding Listening Times and Community Conversations from the Rockwood School District website:

Board listening times information for the Rockwood School District:

http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/boardofeducation/Pages/BoardListeningTimes.aspx

Rockwood School District Community Conversations:

http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/BOARDOFEDUCATION/Pages/CommunityConversations.aspx

Another item to note on the Rockwood School District website is a web page that documents how to file a Sunshine Law Request with the school district. The webpage also lists Sunshine Requests received by the district, who made the request and a downloadable copy of the documents provided per the request in PDF format as a service to the community. As a school board, you should also want this same type of information for the Fox C-6 community as well. Please consider this as a formal request for a similar webpage on the Fox C-6 website. This would include the requests that I have made in the past for board meeting packets and information such as administrative salary schedules.

Transparency and open government is a very important part of building a strong school district. Below is a link to Rockwood's website for Public Records as well as a few examples of some of the documents on the page.

Rockwood School District Request for Public Records page:

http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/BOARDOFEDUCATION/Pages/RequestforPublicRecords.aspx

A link to a request for Rockwood School District’s Attorney's Fees:
http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/boardofeducation/Request%20for%20Public%20Records%20Documents/FY12_Attd%20Recap_All.pdf

Rockwood School Board Responsibilities and Training Information:

http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/boardofeducation/Request%20for%20Public%20Records%20Documents/Response%2009062012.pdf

At the June 2013 board meeting I asked Debby Davis to post the 2014 Fiscal Year school budget on the district website that was provided to the board in their late materials for approval. The 2014 budget still hasn't been posted to the district website or added to the board meeting packets. The August 2013 board meeting packet was updated on the district website to include the checks that were provided in the boards late materials for approval at the board meeting that were not in the original board packet. However, the 2012-2013 board meeting packets have not been updated as of yet. Please update the 2012-2013 board meeting packets to include the missing checks that are currently posted on the district website. There are several hundred checks possibly more than a thousand that are not accounted for in the 2012-2013 board packets.

Another current concern is that the board packets contain a new Bill Payments report that doesn't include a description as to what the checks are for. The new check register report only provides the payee name. This will cause people to question why district employees such as Brad Duncan or Kelly Nash are receiving checks for several thousand dollars. Without descriptions such as on the old check register, this could become a problem and a cause for concern.

It would also be helpful if a file naming convention was used to name files that are being published in the new Document Containers on the district website so they are displayed in date order. Currently they are displayed in alphabetic order. The previous district website had the documents manually placed in date in order. A suggested naming convention would be to start the name of the document with a numeric year, month, day (for example: ”2013-09-17 Fox C-6 Board Meeting Packet-website.pdf”).

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

Richard Simpson

================================================================

From: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne

Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 10:02 AM

To: Rich Simpson; Smith, Dan - Board Vice President; Kroupa, Dan - Director; Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Nash, Linda - Board President; Laughlin, John - Director; Holloway, Steve - Director; Palmer, David - Director

Cc: Davis, Debby  CO Secretary; Superintendent; Rizzi, Dr. Lorenzo - CO Admin; Administrators - CO

Subject: RE: Questions, Concerns and Suggestions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Mr. Simpson,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.  I have looked at some of the sites from Rockwood School District and do think you have shared some good ideas.  I would like to explore these links in some more depth and share with my administrative team and the BOE.  Thank you for sharing.

In regards to the request of the 2014 Budget, Debby does not recall you asking for the budget at the June meeting, but will provide you with a copy tonight. 

If you asked in your public comment, you did not share a copy of your comment so she did not have any recollection nor did she receive a Sunshine Law Request.

The checks for Ms. Nash were the start up cash for all 19 buildings to make change for lunches for the first day of school.  Mr. Duncan’s check was the startup money for the concession stands for the fall games.

Dr. Rizzi’s statement regarding recording for Public Comments came from the council of Missouri School Board Association(MSBA). They indicated that if the date and time were on the agenda, that would suffice.

Per MSBA council, minutes are not verbatim, it is merely an account of the meeting through the board secretaries eyes.

