Don't Forget to Vote on April 7 for Two "New" Fox C-6 School Board Members!

On Tuesday April 7, 2015, the Fox C-6 community must vote for two NEW board members to serve on the Fox C-6 school board for the next 3 years.


There are 6 candidates running for the Fox C-6 school board. Two of them are graduates of Fox High School. Another candidate is married to a Fox High graduate.

The Fox C-6 School Board Candidates are:

• Mark Jones (1985 Fox High Graduate)
• Dr. Robin Hanson (attended high school in Kansas)
• Drew Kriese (1997 Crystal City Grad, married to 1994 Fox High Grad, Endorsed by MSTA)
• Chris Hastings (Endorsed by NEA)
• Sherry "Chellew" Poppen (1961 Fox High Graduate)
• David Palmer - (Incumbent 4 term board member)

Also check out Jefferson County Penknife's endorsement article of Fox C-6 school board candidates using the link below in which he lists his reasons as to why is voting for or not voting for each of the individual school board candidates:

Jefferson County Penknife's Fox C-6 Board Endorsements Article

You may also want to read my previous article discussing the Hodge Elementary PTO meeting with the Fox C-6 board candidates using the link below after reading this article:

Hodge PTO Hosts Fox C-6 Board of Education Candidate Meeting

You can also read more about the candidates in the Voter's Guide from the March 26, 2015 Arnold Imperial Leader using the link below. There was incorrect information in the original Arnold-Imperial Leader Fox C-6 Board Candidate Guide regarding Dr. Hanson which was corrected in the April 2, 2015 Arnold-Imperial Leader.

Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Guide
March 26, 2015 Arnold-Imperial Leader

Fox C-6 Board Candidate Information

Mark Jones
Mark Jones is a 1985 graduate of Fox Senior High School. He does not have any family members or relatives working for the school district.

Mark has a son that graduated from Fox High School in 2013. Mark also has a son who currently attends George Guffey Elementary school.

Mark Jones is a senior consultant for Intervolve Inc., a software company that services beer distributors and energy companies across the country. Mark is also the owner of Jones Creative. Mark served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Mark Jones ran for the school board in 2013 and 2014 and wasn't well known back then. Since then, Mark has spoken to the board several times during the 3 minute Public Comments time regarding various issues in the district. I believe there have been fewer than 5 people who have spoken more than once during Public Comments in the past 5 years at Fox C-6 board meetings.

Mark Jones is also an advocate for transparency and has reviewed board meeting packets and Bill Payments Reports.

Mark Jones voiced his concerns about the changes to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan (VSIP) at the November 18, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting. You can listen to his Public Comments and others by clicking on the link below which links directly Fox's Board Meeting Audio on YouTube at the time Mark asked the board to make changes to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan.

Listen to Mark Jones's Public Comments

about the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan

at the November 18, 2014 Fox C-6 Board Meeting

Mark has also taken the time to personally speak with several of our current board members to discuss issues after board meetings. He has met with bus drivers and other staff to listen to their concerns in order to gain a better understanding of the district as a whole. Mark is very well spoken and would be an asset to our school board.

https://www.facebook.com/MissouriForJones
http://www.missouriforjones.org/
http://patch.com/missouri/arnold/meet-fox-school-board-candidate-mark-jones


Dr. Robin Hanson
Dr. Robin Hanson does not have any family members or relatives working for the school district. Dr. Hanson teaches American history, American government, cultural anthropology and sociology part-time at Jefferson College and St. Louis University.

Dr. Hanson stated at the Hodge Elementary PTO meeting that she personally ordered 4 new lab books online to send in with her daughter since her daughter's lab book was in such disrepair. She also spoke about teaching students at Jefferson College and St. Louis University and seeing the number of students that need to take remedial classes in college. She would like to see that change.

Dr. Hanson discussed the need for transparency at the Hodge PTO meeting which is necessary for accountability.


https://www.facebook.com/DrRobinAHanson


Drew Kriese
Drew Kriese has 4 children attending schools in the Fox school district. He is a 1997 graduate of Crystal City High School. His wife Christy is a 1994 graduate of Fox High School.

Drew is an area director for Taco Bell Missouri. His wife Christy was on the selection committee for the Seckman Elementary School principal position.

Drew Kriese was not able to attend the Hodge Elementary PTO meeting for the candidates because he was out of town. So I did not get a chance to meet him in person.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drew-Kriese-For-Fox-C-6-School-Board/865497216793678


Chris Hastings
I've spoken to Chris Hastings a few times via email and in person since he first decided to run for school board in 2014. Chris has two young children who will be attending school in the district in the future. He is employed by ICS Construction Services.

ICS Construction Services did some of the 2013 bond issue work for the Fox district. Chris responded to questions presented to him from JC Penknife regarding his relationship with ICS and whether or not he expected ICS to bid on future work at Fox.

JC Penknife shared Chris's response with me regarding ICS after I independently pointed out possible concerns to JC Penknife after review board meeting packets.

Chris Hastings stated in his response to JC Penknife that he is only an employ of ICS and does not own the company or have any shares as an owner in the company. He is just an employee. Chris stated that ICS bid the work on the open market in the public sector and that ICS was the low bidder.

Chris requested to oversee the project since it was in his school district and so close to home. Chris wanted to work on the project because he had a vested interest since he lives here and it's his school district. Chris stated that if any work comes up in the near future, and he is voted onto the board, he will request that ICS does not bid on the work so there will be no issues or conflicts of interest.

According to Bill Payments Reports obtained from school board meeting packets, Fox C-6 paid ICS Construction Services LTD $3,018,829.18 for the bond issue work they performed in 2013. I have posted the pages from the bill payments reports from the board meeting packets online.

It's important that the community knows what Chris's relationship is with ICS Construction Services and that he responded to the concerns presented to him.

https://www.facebook.com/hastings4foxc6

The Rockwood School District saw board member Steve Smith resign days after the release of their state audit that concluded that Mr. Smith should not have voted on projects that helped the construction company where he was employed.


