The Fox C-6 School Board Election Is Only One Week Away!

The Fox C-6 school board election is only one week away!

Have you read the voters guide for this year's Fox C-6 School Board candidates?

I recommend reading some of the past voters guide articles as well.

I've posted a link to the voters guides below from the Leader Publications website.

Reading through the past voters guides is quite interesting. Not everyone is aware of who board candidates are related to in the school district. Then there's always the connections as to who was helping who get elected such as who their campaign treasurer was during an election. That's another important point to note as well. You won't find campaign treasurers listed in the voters guide. But, it's good information to know.

Board candidates give reasons as to why they should be elected in the voters guides. You can read about some of our previous and current board members as to why they say they should be elected. Compare the reasons they listed with what was allowed to occur. Oversight and accountability is something that's really needed in our school district and has been sorely lacking for more than a decade.

What oversight was there when the credit card misuse and salary over payments were discovered during former superintendent Dianne (Critchlow) Salsman's time as superintendent?

Were any of our current or former school board members interviewed by the FBI during their investigation of the school district?

Dr. Wipke didn't mention that any of our school board members were interviewed by the FBI in the January 26, 2017 Arnold-Imperial Leader news article nor was there any mention of it by Leader writer, Kim Robertson.

Dr. Wipke stated in the January 26, 2017 Leader that:

"The FBI talked to employees, and the auditor did a full audit, and all our employees had an obligation to answer their questions to the fullest of their knowledge and turn over any documents and information they had. It’s been a time-staking process to go through all these investigations. I know it’s something that was desperately needed to be done, and all of our employees fully cooperated with any entity asking questions.”

If school board members had been interviewed by the FBI, they would have been able to speak about the numerous requests I made to our school board over the years for the district to post bill payments and budget documents on the district website for the public to review. They would have also been able speak about my numerous requests I made to review credit card statements in 2014 after the district had paid out nearly $2 million in credit card payments.

Our school board needs to get a copy of the FBI report for the public to review. We've only been able to get a copy of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigation report so far. That's the report that Fox's former school board secretary Debby Davis said that she wasn't going to throw Dianne under the bus.

The FBI report should also be able to explain why the U.S. Attorney's office and St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar didn't file criminal charges in the case despite what was uncovered and documented in the 2016 State Auditor's report.

It's certainly odd that charges weren't filed in Fox's case when others are routinely charged for the same type of misuse of public funds in other school districts and public entities.

Four of Fox's current school board members were on the board when online defamatory posts were traced back to our former superintendent's home and when the credit card misuse was discovered in 2014. However, they still agreed to pay out $130,000 to our former superintendent when she "retired" from the district. Why?

School board elections can greatly affect whether or not people will be held accountable for their actions. A great deal of that depends on who the candidates are friends with or who they have worked with in the past.

Below are links to some of the past Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guides:

2018 Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guide

https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/fox-c--school-district-crowded-field-seeking-pair-of/article_79e7d016-2d37-11e8-8445-5f6b2d04c71c.html

2017 Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--schools----at-least-one/article_0853e54c-10ce-11e7-af5a-3721123fbf27.html

2016 Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--schools-all-four-candidates-say-district-is/article_73e33700-f5d0-11e5-983f-cfac20f8507d.html

2015 Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-c--school-district-six-candidates-line-up-for/article_868dca38-d3f7-11e4-82eb-17747b9f37a7.html

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/five-vie-for-three-seats-on-fox-c--school/article_76d657c2-bc38-11e3-aefa-0017a43b2370.html

2013 Fox C-6 School Board Candidate Voters Guide
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/elections/fox-school-district/article_92b035c8-031b-5eed-b32e-af8715f37e03.html

JUNE 20, 2017 - Vern Sullivan Rejoins Fox School Board
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/familiar-face-rejoins-fox-board-of-education/article_99632784-55eb-11e7-afd1-5f555d421750.html

Invoices for Legal Services at Fox C-6 Still Difficult to Obtain!

This past Wednesday I testified in front of the Senate Education Committee in Jefferson City in support of a Senate Bill related to the amount of money that school districts are doling out in legal fees in our state.