The board meetings were audio recorded in 1996. Then it stopped, reason unknown. It began again in 2001.  The last recoding was June 2005 per the direction of the Superintendent Jim Chellew.

As far as videotaping the board meetings, the district has never accomplished this task due to the small technology staff.  It would be up to the board as a whole, if they wish to do so.  I do believe this was explained to you when it was first asked.

In regards to your last paragraph, the new Tyler SIS system will assist the Debby in file naming.  Our last system she had to do so manually.  She has not received the training,  but is scheduled to do so. However, thank you for your suggestion but she will find a system that works best for her and our new system.

Items that are presented in the original board packet are not added to the website after each meeting.  These are late materials. It is not normally Debby’s practice to go back and change them due to time constraints.  However, it is recorded in the attachments and you can request to view them at any time.  We simply just do not have the staff to accommodate all requests and suggestions.  I wish we did, but we try to put all our dollars into the classrooms for the students.

I believe I have addressed every issue that you have brought forward.

Mr. Simspon, as we have always stated, our door is always open for you to schedule a meeting with anyone in our office to address any area of concern.  Please provide a list of the concerns that you believe have not been addressed and we will gladly provide a response.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Dr. Dianne Critchlow

================================================================

From: Richard Simpson

Date: 10/01/2013 8:04 AM

To: Smith, Dan - Board Vice President; Nash, Linda - Board President; Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Kroupa, Dan - Director; Palmer, David - Director; Laughlin, John - Director; Holloway, Steve - Director

Subject: Some Issues, Concerns and Suggestions for the Fox C-6 School Board to consider for discussion during their workshop 

Dear Fox C-6 School Board,

Please review the following concerns and suggestions as items of discussion in your school board workshop this evening. If they cannot be addressed or discussed this evening, hopefully they can be addressed directly or in a future meeting or workshop. I previously emailed the school board on September 17, 2013 with some issues and concerns. The only response I received was from Superintendent Critchlow to my concerns. I did receive a PDF copy of the 2013-2014 School Budget yesterday from board secretary Debbie Davis. As I mention below, Fox C-6 needs to develop or perhaps it already has a protocol for addressing concerns from citizens in the community. If the district already has a protocol perhaps the board is not aware of it or it simply isn't being followed. Rockwood has a protocol regarding this topic which I point out below and also pointed out in my September 17 email to the board.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

Topics and Concerns for the Fox C-6 School Board:

• Please address the problem with respect to responding to emails from citizens in the community. It is disrespectful that Mr. Dan Smith our school board president does not respond to or acknowledge emails from citizens in the community. Fox C-6 needs to develop a protocol similar to what Rockwood has adopted that covers how its school board responds to the community. Fox already has school board policy in place stating that Public Comments will be responded to within a week of a board meeting when possible but this policy is not followed. This protocol should address emails or letters to the board. I provided a link to Rockwood's protocol in my September 17th email to the board. The document is located on Rockwood's district website on the Sunshine Law Request page. Mr. Smith stated at the end of one of the board meetings this year that he would like to see more citizens in the community involved in the school district. If Mr. Smith expects citizens to become involved, then Mr. Smith should be expected to respond to their requests for information or suggestions as the president of the school board. The school board has been elected by the community to represent the community. In order for the school board to represent the community, the school board needs to respond to their constituents.
• Superintendent salary and administrative salaries in general. The recent Leader newspaper article regarding school district administrative pay was definitely a wake up call for the community to see Superintendent Critchlow's salary. It is unrealistic that Fox's Superintendent would have the 4th Highest Superintendent Salary in the state of Missouri for last year. It's also unrealistic that Fox C-6 would have the 2nd Highest Average Administrator Salary in the state of Missouri for last year as well. Based upon comments and feedback from people in our community, they had no idea how much our superintendent was getting paid. Many of them thought she was making around $150,000 to $175,000. They certainly didn't think that our superintendent would be making $256,131. Many have commented that her salary should be reduced so the district can hire more teachers or staff especially if she is going to make statements such as "we try to put all our dollars into the classrooms for the students"and "We simply just do not have the staff to accommodate all requests and suggestions." as she responded to me in her email. Having given her a salary that is so out of line with our demographics causes a lot of resentment in both the community and school district personnel. It would be interesting to see what the community really thinks about the salaries in our district by having the school board conduct a survey of the community.
• The salary concerns also apply to a couple of school board member's family members that were promoted or hired by the district into positions where more qualified candidates were passed over in favor of their spouse or family member. This has reflected poorly on those school board members that were on the board when these decisions occurred. Obviously, the community expressed enough concern for the that the school board modified their policies so this would not happen again in the future. However, there are currently board members spouses and family members in supervisory roles that are being overpaid and not meeting the expectations of those positions.
• The school board should do a survey of the community like they did in Lindbergh for feedback as to how they and the district is doing on topics such as the website and salaries for the administrators and how they are doing in general as a school board. It might be an eye opening experience for the school board.
• Please ensure that Late Materials are also published on the school district website on the same day as school board meetings. This information should also be provided to the public so the public can review them and ask questions during Public Comments prior to board members voting on those items. This is covered in our school board policies as well. All materials that the school board receives that is public information needs to be made available to the public as well.
• Please ensure that School Budgets are posted on the district website for the public similar to the examples I provided in my September 17th email.
• It is unacceptable for the school board to accept excuses from Superintendent Critchlow as to why things can't be accomplished in our school district when they are being done in other school districts in the area and across the state. Superintendent Critchlow responded to my email sent to the board stating that "We simply just do not have the staff to accommodate all requests and suggestions." in respect to providing the late materials updates on the website or into the board meeting packets after the board meeting. It is her job to ensure that these materials are provided to the public. You need to hold her accountable and make sure she is doing her job. Providing year after year pay raises while making excuses for not being able to accomplish things does not look good to the public.
• In speaking with an accountant friend of mine and former state auditor, he stated that writing checks to individuals for startup cash lunches and concessions stands would throw up a big red flag during and audit. His recommendation during an audit would be that those checks be written to the banking institution for cash and then dispersed to the schools.
• Board member Cheryl Herman teased at the August board meeting about having an App for access to the new Tyler SIS system. The Tyler SIS system should include some sort of App or mobile access to the website for the price paid by the district.
• School board meetings need to be video and/or audio recorded so that board meetings can be accurately documented. I have asked this question several times of the school board and have never received a response as to why board meetings cannot be recorded until Superintendent Critchlow responded to my September 17th email. This is done in other school districts and the City of Arnold and Jefferson County Council are able to accomplish this feat with much less technology staff than Fox has.
• I have had responses from both Superintendent Critchlow and Dr. Rizzi stating that board meeting minutes meet state law. It would be helpful for the school board and district staff to read the state law to see that the minutes are to be a journal of what was discussed at the meeting. It is understood that board meeting minutes are not a verbatim of the meeting. However, any topics that are presented to the school board are to be documented in the minutes. When topics are left out of the minutes, it leads the public to believe that the school district is hiding or covering up concerns that our Superintendent or the school board does not want the public to know about.
• Public Comments should lengthened to 5 minutes noting that the district sets aside 30 minutes to address issues but has rarely had more than 1 or 2 speakers at a board meeting.
• Public Comments rules regarding speaking of positions or names needs to be removed for addressing issues with the superintendent. The superintendent is hired and fired by the community and school board and citizens will be allowed to voice their concerns with issues regarding the superintendent.
• The public should be allowed to respond to comments made by our superintendent or assistant superintendents to citizens after making a public comment. It was quite disrespectful of Superintendent Critchlow not to allow me to respond to her false and misleading accusations at the August 2013 school board meeting.  Those actions do not meet with the character traits our district promotes.
• Shortage of books in middle school and high school. This was addressed by Superintendent Critchlow to the news channel 5 reporter last year however, her answer was not factual. You would need to ask teachers and principals why there are not enough books for ALL of their students. This question was also addressed to me by Ms. Pelster in an email when I brought this topic up in an email to the board and at the December 2012 board meeting. In her email she responded to the book shortage stating that, "Teachers do not give out textbooks because we do not have enough; they don't give them out because they are just a resource for the class. This cuts down on students lugging around heavy books every day that may or may not be used." Ms. Pelster acknowledged the fact that there aren't enough books for teachers to hand them out for all students. Several parents have already informed me this year that students are having to share books in some middle school and high school classes because there aren't enough books for the entire class. If they are using the books and they are having to share them, the parents seem to believe there is a book shortage.
• Ridgewood football field bleachers need to be demolished or replaced. They are currently a safety hazard and an eye sore. It probably would have been much more cost effective to move a section of the old Fox High football bleachers to Ridgewood rather than selling them as scrap to another district.
• Please download and print the school lunch menus from the district website to see what the parent was speaking about at the August board meeting with respect to the font size and the layout of the menus. Please visit other school district websites such as Lindbergh, Windsor and Rockwood and review their lunch menus as a comparison.
• Please takes some time to review the links on the individual school websites for our district. Also, please update the school board member page to reduce both the file size and the resolution of the photos for school board members. This same problem occurred when the district moved to the Edline system a couple of years ago and I brought it to the board's attention.