Sherry "Chellew" Poppen
Sherry "Chellew" Poppen graduated from Fox High School in 1961. She has a son who teaches at Seckman Middle School and a daughter who is a secretary at Seckman Middle. Mrs. Poppen didn't mention that she had a son and a daughter working for the district when she spoke to the Lone Dell parents club. I knew she had a daughter who was a secretary at Seckman Middle School but did not know that her son was a teacher as well. Sherry "Chellew" Poppen is the sister of former Fox C-6 superintendent Jim Chellew.

At Monday's meet the board candidates at Hodge Elementary School, Sherry Poppen said she would like to see more information made available besides just the agenda for board meetings like they used to have.

Updated: 6:05PM 04/05/2015
I received a phone message from Sherry Poppen at 3:24PM about my comments regarding the board meeting agendas additional information that she talked about in the meeting after her son had read this blog post.

I called Sherry back around 4:45PM and talked to her about the additional information besides the agenda. The additional information is the board packets that get supplied to the board members each month prior to the meetings. She remembered her brother taking them around to board members each month. She also remembered getting emailed copies of the board meeting minutes each month. I told her that when her brother was superintendent that you could sign up to get notified about the board meeting minutes.

Sherry wanted to let me know that she knew about the board meeting packets being available online. Sherry told me that she knew I had been instrumental in getting the board packets posted online and that's how she knew they were available online.

It took nearly 3 years of my asking the board to post the board packets online before the district finally began posting them. That delay was mainly due to our former superintendent providing different excuses as to why it couldn't be done.

Anyway, Sherry said that what she mentioned at Hodge Elementary was that she would like to have printed copies of the board meeting packets available at board meetings for people who don't use or have computers.

My apologies for the confusion about knowing about the board packets being available online.

I told Sherry that I checked some of the board packets before writing this article to see how many pages they contained because I knew she had talked about having printed copies available. One of the board packets I checked contained 354 pages. Sherry didn't realize that the board packets had that many pages in them.

I did more checking since I spoke to Sherry. The board packets for the 2014-2015 school year vary in size between 168 pages to 324 pages. Several of the board packets contain more than 300 pages.

Dan Kroupa pointed out to Mrs. Poppen that the district recently purchased BoardDocs for posting board meeting information like the board packets online. Many school districts have been using BoardDocs for years. Many of the school districts break up their documents into smaller sections using BoardDocs making it easier to download specific sections of the board packets each month. Not everyone may want to read all of the bids for a project. They might just want to download the Bill Payments Report.

Having BoardDocs should also make it much easier to search payments rather than the currently scanned Bill Payments Report as long as the documents are printed to PDF rather than being scanned. I've asked several times to have the Bill Payments Reports printed to PDF rather than scanned so the payments would include searchable text rather than an image of the text. This would make it easier to find checks for specific vendors.

I explained to Sherry that the district started charging me for copies of the board packets because Sunshine Law allows them to. However, the board should have made sure that the board packets were available to the public for free. John Laughlin made sure that I wasn't charged for the board packets after he found out I was getting charged for them. John Laughlin and Steve Holloway made sure that the board packets were posted online. So thank you for their help in improving transparency.

Sherry "Chellew" Poppen is a very nice lady. She wants to restore our district's image. I believe that restoring the district's image is important. However, I'm concerned that issues may get overlooked or swept under the rug as they have been in the past. The community needs to know what's gone on to keep from repeating them in the future.

We need board members who are going to hold people accountable for their actions as well as ensure that the superintendent and other administrators are following district policies, regulations and state and federal laws.


David Palmer
Incumbent David Palmer's wife Gee Palmer has been the Director of Nursing for Fox C-6 since she was promoted to that position in 2006 and given a 75% pay increase rather than a stipend. Mr. Palmer was school board president when his wife was promoted.

Mr. Palmer has a son and a niece who teach in the district as well.

Mr. Palmer has been willfully blind to the issues going on in our school district for years. He never replied to a single email that I sent the board.

Mr. Palmer did not even respond to Hodge Elementary PTO's invitation to attend the meet and greet with parents.

I brought it to the boards attention in 2012 that the district didn't have enough books for all students to take books home to study. Kristen Pelster pointed this out in an email regarding stating that teachers don't hand out books because the don't have enough. In Mr. Palmer's response to the Arnold-Imperial Leader, he said, "We must give kids the supplies, books and technology they need to be successful." Mr. Palmer didn't do resolve the book shortage for nearly two years and now he says we must give kids books. Interesting!

Hopefully, the community has become better educated over the past couple of years about what's been going on in our school district while Mr. Palmer served on the school board. He served on the board while former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow's salary skyrocketed to being the second highest superintendent salary in the state before she took "early retirement".

Mr. Palmer also wasn't interested in having open discussions with the public as he pointed out at the November 5, 2013 board workshop. I wrote about this issue in November 2013.

I certainly hope everyone remembers what happened to our school district during David Palmer's 12 years as a school board member when you cast your vote on Tuesday April 7th, 2015!


Who you elect for to the Fox C-6 school board can either help or hinder moving our school district in a positive direction when you vote on Tuesday April 7, 2015.


Honesty and integrity are very important character traits for those serving on our school board.

School board members are elected to represent the community.

From the Missouri School Board Association's Principles of Effective Governance guide:

The school board is supposed to engage in ongoing two-way conversation with the entire community. The purpose of the conversation is to enable the board to hear and understand the community’s educational aspirations and desires, to serve effectively as an advocate for district improvement and to inform the community of the district’s performance.

Effective community engagement is essential to creating trust and support among community, board, superintendent and staff.

Principles of Effective Governance Guide

from the Missouri School Board Association

It's also the school board's job to do proper oversight of how your tax dollars are being spent and ensure that the community is kept well informed. For years our school board members did not review credit card statements. I also doubt that they have reviewed the legal bills from the district's former law firm.

Open Government and Transparency
In order to serve the best interest of the community and the taxpayers who elect them, our school board members must believe in open government.

Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government (ie. our school district) to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction it opposes reason of state and other considerations, which have tended to legitimize secrecy.

Former Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich tweeted the following on February 18, 2015 after publicly releasing the St. Joseph School District audit, "If we want accountability in or schools, we must demand transparency."