I was invited to come and speak in front of the Senate Education Committee because of all the information that I've documented on this blog over the past several years including the amount of money spent in legal fees by the district. I still don't know exactly what the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees were spent on because the District still hasn't provided copies of the invoices for legal fees in more than 5 years of requests.

I was also asked to share our experience about having Fox's former law firm file for Due Process against us. The district filed for Due Process against us because the attorneys wanted to make sure that things were settled once and for all. There was no reason to file for Due Process against us. The district had already made their decision. We had to file Due Process in order to challenge the district's decision.

This practice of filing Due Process against parents by law firms has been occurring across our state for quite some time.

The school district of the parents that were responsible for sponsoring the senate bill had their district file for Due Process against their child AFTER they had withdrawn their child from the school district. The district wanted to document that their decision not to provide special services to the child was correct. That should certainly raised some red flags!

The school district filed an insurance claim for $30,000 with Missouri United School Insurance Council (MUSIC) in to pay for the Due Process that was filed against their child. The district's legal counsel were the ones benefiting from the Due Process. The parents have spent more than $10,000 in legal fees related to their case. You should note who sits on MUSIC's Board of Directors.

This was the same tactic that Fox's former legal counsel used when they filed for Due Process against us when they learned from ED OCR that we were we were considering dropping our request for Due Process. We decided to drop our request for Due Process after learning that the hearing office chosen to hear our case was a former law associate of the district's legal counsel. There was no way that we were going to get a "fair and impartial" hearing. There was the appearance of a fair and impartial hearing. It was a very nicely played "smoke and mirrors" of a Due Process Hearing.

Traveling to Jefferson City also gave me the opportunity to see invoices for legal services that were billed to another school district by the same law firm that represent Fox C-6 until last year after the internet scandal became public.

The parent from another school district had been provided with 88 pages of invoices for FREE after making a Sunshine Request for the invoices which spanned roughly a two year period. None of the pages in invoices for legal services were redacted. They were public records!

The really interesting thing about the invoices was the amount of detail that they contained. The invoices contained time on task billed in tenths of an hour as well as the hourly rates that each of the attorneys and law clerks charged the school district. Those rates varied between $130 and $285 per hour.

I was told that the detail contained in the invoices for legal services is what led to the resignation ("early retirement") of the superintendent and CFO in their school district.

Could having all of that detail in the invoices for legal fees be why it's been so difficult to obtain copies of the invoices for legal fees from the Fox C-6 School District?

I've made numerous Sunshine Requests to Fox over the past 5+ years for the invoices for legal fees and I still haven't been provided with a single copy of an invoice in all of that time.

I most recently made request for copies of the invoices for legal fees on September 12, 2014 along with a request for other documents. I received a response letter on September 18, 2014 from Fox's former custodian of records Deborah Davis telling me that my Sunshine Request would take more then 3 days to fill.

It's now been more than 6 months and I still haven't received any copies of the invoices for legal fees. I received several other documents from my request and even documents from other requests sent since then. However, those invoices for legal fees have yet to be provided. Why is that?


Here is the list of documents that I requested via Sunshine Law on September 12, 2014:

Documents Requested:

• Electronic copies of all Fox C-6 DISCOVER credit card statements for the 2005-2006 to 2012-2013 school years to present.
• Electronic copies of all Fox C-6 AMERICAN EXPRESS credit card statements for the 2005-2006 to 2012-2013 school years.
• Electronic copies of all Fox C-6 VISA credit card statements for the 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 school years to present.
• Electronic copies of all receipts that were purchased using Petty Cash since the 2005-2006 school year to present for personal related items for Dianne Brown-Critchlow.
• Electronic copies of all invoices from the Mickes Goldman O'Toole law firm for the 2007-2008 school years to present. When redacting the invoices from the law firm please ensure that only names are redacted and that the descriptions or purpose of the legal fees incurred remain on the invoices. I previously made a similar request years ago and was informed that the district did not receive detailed billing.
• Electronic copies of any and all receipts associated with purchases made by former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow using ANY district credit card since it has been determined that she borrowed or used credit cards assigned to other people within the district.
• Electronic list of all items recovered to date from former Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow.