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 7:29 AM

To: Smith, Dan - Board Vice President

Cc: Nash, Linda - Board President; Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Kroupa, Dan - Director; Palmer, David - Director; Laughlin, John - Director; Holloway, Steve - Director

Subject: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Mr. Smith,

Please confirm receipt of my email dated Tuesday October 1, 2013 which was sent to all Fox C-6 school board members using the email addresses provided on the Fox C-6 school district website.

Did you receive my email?

My email listed issues, concerns and suggestions for the Fox C-6 school board to review and consider for discussion at the school board workshop or at the next school board meeting.

There are questions from previous emails to the board that have gone unanswered for a couple of years.

When will you be able to respond to those questions?

What is the school board's policy or protocol for responding to emails from citizens in the community who you represent?

Can you please explain why you haven’t responded to emails sent to you or the school board or to questions presented during Public Comments from citizens in the community?

The National School Board Association and the Missouri School Board Association websites as well as many other organizations explain what the role of a school board is and what its responsibilities are to the community and the school district. One organization explained the role of the school board as follows:

As elected officials, school board members represent the educational values and priorities of the members of their communities, including students, school system employees, parents, business leaders, civic leaders and taxpayers. School boards provide a forum for community members to be heard, key issues to be debated and public votes to take place. In principle, school boards provide stewardship and direction for public education in a community.

Additionally, a school board is responsible for hiring, evaluating and, if necessary, dismissing the superintendent. As part of this process, a school board enters into a contract with a superintendent that includes explicit goals and performance standards for the superintendent along with the criteria to be used in evaluating the superintendent’s performance.

As the Fox C-6 School Board President, please provide a copy of the goals and performance standards and other criteria that the Fox C-6 school board uses to evaluate our superintendent(s) and school administrators. Please explain how their performance evaluations relate to the salary schedule?

As an education advocate and concerned citizen, I look forward to your response.

If Mr. Smith is unable to respond, will another school board member please respond to my questions?

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

================================================================

From: Hermann, Cheryl - Director

Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 8:33 AM

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Hi Mr Simpson,

I just wanted to tell you that I received this email, have read it, and will take it into consideration.

Cheryl Hermann, M.Ed.

Fox School District School Board Director

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 8:04 AM

To: Hermann, Cheryl - Director

Cc: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Smith, Dan - Board Vice President; Kroupa, Dan - Director; Palmer, David - Director; Laughlin, John - Director; Nash, Linda - Board President; Holloway, Steve - Director

xSubject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Mrs. Herman,

Thank you for your response.

It's quite disappointing to think that our school board president cannot or will not respond to citizens in the community. Mr. Smith stated at the end of a school board meeting this year that he wished more people in the community would get involved in their school district. I'm sure the community would like to see his thoughts reciprocated as well.

School board policy states that "The Board is very interested in citizens concerns and viewpoints." Given the lack of response from our school board over the last several years, the words in our school board policy really don’t seem to have that much meaning. I certainly hope those words begin to have more meaning to the community in the near future.