Transparency has been an issue in the Fox C-6 School District for nearly a decade. Transparency has improved but not to the level that it needs to in order for the community to fully trust the decisions of our school board and administration.

Full disclosure by school board candidates is also very important in maintaining a healthy level of trust. Withholding information from the public should be cause for concern as to why it may have been withheld.

As a community, we want our school district to do a great job at educating our children. We want a school district that our children and students can be proud of when they are asked the question everyone in the St. Louis area always asks:

"Where did you go to high school?"

Our school board members need to make good decisions that represent the concerns of the community in order to restore the integrity and reputation of the Fox C-6 School District.

The recent unanimous decisions of (6-0) by our school board to hire assistant superintendents Dan Baker and Todd Scott as principals in the school district has certainly cast doubt in the community that our district is headed in the right direction.

The screening of candidates for the positions for the positions at Seckman Elementary and Seckman High were biased despite what our board members told the media.

How many of the 59 candidates for the Seckman Elementary School (SES) principal position were linked to online derogatory comments made against parents in their school district?

How many of the 59 candidates for SES principal are currently named in a libel suit for making derogatory comments against parents and patrons in their school district?

How many of the 59 candidates for SES principal played golf using taxpayer dollars while they should have been attending the educational conference they traveled to Orlando, Florida to attend?

How many of the 59 candidates for SES principal had their school district supplied credit card taken away from them due to misuse?

How many of the 45 candidates for the Seckman High School (SHS) principal position had their school district supplied credit card taken away from them due to misuse?

How many of the 45 candidates for the SHS principal position had appeared on the news for hiring an someone who didn't possess the credentials for the job but was very enthusiastic?

Those are valid questions that should have been asked and considered when candidates were being screened for those positions.


School Board Member Ethics
It's worth taking the time to read the Missouri School Board Association's Sample Policy on School Board Member Ethics. It will give you an understanding of what should be expected of our school board members.

Here are a few of the more important points listed in the School Board Member Ethics Policy:

• Remember that the first and greatest concern must be the educational welfare of all students attending the public schools.
• Render all decisions based on the available facts and independent judgment rather than succumbing to the influence of individuals or special interest groups.
• Encourage ongoing communications between Board members and stakeholders.
• Obey the laws of Missouri and the United States.
• Become informed concerning the issues to be considered at each meeting.
• Refrain from using their Board position for the benefit of family members, business associates or themselves.

Sample School Board Member Ethics Policy

from the Missouri School Board Association

One of the items listed in the Ethics Policy states that school board members are to follow the laws of Missouri and the United States.

Does that imply that school board members are to ensure that our school district follows federal Civil Rights laws such as Section 504, the ADA and ADA AA as well?

If so, then how do we educate our school board members on these laws so they aren't willfully blind to the Non-Compliance notices that the district has received over the years?

It was the Non-Compliance issues that led to the discovery of all of the wrong doing going on in our school district that has been uncovered and made public in recent years.

It's too bad that it took so many years to expose the problems going on in our district to the public because past school board members sat silent as questions and concerns were brought to their attention for years.

Hopefully you have done your research and you've had the opportunity to meet our school board candidates so you can make an informed decision when you cast your vote for Fox C-6 school board members on Tuesday April 7, 2015.

Hodge PTO Hosts Fox C-6 Board of Education Candidate Meeting

The April 7, 2015 School Board Election is only one week away!

It's very important that you learn as much as you can about the candidates who are running for the Fox C-6 school board so you can make an informed decision.

This past year has definitely been a pivotal year for our school district. This past year will easily overshadow all of the previous problems that have occurred in the history of our district.

I don't remember any time in the history of the district where almost every single Central Office administrator left the district or was demoted/moved out of the Central Office.

The election of the next two school board members for the Fox C-6 School District is a very important decision and one that needs to be well researched. You need to talk to your neighbors and make sure that they get out and vote and are well informed.

It's important that we elect two new board members who will represent the taxpayers and not special interest groups or family members. We need school board members who are going to represent the community.

We need board members who are approachable and willing to listen to the concerns of parents and the community and stand up for those concerns.

There is only one long time incumbent left on the Fox's Board of Education. That is Mr. David. He is up for re-election. I certainly hope the community is educated enough by now to know that David Palmer sat silently for years and was willfully blind to the problems being brought to his attention. Enough said!

Meet the Candidates
Last night Hodge Elementary's PTO hosted a meeting with the Fox C-6 Board of Education candidates at 6:30PM at Hodge Elementary School. Hodge is located on off of Prairie Hollow Road.

There was a fairly light turnout of parents and concerned citizens. Less than 25 people in attended the meeting. I believe the meeting was only announced on Facebook and Twitter. I didn't know about the meeting until this past weekend.

It would have been much better if there had been a meet the candidates meeting at the Service Center or at Rickman Auditorium. When Rockwood went through their big scandal a couple of years ago, they hosted large meetings for their candidates to meet the public.

Four of the six Fox C-6 BOE Candidates attended

• Dr. Robin Hanson
• Christ Hastings
• Mark Jones
• Sherry "Chellew" Poppen

Drew Kriese could not attend the meeting because he was out of town. Mr. Kriese had a handout available for those who attended the meeting.

Fox C-6 Board of Education BOE incumbent David Palmer did not attend attend the event. No reason was given as to why he did not attend.

Each of the four school board candidates that attended gave a short introduction explaining why they were running for the board.

A Current and Former Board Member Attended
Fox C-6 board member Dan Kroupa attended most of the meeting. Mr. Kroupa left a little early so the focus of the discussion could get back to the candidates rather than answering questions from parents and patrons about the recent decisions that were made at the March 2015 BOE meeting and some of the other decisions over the past year. Early questions from some of the parents wanted to know how the candidates would have handled the recent decisions which led to discussion with Mr. Kroupa. I would say that there was some anger and frustration over some of the decisions made by the board over the past year.

I mostly sat and listened. I did provide some information as to administrator salary schedules from the past and the recent 1% raise given to the administrators.

I asked the board candidates if they would support hosting listening posts prior to board meetings where the community can speak openly with the school board rather than the limited 3 minutes for Public Comments.