After not receiving copies of the invoices for legal fees for more than 3 months, I sent a follow up on January 7, 2015 asking about the invoices for legal fees.

Fox's CFO John Brazeal responded to my request the very same day. Below is an excerpt of Mr. Brazeal's response to my request for copies of the invoices:

Record Request: 

The data to supply your request for “legal fees paid by year” was compiled by taking information from the ASBR reports filed with DESE. These annual reports are available online. Minimal time was required to compile that information for you. 

A request for copies of MGO legal invoices back to 2008 creates a time consuming task. As evidenced by the passage of time, we have been unable to fill your request. This is due to several factors, which include being able to locate old invoices (if they even exist) while simultaneously tending to the document production demands of the state audit and many other Sunshine requests, let alone the daily workload of an organization under stress. 

Which brings me to my point: As you know, there is law and policy regarding Sunshine requests. Policy (in conformance with law) provides that we respond appropriately to record requests in a timely manner, allows for charges related to copying and research time, and allows for charges to be waived when requests are in the public interest. I believe I have provided you many records in a timely manner and up until now, all were provided without charge. The “legal fees paid by year” was provided without charge because it was already available online, but still I spent the time to collect the data. Whether you realize this fact or not, your many requests absorb a significant amount of staff time to fulfill. 

Believe it or not, not all your requests rise to the level of public interest, in my opinion. Some requests appear to have more of a personal interest, which is the purpose of the charge for production when such requests become voluminous. At the moment, I am not seeing the public interest in compiling “legal fees paid by month” for three years in the distant past when “legal fees paid by year” is readily accessible. And to some extent, I am not seeing the public interest in legal invoices from years distant past. Please share your thoughts on the basis of public interest for your request. After I have had an opportunity to consider you input, I will respond with a determination on whether charges will apply. 

I have previously written to you my view of transparency in the public interest. I retain that viewpoint.

Transparency is something that is still a work in progress at Fox. I think it's reasonable for the public to know why the district spent more than $659,000 in legal fees between 2007 and 2013.

I also think it's reasonable for copies of those invoices to be provided to the public because they explain why the district spent so much money in legal fees. They are public records and if they can provide them to parents/patrons in other school districts, it seems reasonable that they would be able to provide them to the public in our school district.

Below is a compilation of the amount of money paid to Fox's former law firm between 2004 and 2013. The information was compiled from data sent to me by CFO John Brazeal for the 2004-2010 school years. The totals for legal fees from 2010 to 2013 was obtained from board packets and the bill payments posted in the board packets.

Fox C-6 Legal Bills 2004-2013

2004-2005 -   $21,906.50

2005-2006 -   $39,218.86

2006-2007 -   $45,929.39

2007-2008 -   $74,560.41

2008-2009 - $109,116.49

2009-2010 -   $71,083.37
2010-2011 - $100,342.74
2011-2012 -   $81,029.43
2012-2013 - $148,903.30

Sunshine Law Lessons From the 2015 State Audit of the St. Joseph School District

There are a lot of lessons to learn from the 2015 St. Joseph School District State Audit. One very important section of the state audit report is the Sunshine Law section.

Hopefully the Fox C-6 community and our Fox C-6 school board members and board candidates will read the Sunshine Law section of the St. Joseph School District state audit report very carefully because it's very educational. Of course, some of our district administrators didn't want the public to know what was going on in the district as documented in email responses to my questions regarding board meeting minutes and other issues.

The lack of transparency and intentional lack of details in school board meeting minutes allowed the malfeasant behavior of some of our district administrators to continue for years unchecked. Board members should have done their job but they were willfully blind as to what was going on.