Hopefully, the board workshops can provide more interaction between the community and the school board and allow for more "concerns within the district" to be heard and responded to by our school board.

It's difficult to make improvements or solve problems if no one is willing to acknowledge that there is a problem. It’s even more difficult if no one even acknowledges that they received your emails. I really do hope that everyone on the school board gets a chance to read the protocol for communicating with the public from the Rockwood School District.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

================================================================

From: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne 

Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 8:31 AM

To: Rich Simpson

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Mr. Simpson.

I did take your suggestions to the board on the workshop Tuesday evening.  I copied and pasted the info from Rockwood’s website that you provided. The board is going to host listening sessions beginning in November before each board meeting.

Have a great day!

Dianne

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Date: October 9, 2013 8:03:37 AM CDT

To: "Cheryl Hermann", "Dan E. Smith", "Dan Kroupa", "David Palmer", "John Laughlin", "Linda S. Nash", "Steve Holloway", "Davis, Debby - CO Secretary"

Cc: "'Critchlow, Dr. Dianne'"

Subject: School District Board Packets, Late Materials and Documents on the District Website

Mr. Smith,

As the school board president of the Fox C-6 School District, it is your job to ensure that the school district superintendent keeps the school board and the public informed on district business. Over the past several years, I have made numerous requests for documents to be published on the district website so the public has easy access to the documents. Other school districts do this. Fox should be able to do this as well. Superintendent Critchlow replied to my September 17, 2013 email stating that “the district does not have the staff to accommodate all requests and suggestions” in reference to my request to update the documents on the district website to include checks that were provided in later materials but not posted on the district website. My requests to publish documents onto the district website and keep them up to date is part of the district’s duty of keeping the public informed.

I ask that you please include this letter to the school board in the October 15^th board meeting minutes so the public is aware that this request has been made of you and the school board.

I would also like to thank the school district for providing board meeting packets on the district website prior to board meetings over the past several months. This has been very helpful.

In the spirit of keeping the public fully informed and providing the community with the ability to ask questions and provide input to the school board prior to board member votes, all public materials that are made available to the school board prior to board meetings must be made available on the district website prior to the start of board meetings and workshops. This would include documents that are provided as Late Materials.

If the public has access to the wireless network in the Service Center, please publish directions on how to access the wireless network so documents that are available on the district website can be downloaded just prior to or during school board meetings.

As I stated in my September 17, 2013 email to the school board and also discussed with Ms. Debbie Davis at the September 2013 school board meeting, printing documents directly to PDF that will be published on the district website will save time as well as reduce the size of the documents significantly. It will also improve the readability of the documents. Documents with small fonts that are scanned at resolutions less then 200dpi are sometimes illegible. Ms. Davis recently emailed me a copy of the 2013-2014 school budget that was scanned as well as provided me a hard copy of the document at the September 2013 board meeting. The size of the document was over 10MB. Printing the budget directly to PDF will produce a much smaller document and will make it much more readable.

Please note that I also spoke with Mr. McCutchen about including a description field on the check registers as well as noting that in my previous email. Providing a description field should cut down on questions as to why individuals are being paid separate checks above beyond their normal salary. I also noted that printing checks directly to individuals for cash for change for the cafeterias and concessions stands should be avoided as it would be frowned upon by state auditors.

As board president, please ensure that by close of business on Friday October 11, 2013 that the following documents are published on the district website and made available to the community. 

• Late Materials Packets that were not originally provided in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years. This would include checks that are missing from the currently published board meeting packets that are on the district website. There are numerous checks missing that were included in late packets for the 2012-2013 school year as well as the checks that were included in the late packet materials at the September 2013 board meeting.
• Please publish the 2013-2013 as well as the 2012-2013 and 2011-2012 School District budgets on the district website.
• Please, republish an updated copy of the Budget and Expense for all of the projects and expenses from the recent Bond Issue. The Bond Issue Budget was published just a couple of weeks prior to the bond issue election last year after I made a request to publish the documents on the district website. Within days of passing the bond issue, that document was removed. I emailed a request to have them republished on the district website shortly after they were removed but they were never republished. There are signs throughout the district touting the progress as promised at each of the schools. Providing the budget information for those projects on the district website will allow the community to see how their taxpayer dollars were spent.
• Please begin publishing "draft" copies of board meetings on the district website by the close of business the week of a school board meeting.