The Rockwood School District hosts listening posts with their community. I brought this to the Fox C-6 school board in September or October 2013. I was told in an email from former superintendent Dianne Critchlow that the district was going to start hosting them at the November 2013 board meeting. However hosting open discussions with the school board was shot down at the November 5, 2013 school board workshop. You can read more about that by clicking on the link below when I wrote about it back in November 2013:

Fox C-6 School Board Fails the Public Again

Former Fox C-6 school board member Linda Tramel also attended the meeting. Mrs. Tramel was asked to serve on the school board after board member Don Earl passed away. Mrs. Tramel was on the board after Bourisaw was fired by the district. This was also during the 2001/2002 audit of the school district by Claire McCaskill. My father also served on the school board during that time replacing Ron Clark.

Linda Tramel talked about the board training that all new board candidates have to attend by state law. She talked about how the board is responsible for hiring the superintendent and developing/approving school board policies.

Overall, there was some really good and healthy discussion that went on about some of the recent decisions with the board candidates. I don't have time to get into all of those points this morning but plan to write more and post an update to this article or write a more in depth article.

Several people thanked me for helping provide information to the community so they can be more informed. I also had a parent thank me for helping their child get a Section 504 plan which had been previously denied by the school district. I will continue to work on holding the district accountable and working towards getting them to do the right thing and follow board policies.

Here are a few of the items that were discussed:

• Board member responsibilities and who they represent.
• Transparency or lack thereof
• The hiring of Dan Baker and Todd Scott as principals in the district.
• Administrative Salaries and the 1% pay raise for the 2015-2016 school year
• Teacher raises for the 2015-2016 school year which ranged from 2% for new teachers to a small amount for long term teachers as explained by Mr. Kroupa.
• The Voluntary Incentive Separation Plan payouts which was responded to by Mr. Kroupa.
• Board Members visiting schools and talking to parents and teachers so they are more in touch with what's going on in the school district.

Fox C-6 Board Candidates Vow Transparency in Recent Post Dispatch Article

A March 21, 2015 article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch states that the Fox C-6 School Board candidates vow to restore the public trust.

There are 6 candidates running for the Fox C-6 school board election on Tuesday April 7, 2015. This past year has put our school district into extreme turmoil as we are seeing an exodus of talented teachers leaving the district encouraged by the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program which used to be called the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program prior to 2014. 

David Palmer is an incumbent. His wife, Gee Palmer, is currently the Director of Nursing for the Fox C-6 School District and his son is a teacher in the school district. The article also states that David Palmer has a niece that is a teacher in the district as well.

David's wife was nominated by Dianne Brown in 2006 to be promoted to the Director of Nursing position while David Palmer was the president of the Fox C-6 School Board. Gee Palmer's promotion was approved by the school board in June 2006. She was given a 75% pay raise rather than a stipend amount as previous Directors. 

The Post Dispatch article states that Gee Palmer "is about to retire". However, Gee Palmer's name hasn't appeared on any of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) lists that have been provided to the public so far. If she is retiring and walking away with 50% of her pay, her name won't be appearing on the VSIP list until after the April 7 election.

David Palmer certainly hasn't helped to improve transparency during his years on the school board. I' made requests for years for the board to publish the board packets on the website and publicly acknowledge the district's problems with ED OCR and USDA OCR.

Mr. Palmer also wasn't a fan of talking to the public about issues in the district because of his fear of being misquoted at the November 5, 2013 board workshop. That's when the school board voted in Closed Session not to have "Listening Posts" with the public like I was informed they would by former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow in an email. Fox's former legal counsel Ernie Trakas voiced his concerns for having open discussions with the public which caused our school board to vote against doing what they do in the Rockwood School District.

You can read about David Palmer's comments in my article below about the November 5, 2013 workshop.

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

David Palmer has kept the public in the dark far too long and DOES NOT need to be on the Fox C-6 school board anymore. Mr. Palmer is the last of the "old regime" school board members left. He was first voted onto the school board in 2002.

To say that Sherry "Chellew" Poppen is vowing to restore Public Trust seems disingenuous. Sherry Poppen DID NOT mention or tell the Lone Dell Parents club parents that she has a son that is a teacher in the district and a daughter that is a secretary in the district. I knew that she had a daughter who was a secretary in the district but I had not researched to see if she had any other family members working in the district. So I first learned about her son being a teacher in the district in the Post Dispatch article. What's even stranger is the fact that Fox alumni classmates of hers wrote into this past week's Arnold-Imperial Leader telling the Fox C-6 Community to vote for Sherry Poppen. Her classmates telling Fox patrons to vote for Sherry Poppen live in Festus. There is certainly a strong effort in signage to get Sherry Poppen's name out in front of the public along with her brother's name Jim "Chellew" who was Fox's superintendent prior to Dianne Brown-Critchlow.

You can read the details of the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program in Regulation 4740.1 which can be found on the district website by clicking on the link below. The program was changed in February 2014 by Dianne Brown-Critchlow with suggestions from Fox's former legal counsel and approved by the board to become the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program.

Regulation 4740.1

Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program

March 21, 2015 Post Dispatch Article
Candidates for Fox School Board vow to restore Public Trust

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

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

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

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

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

March 2015

Fox C-6 Employment of Certified Employees Report

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

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

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

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

Response to Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman's Response to My February 2014 Public Comments

It's pretty easy to see that your school board isn't being allowed to answer questions from patrons of the district. I asked Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman at Tuesday night's school board meeting if he had received my email response to his email. He said he had. However, he seemed quite offended by my response. He told me that I misunderstood his email and that he was only trying to be proactive in asking me to contact him if I knew what I wanted to ask the school board by getting me information prior to the school board meeting.

I told Mr. Arbeitman that his email made it pretty clear that the school board was not going to respond to my questions with anything other than a "Thank You" unless I first called him with my questions. He told me that's not what it said. He said that it said "If". I again told him that his email said IF I didn't contact him first, that the board wasn't going to answer my questions. It was quite clear. He again tried to explain that I was taking his email the wrong way and that I just needed to give him a chance.