Please ensure that the following documents are published on the district website by the close of business Friday October 25, 2013.

• School Board Meeting Packets dating back to the 2008-2009 school year. These packets are missing from the district website and would match the current board meeting minutes that are currently listed on the district website. The new copiers and scanners should be able to quickly scan these to PDF if they have not already been scanned. The district has already provided me with board meeting packets dating back to April 2010. The district charged me to scan some of those packets and supply them via my Sunshine Law requests. The board meeting packets that are currently published on the district website include the yellow page notice for board member action. Those pages were missing from the documents that were previously supplied to me via Sunshine request. Please provide those pages when publishing the prior year board packets onto the district website.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Date: October 14, 2013 7:40:44 AM CDT

To: "Cheryl Hermann", "Dan E. Smith", "Dan Kroupa", "David Palmer", "John Laughlin", "Linda S. Nash", "Steve Holloway", "'Davis, Debby - CO Secretary'"

Cc: "'Critchlow, Dr. Dianne'"

Subject: Request for Board Meeting Minutes Correction and Board Response

Dear Fox C-6 School Board,

Attached, please find the copy of the statement I read aloud at the September 17, 2013 School Board meeting during Public Comment.  Please review my statement as it contains a specific request I made to you regarding my parental rights under Section 504:

            “Therefore, I formally request that the District immediately issue a “Notice of 504 Action” to accurately reflect that the District now acknowledges this student is eligible under and protected by Section 504.  Please reflect my request to the Board in the minutes.”

As of today, I have not received the “Notice” from the Board nor from Mr. Baker.  I therefore renew my request for such “notice” as afforded to me under Section 504 and reflected in our school board policy #2110.  

Similarly, I also requested that the meeting minutes reflect my request to the School Board for “notice”.  The board packets that were posted online on Thursday (October 10, 2013) with the minutes of the September 17 board meeting do not reflect my request to you for “notice”.  Please revise the school board minutes to accurately reflect my request for “notice”.  If you refuse to do so, please provide me with the specific policy that is the basis for denying my request.

Lastly, as I provided a copy of the USDA letter to each individual School Board Member that letter should also be part of the board packets the same as any other letter received by the school board.  Since it was provided as part of a public school board meeting, please add that September 12, 2013 letter from David Youngblood, Civil Rights Director, USDA to the board packets as part of public record.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Date: November 4, 2013 7:21:05 AM CST

To: "'Smith, Dan - Board Vice President'"

Cc: "Cheryl Hermann", "Dan Kroupa", "David Palmer", "John Laughlin", "Linda S. Nash", "Steve Holloway", "'Davis, Debby - CO Secretary'" , "'Critchlow, Dr. Dianne'"

Subject: Formal Request for Topics of Discussion at Fox C-6 Board Workshop or November School Board Meeting

Mr. Smith,

I would like to request for a topic of discussion at tomorrow’s board workshop or at the November school board meeting regarding several issues that have been ongoing for quite some time.

First, I would like the board to discuss with the public or respond to the issues that I brought up at the October board meeting regarding lack of response from our school board. I haven’t received a single email response from you. I did receive this message last night from you which may have been an automated reply. I received 2 more of the same messages last month. Perhaps you can explain what your responsibilities are as a school board president to the community. Perhaps, you can explain what Policy #0403 really means in terms of responding to the public.

I would also like the board to respond to my questions regarding the publishing of school district budgets as well as prior years of board meeting packets on the district website. It’s very important for the community that our school district and school board is transparent. Hiding information from the public does just doesn’t seem to be a good way of building trust within our community.

Hopefully this will give the school board an opportunity to provide the public with information as to how our school board and the school district wants to work with our community.

I’m looking forward to your response.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

_____________________________________________
From: Smith, Dan - Board Vice President
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2013 9:07 PM
To: Rich Simpson
Subject: Not read: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Your message was deleted without being read on Monday, November 04, 2013 3:07:19 AM UTC.