I recommend that you read Mr. Arbeitman's email that he sent me last month below and read my response to him. I'm fully aware of how the Mickes Goldman O'Toole law firm and the Missouri School Board Association trains school boards to basically remain silent. There is the belief that the board doesn't have the knowledge needed to respond to patrons on their own. They encourage the boards to have the superintendent or another school district designee respond for them. It's best for the school district to respond to patrons so the board doesn't say something that they shouldn't.

Mr. Arbeitman told me Tuesday night that the school board asked him to respond to my questions. I don't recall seeing anything documented in Fox's school board minutes stating that the school board has asked Mr. Arbeitman to speak for them.

How can Mr. Arbeitman answer questions for the board? He does not approve the Bill Payments. The school board does.

How does the school board approve the Bill Payments without knowing what the payments are for?

Does the district expect school board members to call the Central Office and ask about every check that seems questionable such as The Bridal Shoppe or the numerous monthly payments to restaurants, etc?

It appears that our school board isn't representing our community very well since they won't respond themselves. So, I ask again, why does Fox C-6 have a school board?

I recommend reading this article on the Missouri Education Watchdog's website:

Local School Boards Should Be Abolished

According to Assistant Superintendent Arbeitman's email last month, there is only one person requesting information from the school district. Therefore, the district has no reason to publish public records such as school district budgets, bill payment descriptions or credit card statements like they do in other school districts.

The residents and taxpayers of the Fox C-6 School District can continue to call the Central Office if you want to know why the district spent another $24,000 this month at The Bridal Shoppe. Or perhaps you might want to ask the Central Office why the district paid all of the following restaurants this past month in the area as documented in the March 18, 2014 school board packet.

Without credit card statements, there's no way of knowing what was purchased on the credit cards by the card holders in the district. It's odd that the total credit limit of the 25 VISA card holders as documented by the board packets is only $44,000. However the district continues to have bills nearly double that amount. Review the 2013-2014 Bill Payments which lists the 25 VISA Credit Card Holders on page 2 of the report.

RESTAURANT PAYMENTS
Pomodoro's - $362.70
Panda Express - $350.00
The Dough Depot - $264.00
Detour Grill and Bar - $350.00
Bandana's Barbecue - $470.00
Gator South Beer & Wine Garden - $750.00
The Dough Depot - $456.00
Little Ceasars Pizza - $275.00
Panda Express - $358.00
The Dough Depot - $319.00
Waffle House #1324 - $392.00

CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS
American Express - $29,260.06
VISA Card Services - $79,186.67 (The total credit limit of card holders is: $44,000)
Sam's Club Discover - $20,501.19

My Response to Mr. Arbeitman and the Fox C-6 School Board

I responded to Andy Arbeitman's email regarding my Public Comments at the February 19, 2014 Fox C-6 School Board meeting. I wrote about his email last month. I also copied all of the school board members which makes my response a Public Records document.

My responses are in RED. Mr. Arbeitman's email was very clear in which he stated, “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.”

However, it is possible that Mr. Arbeitman may have not fully understood what he wrote to me. There is a high probability that the Mickes Goldman O'Toole law firm wrote the email for him. Therefore, he may not have fully understood what he sent me. The law firm has been writing emails for the district for years since federal agencies have been investigating the school district. Even more so since the USDA found the District Non-Compliant with federal laws and was caught trying to subvert the complaint process last fall.

Dan Baker's Email Slip
The law firm wants to make sure the district doesn't get into any further trouble. A few years ago, Assistant Superintendent Dan Baker, who is the District's Section 504 coordinator, accidentally sent us an email that he meant to send to the district attorney. He was asking the attorney to respond to one of our emails when he had time "Ha Ha". I forwarded the email back to Mr. Baker and told him that I think he intended to send it to the school district attorney Mike Hodge since he addressed it to Mike.

The Mickes Goldman O'Toole law firm handles emails for districts across the state like down in the Camdenton school district. It's a win for the law firm as they continue to bill month after month. Fox pays nearly as much per year in legal fees to the Mickes Goldman O'Toole law firm as it costs to add another Central Office Administrator to the payroll less their retirement benefits. Training school boards that they don't have the knowledge necessary to speak with the public, the law firms are able to bill quite a few hours to school districts across the state helping them stay out of trouble.

It's time that we have some parents and taxpayers go to the Central Office and start scanning invoices and credit card statements to see where all the money is going. We've been told the district doesn't have enough money and that's why they really needed to pass the bond issue. I'd also recommend making copies of invoices from the law firm to see how much they've been billing the district for the last 6 years on OCR related issues.

Law Firm Doesn't Provide Detailed Billing

In the past, I've been told that our law firm doesn't provide the district with detailed billing. It's hard to believe that our district doesn't get detailed billing. You just never know what kind of excuse you will hear when you ask questions as our administrators hope to keep you from knowing the truth!

I believe that it's time for a State Audit of the Fox C-6 School District prior to Superintendent Dianne Critchlow's retirement!


Here is my email response to Mr. Arbeitman that I sent Tuesday March 18, 2014:

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; Cheryl Hermann; Linda S. Nash; Dan Kroupa
Subject: RE: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting

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

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 C-6 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

Mr. Arbeitman's Response to My March 18, 2014 Public Comments:

Below is the response I received from Mr. Arbeitman. It appears that our school district doesn't acknowledge the fact that we have elected school board members to represent the community. It would also seem as if he didn't hear Linda Nash's parting message in which she told the few people in attendance at the March school board meeting that it is the school board's job to hire (or fire) the Superintendent.

Perhaps we should provide an Organizational Chart like they have in other school districts to Superintendent Critchlow and Assistant Superintendent Arbeitman which when properly drawn shows the Board of Education above the Superintendent and not the other way around.


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

From: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent

Date: 03/19/2014 11:23 AM (GMT-06:00) 

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.

Nepotism Policy Changes Needed at Fox C-6!

I saw a poster today that reminded me of the nepotism problems we are having at Fox with the hiring and promoting of relatives of our school board members. The caption on the poster from www.despair.com/nepotism.html says it all. Perhaps the poster should be hung in the Service Center. The hiring of school board director Linda Nash's daughter-in-law to to the position of Food Nutrition Service Director without having the credentials that the district was looking for in their job posting woke up our community. For our superintendent and assistant superintendent to defend the hiring of Linda Nash's daughter-in-law demonstrates their lack of respect for the community. It is also the reason that we have two new school board members.

Our administrators and their few but vocal supporters believed that Pete Nicholas and Ruth Ann Newman would be re-elected based upon the misinformation they supply to the public about how great the district is doing and what a great job our school board has been doing. First, I want to say that our district does have a lot of great teachers and some great principals. However, the nepotism and egregious hiring and promoting of non-qualified central office administrator's family members and spouses has destroyed the morale of district employees. It also makes it impossible to have any respect for our administrators and school board members.

Board members and administrators keep informing the public that Fox is in the Top 10 in our state. Can someone from our school district tell us what Top 10 that is? Missouri DESE has so many Top 10 lists that nearly every school in the state can claim to be in the Top 10 for something.

Fox hasn't been awarded a Gold Star School or National Blue Ribbon School award in more than 10 years. The only school to win the award in the district was Lone Dell Elementary. Rockwood has received the same award more than 30 times in the last 10 years. Northwest has received the award 6 times or more. Drive around the district and look at the award walls to see how long it has been since there was a posting of an academic award. Most of the awards I have seen occurred prior to 2005.

Fox's school board is responsible for nearly doubling the salary of our superintendent over the last 7 years despite the economic downturn. Our school administrators and school board members may believe that our superintendent should be making almost $250,000 per year. However, if the community was in charge of our superintendent's raises, I don't believe they would have made the same increases that our school board has given her. It simply proves that our school board has not been representing our community very well and is out of touch with our community.

We have two new school board members. I hope they can bring about a positive change to our school district. However, at the moment, our school board does not appear to be reading emails from their new accounts. I thought they were elected to serve and represent our community. If they don't read their emails, it will be difficult for them to represent our community. I suggest that you contact your board members and ask them why they aren't reading or responding to emails. Let me know if you get a response. I haven't emailed our two new school board members using their school email addresses but have used their personal email addresses without receiving a response.

I recommend reading the 2007 St. Louis Post Dispatch Suburban Journals article when Fox C-6 district officials told the newspaper that the community's concerns about nepotism were unfounded. In June 2006, David Palmer was the Fox C-6 School Board President. While he was board president, his wife Gee Palmer was promoted to the district head nurse position. It was voted on and approved by the school board. She also received a 75% pay increase. Her salary was increased from roughly $40,000 to nearly $70,000. It seems highly improbable that she was the most qualified person for the job given the fact that there were 10 nurses with more work experience in the district. Several of those nurses had more than twice the number of years of experience in the district and a few had nearly 3 times as many years of experience working for the district. Her promotion and the hiring of David's kids while he was on the school board most likely kept him from getting re-elected in 2008.

It was strange that Mr. Palmer couldn't be reached for comment for the article in 2007. If the article had mentioned the promotion of Mr. Palmer's wife, the public would have been better informed as to how school district officials were better at representing their families than the community. Fox's school district policy has specific rules regarding the hiring or promotion of a school board member's spouse. I'm sure they followed the rule or at least we were told that they did. But, it certainly didn't reflect well on our school board and that must be why people were complaining on Town Talk. Here we are in 2013 and history is repeating itself with the recent hiring of Linda Nash's daughter-in-law to a position paying $65,000 and she only has a high school diploma. She also has enthusiasm. The hiring of Linda Nash's daughter-in-law really stood out due to her lack of credentials. It is time for some of our Fox school board members to step down and for the family members to resign as well. The 2007 article can be found on STLTODAY.COM. It was written by Kevin Carbery who now writes for the Arnold-Imperial Leader.

2007 - FOX SCHOOLS: Nepotism Complaints Unfounded, District Officials Say

http://www.despair.com/nepotism.html

There was another poster that reminded me of our school district as well. Mostly because of the photo rather than the caption. Because in this case, our district went the other way and took a person who was working in fast food and hired her as a Director of Food Service. Of course, it's not the same as being an astronaut. But, you get the point. At least the district was willing to give her 2 years to get her degree or credentials which has already been shown to require 4 years to achieve. Maybe they will give her an extension in 2 years to keep working on those credentials. In the meantime, everyone working for her will continue to do their job as they always have with the same enthusiasm as they had before.

http://www.despair.com/potential.html

Review - April 16, 2013 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting

I was unable to attend the April 16 Fox C-6 school board meeting. However, since the meeting I have spoken with several individuals who did attend the meeting and learned about some of the key items that stood out at the meeting.

Stand Out Items from the April 16, 2013 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting:

• New board member Steve Holloway voted "NO" on the group consenting for Agenda Item 6.0 Consent Grouping for Action - Human Resources.
• New board member Dan Kroupa asked a question about "Contract Modifications" that was in Agenda Item 6.0 Consent Grouping For Action - Human Resources.
• New board member Dan Kroupa asked our Superintendent Dianne Critchlow to look at what other school districts have in their nepotism policies and bring those to the board for discussion for the Board Policy and Regulations Review meeting in May.
• Board member John Laughlin asked questions about the Athletic Field Usage Fees.

I haven't spoken with any of the above board members yet or emailed them questions regarding the items above. I would like to note that I sent all of our current school board members an email a couple of weeks ago and have not had a single response from any of them. The emails that I sent to Dan Kroupa and Steve Holloway were using their personal email addresses. I will email them using their new school email addresses and let you know if I get a response from their new Fox C-6 school board email addresses. I wrote about the fact that I received automatic messages from several board members that my messages were DELETED but NOT READ on Monday April 15, 2013.

You can read about the emails being deleted in this post:
Fox C-6 Board Members Delete Emails Without Reading Them

Since my April 15, 2013 article regarding the deleting of email messages, I've received more email messages stating that my follow up email message was deleted as well without being read. Not reading email messages from citizens in the community appears to violate school board policy. Perhaps our board members don't communicate with me due to the fact that superintendent Dianne Critchlow stated in a 2011 email to the board that that they could not speak with me about issues and that they should direct all communications to herself or the school district attorney. It seems that she does not want our board members to be apprised of my concerns since I am willing to voice those concerns.