================================================================

From: "Critchlow, Dr. Dianne"

Date: November 7, 2013 10:58:02 AM CST

To: Rich Simpson

Cc: Administrators - CO

Subject: Second time I have responded!!!

Mr. Simpson,

Once again, here are the answers to all the questions you asked.  So I did answer you – please read below, obviously you had forgotten.  You were incorrect the other night when you stated that I did not answer you and everyone in the room knows that because they were all copied on this email back in September.

If you would like the budget, you can request a copy from our office.  They are not on the web site.

The bills will be presented as they have been since the new system has been in place.   

As responded to several times before, the district will not go back and put old board packets on the website.  The current packets are on there now and will continue to be, but we will not be posting all old packets as you requested.  You can obtained these from our office per a sunshine law request.

All responses have been handled.  If there is something that has not been then let me know. As I asked below and never heard from you so it is easy to assume that all questions were answered.

From this point on, you will receive a response from Mr. Arbeitman within a week after the board meeting if you make a public comment that warrants an answer to something.  

Many times you just attack and really do not ask questions, so expect no response to your attacks.  

As you have been invited numerous times to come to our office and speak to any of us at any time, the offer still stands.

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 6:28 AM

To: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Smith, Dan - Board President

Cc: Hermann, Cheryl - Director; Kroupa, Dan - Director; Palmer, David - Board Vice President; Laughlin, John - Director; Nash, Linda - Director; Holloway, Steve - Director; Davis, Debby - CO Secretary

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Does the school board still plan on hosting a listening session at the November 19^th board meeting like you stated they would in your email below?

If not, then when was it decided that they would not be hosting one?

Thank you,

Rich Simpson

================================================================

From: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne

Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 8:00 AM

To: Rich Simpson; Administrators - CO; 'Cheryl Hermann'; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Dan Kroupa; Dan Smith; Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Laughlin, John; Linda Nash; Dave Palmer; Steve Holloway

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Mr. Simpson,

I believe that you were at the workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 5^th when this was discussed. 

After further discussion and advice from the attorney, the district will not be hosting listening posts. 

You are welcome to continue making your public comments as explained in the last email you sent.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy this great weather with your family before winter strikes.

Dianne

================================================================

From: Rich Simpson

Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 7:09 AM

To: Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Administrators - CO; 'Cheryl Hermann'; 'Dan Kroupa'; 'Dan Smith'; Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Laughlin, John; Linda Nash; Dave Palmer; Steve Holloway

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

I'm quite disappointed in the school board's decision to not have open discussions with the school community prior to school board meetings like they do in the Rockwood school district. I think it's very important that our school board has the opportunity to hear from more people in community. Cheryl Herman stated at the board workshop that she would like to hear from more people in the community. Reality is, that many people are too afraid to come and speak in front of the school board because they know that they will be attacked for doing so if they say something critical about the school district or our superintendent. That's just how things are done at this point in time. It serves as a reminder of the lack of respect that our school leadership has for the community and their concerns.

You really should hear what people are talking about in the community. What are their concerns? Well, a lot of what you might overhear is discussion about how high Superintendent Critchlow's salary is. The vast majority of the community was in shock when they found out how much she was making when it was published in the Leader newspaper article. The salary schedules for this year were never published in the board meeting packets. There was a salary schedule but it was filled with X’s rather than real numbers.

Many people ask me who sets her salary? They also ask me, what can we do about her salary because they feel it is way too much? I tell them that they need to contact their school board. The school board sets her salary. I tell them to go to school board meetings and call or email our school board members. I also tell them that I email the school board somewhat often but I never get a response. Well, with the exception of Cheryl Herman who finally answered after I had to ask if ANYONE could reply to my email so I even knew if they were receiving them.

I've also had a lot of people approach me at school functions and in the community over the last several weeks and applaud me for my comments in my letters to the editor in the Leader newspaper. This is in stark contrast to what Dianne stated at the board workshop when she said that she is having to field phone calls from people that are upset because people are attacking the district in the newspaper. I did write another letter to the editor about Project Lead the Way, Khan Academy and TED Talks in hopes of providing educational information to the community but it never got published. That’s quite a shame that something helpful for the community gets filtered like that by the newspaper.