I would think that our school board members would be a little more mindful now of the fact that the community is watching them more closely now. They should know that not responding to questions concerning how they are doing business does not reflect well on them or our school district. I will continue to keep the community informed as attempt to educate and communicate concerns to our school board. Only having 3 minutes for Public Comment and being allowed to use names doesn't really give much time or ability to communicate concerns to our school board. That is why it is important that our board members open and read their emails. Also, the fact that our school board meetings are not audio or video recorded allows the school district to censor concerns from the Public that are brought up during Public Comments. School board meeting minutes fail to mention what is contained in those comments. This practice keeps the Public from being fully informed as to what is going on in our school district. This is not transparency in any sense of the word.

I would like to clear up some confusion as to how Consent Grouping For Action - Human Resources voting is done after reading some comments that were posted on Topix recently after the April 2013 school board meeting. The board members receive the Board Meeting Packets each month prior to the school board meeting. Our school board members are expected to review the information contained in the Board Meeting Packet prior to the next school board meeting so they can make informed decisions and ask questions if necessary and discuss agenda items prior to their votes . (NOTE: You can now download the Board Meeting Packets from the Fox C-6 District Website prior to school board meetings.) In fact, I received an email on Tuesday April 16, 2013 from our school board secretary that the January through April 2013 school board meeting packets are now online and they include the Bill Payments as well as a PDF document.

The Board Meeting Packets can be download from here:
Fox C-6 Board Meeting Packets

After downloading the Board Meeting Packets, you can use the Table of Contents in the PDF document to jump immediately to Agenda Item 6.0 in the document and read what Steve Holloway and the other board members got to review prior to their Consent Grouping For Action vote. There is no prior discussion among the board members regarding the new hires, contract modifications or dismissals that is contained in this section prior to the vote unless they discuss it during the board meeting. Our administrators simply provide the board members a list of names of the new hires and dismissals in the board meeting packet and the school board members are asked to "approve" that list. So, I'm not sure if Steve Holloway was voting NO due to a name on the list or that he voted NO because of the process. I hope to find out from him before the next school board meeting.

As you can see that this is quite a flawed system in the fact that our superintendent(s) make the suggestions as to who should be hired or dismissed or are simply quitting. The board is asked to accept the list "as is". Given the recent track record for hiring family members of board members in our district, this type of practice doesn't look good to the community and has brought a lot of attention to our school district in the media. This isn't the first time egregious example of nepotism by our school board. In 2006, the Fox C-6 School Board voted to promote current school board member David Palmer's wife Gee Palmer to the position of District Head Nurse. Gee Palmer's promotion occurred while David Palmer was the President of the School Board in 2006. I documented this back in 2010 after I learned about it from individuals in our school district. I verified the promotion from the school board meeting minutes which are no longer available on the district website. I have a copy of those minutes.

What made the promotion of Gee Palmer even worse was the fact that she received a 75% pay increase over her previous salary as a regular school district nurse. The position was changed from a 9 month contract to an 11 or 12 month contract. So, Gee Palmer's pay was increased from roughly $40,000 to $70,000 for those additional 2 to 3 months of work. Additionally, when I looked into this, I found that there were 10 nurses that had more years of experience working in the school district than Gee Palmer. One of the nurses that had applied for the position had nearly 3 times the number of years of service in the school district. Now, one can argue (or should I say our administrators and school board members would argue) that Gee Palmer was "the best for the job". However, in speaking with many others who worked or have worked for the district including retired administrators, many of them told me that Gee Palmer was not "the best" for the job when she was hired. Do you think Gee Palmer was chosen due to her being the wife of then School Board President David Palmer? At the April 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting, David Palmer was elected as the Fox C-6 School Board Vice President. All of this occurred before I began dealing with any issues within our school district and was under the assumption that things were being done "above board". So like most of the public, I was not aware of what had been going in within our school district.

2007 Fox C-6 Nepotism News Story in the Post Dispatch
In 2007, there was a St. Louis Post Dispatch news article concerning nepotism issues in the Fox C-6 School District. The article stated that District Officials said that Nepotism Complaints were Unfounded. In reading the news article, I found it very odd that "Attempts to reach board member David Palmer were unsuccessful." Could it have been that he did not want to discuss the issue given the fact that his wife had recently been promoted to the district head nursing position and given a 75% pay increase. Perhaps he didn't want to discuss the fact that two of his children had been hired as Teacher's Aides by the school district according to Missouri DESE records.

You can find the St. Louis Post Dispatch article here:

FOX SCHOOLS: Nepotism Complaints Unfounded, District Officials Say

Please contact your school board members concerning making changes to our school board policies regarding nepotism in our school district. I have written about the Lindbergh and Mehlville school board policies regarding nepotism. I have also read many other school district policies as well. Many of the basic policies state that decisions made by the board SHOULD NOT give the appearance of wrong doing. I believe that our school board has made several decisions that give the appearance of wrong doing and that is why the community is looking for change.

What Would Abraham Lincoln Say To Our School Board and School Administrators?

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. 

- Abraham Lincoln

I can very confidently state that there is a growing number of parents and taxpaying citizens in the Fox C-6 School District that would tell our school board and school administrators the same thing.  However, there are many that will not because of fear of retribution from our school administrators and school board.

A growing number of patrons have little or no faith in the decision making abilities of our school board and school administrators.  The school boards disregard for community input and their lack of response to questions from patrons of the district has lead people to believe that board members are only in it for themselves or that they are trying to hide something.  By making it difficult or costly to obtain information that is freely shared with the public in other school districts only leads to more distrust.  The school board and school administrators have not yet gotten the message that the public is quite angered by their recent actions and that they are ready to ask them to resign or be fired from their positions.  They have violated our trust and therefore no longer deserve the right to be in charge of our children's educational future!

How Accessible and Transparent Is Your School Board?

At the August 30, 2011 school board meeting, I asked that the school district post its financial data online like other school districts do such as Rockwood, Parkway, Wentzville and Mehlville. I also asked that our school district post email addresses and/or phone numbers for our school board members on the district website so school board members would be more accessible to the public.  This would allow patrons of the district to express their concerns outside of the extremely short 3 minutes allowed for Public Comment at the start of school board meetings. I also asked to have our board meetings audio or video recorded and make them available online.  I checked many other school district websites prior to making my requests at the board meeting. So you could say that I had done my homework.