Everyone has their own opinion on how things are going in our school district. Apparently, we have a difference of opinion. I do a lot of research looking to see how other school districts operate to find ways of improving things here at Fox. But, my findings are usually taken as an attack by Superintendent Critchlow. She's told me in the past that I'm always comparing Fox to other districts. Well, she does the same thing. She just doesn't provide all of the information to do a complete and thorough apples to apples comparison. She only provides the facts that she wants the board to see to make herself look good. So, we may differ in that area as well. That’s why she never mentions the fact in her presentation that only 56% of Fox graduates take the ACT compared to the state average of 75% and Rockwood and Parkway that has 96%. That information is never shown in her annual presentation. Many people are also shocked to learn that the percentage of students taking the ACT is so low. In fact Fox is almost in the bottom 25% of state in this category. Every child should be given the opportunity to take the ACT like they do at Parkway and Rockwood.

I did want to mention that I had concerns about the fact that the school board tabled the topic about discussing board meetings at the recent board workshop and took it into Closed Session at the suggestion of the district attorney. This was done after Dan Smith suggested to the board that maybe they could provide feedback to the public at the next school board meeting from questions at the last school board meeting. Mr. Smith said this shortly after Dianne had just finished telling the board that she has provided feedback to everyone that's ever spoken at a school board meeting within a week which is what school board policy dictates. However, everyone on the school board should know that her statement wasn't true. I've sent the board numerous emails asking for answers from questions posed at school board meetings and in emails over the past several years with no response from the board. Dianne did say that she may have fail to always tell you when she has responds but that's because many times she simply didn't respond. I’m still working on gathering all of the questions that I have posed in emails and at board meetings over the last several years that have that have gone unanswered.

I’m really concerned with the fact that the board tabled the open meeting agenda item covering Board Meetings at the November 5th board workshop and took it into Closed Session. In doing so, the district violated Missouri Sunshine Law.

Thank you for reading.

Rich Simpson

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From: "Critchlow, Dr. Dianne"

Date: November 19, 2013 7:44:56 AM CST

To: Rich Simpson, Administrators - CO, 'Cheryl Hermann', 'Dan Kroupa', 'Dan Smith', 'Davis, Debby - CO Secretary', 'Laughlin, John', 'Linda Nash', 'Dave Palmer', 'Steve Holloway'

Subject: RE: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board

Mr. Simpson,

Good morning! Once again you and I will agree to disagree. I am certain your probably have some good ideas about educating our students.  However, it seems to get lost because you personally would rather attack me.  However, I do not take it personally.

Project Lead the way is a goal of the districts and is currently being researched in depth by our career readiness director. We would love for you to come in and discuss this issue.  In addition, come in and talk to Dr. Rizzi about your thoughts on ACT. He will provide you with accurate data on the ACT and the Fox school district.

Many times I have invited you to come in and speak to me or my assistants.  You never take us up on our offer.  Obviously, I am not the person you wish to address so meet with any of my assistants. The offer still stands.

I think everyone would benefit if all energies are focused on doing “what’s best for kids.” Personal attacks benefit no one.

Lastly, every district has room for improvement but the data does not lie.  We have not received Missouri’s highest honor “ Distinction in Performance” every year it has been given because “ She only provides the facts that she wants the board to see to make herself look good.”  Our teachers and staff work very hard to achieve these great results and simply do not deserve this attack. The data speaks for itself.

Consider this a response! Also,  consider this my last response to you. I will no longer communicate when you personally attack. I also feel that my stepping aside will possibly open the lines of communication with this office.

Again, if you would like to focus your energies in a productive way on benefiting our students or district, we would welcome your insight.  Anyone in this office would meet with you at any point.

As I stated in my last email.  Mr. Arbeitman will contact you with your responses to public comments after meeting if it warrants a response.  Personal attacks will not be responded to. He will only respond to direct questions. 

Have a great day!

Dianne