The most important question to ask is why doesn't Fox post Board Member Contact Information, School District Financials and Board Meeting Information Packets on their website?  Other school districts make this information available to their patrons.  By not posting this information or by making the information difficult to obtain gives the impression that our school board is hiding things from the public.

How do I know that it is difficult to obtain the information?

I have made multiple requests over the last couple of years and have been told that it's not online and that I would have to pay 10 cents per page for the information.  School board meeting packet information has been stored in PDF format since at least April 2010 as I now have copies of them.  It wasn't until the board members started using tablet computers at the December 2011 school board meeting to view the board meeting information packets that I was able to counter our superintendent's claims that I would have to pay for paper copies of those documents referencing Missouri Sunshine Law. The district has been posting board meeting minutes online in PDF format since 2002 so it is a bit difficult to believe that it board meeting information packets didn't exist prior to 2010 as I have been told.


Superintendent's Excuse Why Board Packets Aren't Online

Immediately following the August 2011 school board meeting our superintendent told me that our district didn't have a full time person to maintain our district website and instead chooses to put its money into the classroom as the reason why this information was not on our district website.  However, after reviewing board meeting information packets I have received, I discovered that the district does have a full time Web Designer that has been working for the district for 7 years.  Her excuse was simply an excuse to try and throw me off the trail.

Fox Puts Its Money Into The Classroom

Our superintendent has stressed the point of putting our money into the classroom before.  In her March 2011 Superintendent Message, she compared Fox with other districts in the "Elite 9" school districts that have achieved "District of Distinction" 10 years in a row in the state of Missouri.  In her message, she stated, "Clearly, we use our resources wisely! We put our money where it counts - in the classrooms."  I disagree with her statement considering the fact that our school board has taken quite a bit of money out of the classroom in order to significantly increase her salary.  Our superintendent's salary has been increased by over $100,000 since 2006.  One would think that with the extremely high pay that our superintendent is now making ($238,785 for the 2012-2013 school year), that she would have had the resources to provide the same information that the other "Districts of Distinction" are providing to their patrons online as well.

Ask Your School Board Members Questions

So, If you get a chance to speak to a Fox C-6 school board member, perhaps you can ask them why Fox doesn't make the same information available and as accessible as the other "Districts of Distinction".

Below I have listed a link to Fox's Board of Education page and the Meet Our Board of Education Page.  Below that you will find a list of the other school districts in the area that I researched and what information they make available on their websites. Some districts even post audio or video recordings of their board meetings online for the public to view at any time such as Wentzville, Mehlville and Clayton.  Copies of Mehlville's board meetings are available on DVD for a nominal fee.  The cost to setup the ability to audio or video record school board meetings and make them available to the public is extremely minimal compared to the school district's annual budget.  Our school district simply doesn't want you to have easy access to the information.  This leads to distrust by the community and it is not a good thing.

Fox C-6

Board of Education Home Page

Meet Our Board of Education Page

NO Board Member Individual Email Addresses

NO Board Member Phone Numbers

NO Board Member Home Addresses

NO Online Financial Data

NO Online School Budget Information

NO Online Board Meeting Information Packets

School Board Email Address (goes to Board Secretary/Superintendent Secretary)

Board Meeting Minutes back to 2008. Meeting minutes used to be posted as far back as 2002 prior to Edline. (I have copies of those documents.)

Wentzville

Wentzville Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Individual Wentzville School District Email Address

Board Members Individual School Phone Number Extension

Board Meeting Information Packets Posted Online Prior to Board Meetings for Public 
Wentzville BoardDocs Page
Review (Includes Check Registers,Contracts and Requests for Proposal Bids, etc.)

http://wentzville.k12.mo.us/course/view.php?id=2

Here is a link to the May 2011 Meeting Packet I mentioned at the August board meeting.

http://wentzville.k12.mo.us/mod/resource/view.php?id=1331

Francis Howell

Francis Howell Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Address

Board Members Home Phone

Board Members Individual Francis Howell Email Address

Mehville

Mehlville Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Individual Mehlville Email Address

Board Meetings Video Recorded and Posted Online or Available on DVD

Rockwood

Rockwood Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Phones

Board Members Home Address or PO Box

Board Members Individual Rockwood Email Address

Parkway

Parkway Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Address

Board Members Home Phone

Board Members Individual Parkway Email Links

Pattonville

Pattonville Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Address

Board Members Home Phone

Board Meeting Minutes back to 2004

Their board member web page has a very nice explanation of Board Member Responsibilities and the following statement which seems to be a stark contrast as to how things are handled at Fox C-6 despite what it is stated all over our website and printed on our letter head.

“The Board carries out its functions openly while seeking the involvement and contributions of the public, students and staff in its decision-making process.”

Lindbergh

Lindbergh Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Address

Board Members Home Phone

Board Members Personal Email Address

Board Meeting Minutes back to 2009

Clayton

Clayton School Board Information

Clayton Board Members Information

Board Members Individual School Email Address

BoardDocs – Online Financials

OnlineAudio Recordings of Board Meetings in MP3 Format

Nice explanation of School Board Responsibilities and the statement that,“The Board of Education is elected to represent the School District of Clayton community in the governance of its public schools.”

Ladue

Ladue Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Address

Board Members Home Phone

Board Members Individual Ladue School Email Address

Advisory committees: Curriculum & Instruction, Finance, Facilities Planning and Technology

Hazelwood

Hazelwood Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Assigned School Phone Number

Financial Data Online

Hazelwood School Administration Page with photos, email addresses and direct phone numbers to school district administrators 

Kirkwood

School Board Home Page

Board Members Individual School Email Address

Board Members Special Email Link to Email All Members at Once

Board Meeting Minutes back to 2002

Webster

Webster Board of Education Home Page

Board Members Home Phone

Board Members Individual School Email Address

3 Citizen Committees - Finance Advisory Committee, Public Relations Committee and Building Advisory Committee

Board Meeting Minutes back to 2009

Windsor

Windsor School Board Home Page

Board Members Home Address

Board Meeting Minutes back to 2011 online older documents by request.