When I spoke for the first time at a school board meeting in December 2010, it had been more than two and a half years of dealing with the district on Section 504 issues where the district had been found non-compliant with the law and had signed a Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Educations's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR). The Resolution Agreement was signed by Dan Baker on May 1, 2009 in which the district agreed to do things in order to become compliant with the law by certain dates. As of December 2014, the district still had not met the obligations of the agreement from May 1, 2009.

In March 2010, Fox C-6 was notified that the district would be undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review which was issued out of the Washington D.C. ED OCR Office. The District Wide Compliance Review has been an open investigation ever since and is still an open investigation. The public was never notified of the Resolution Agreement or the District Wide Compliance Review. Former superintendent Diane Brown-Critchlow as well as the district's former law firm addressed both the Resolution Agreement and the District Wide Compliance Review informing me at board meetings during Public Comment and in letters from their legal counsel that there was nothing to tell the public until the Resolution Agreement was closed or the District Wide Compliance Review investigation was completed and findings were issued.

How many years do you think it would take for a school district to fulfill the agreed upon items in a Resolution Agreement or for ED OCR to investigate and complete a District Wide Compliance Review?

At the December 2010 Fox C-6 board meeting I asked the Fox C-6 school board about the credentials and if background checks had been done and who approved the salary for Jamie Critchlow when he was hired by the district in September 2009 and promoted to the Director of the Bridges program in November 2009.

I also reminded the board that Dianne Brown had blocked me from speaking to the school board in September 2008 when she informed me that the school board had already decided not to speak with me after I had already been told by board president Wes Griffith that they would. Mrs. Brown told me that just as Wes Griffith and board secretary Debby Davis had already informed me that since Wes Griffith forgot to put me on that night's agenda that I would be able to speak at the next board meeting in Closed Session. Board members Dan Smith and Ruth Ann Newman and assistant superintendent Dan Baker were all sitting at the table as Mrs. Brown informed me that the board had decided not to speak with me.

At the December 2010 board meeting, I also asked the board if they were aware of the ED OCR District Wide Compliance Review since nothing had been documented in any of the board meeting minutes that the district was undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review. Dianne Brown asked me during my Public Comments if I was speaking about the ED OCR complaint to which I answered no. I was asking about the District Wide Compliance Review since Fox C-6 was one of only 2 school districts in the United States that were undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review to determine if the district was properly following the law and providing Section 504 plans for students that qualified for Section 504 for medical disabilities.

My questions at the December 2010 board meeting were documented in the board meeting minutes as "Concerns in the district." My "Concerns in the district" as documented in the board meeting minutes weren't very informative, therefore the public was kept in the dark as to matters that should have concerned the community.

I asked the board and board secretary to update the board meeting minutes with more details, I received a response from Dianne Brown informing me that the board meeting minutes properly followed the law and that the board secretary contacted the Missouri School Board Association's legal counsel regarding my concern about the board meeting minutes.

Had there been audio recordings of board meetings back then, the public would have been able to question the board much sooner as to why the district was undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review and why the district still hadn't fulfilled the agreed upon requirements of the May 2009 Resolution Agreement.

Not informing the public about District Wide Compliance Reviews and Resolution Agreements appears to be a common practice in our state. The lack of enforcement of the law from ED OCR and USDA OCR and the lack of transparency allows school districts to keep Resolution Agreements and District Wide Compliance Reviews open for years without consequence. In many cases students graduate before school districts properly meet the requirements of Section 504 law.

Listen to my December 2010 Fox C-6 Board Meeting Public Comments

Dave Palmer is the last of the long term board members who was sitting on the Fox C-6 school board in December 2010. Dave Palmer along with the other long term board members did nothing as they were provided documentation on Section 504 law and asked to attend Section 504 meetings to understand how the district was getting around the law. As we provided the school board documentation back then, they handed it over to Dianne Brown and to the attorneys which was used during the district's Due Process Hearing in 2010.

Mr. Palmer is well known for stating that he wasn't going to speak to the public because he doesn't want to get sued for saying something wrong or having what he said misquoted. Dave Palmer's running for the school board again this April. Mr. Palmer certainly does not need another term on our school board. I can't even guess what reason he has for wanting to be on the board again. Perhaps he feels the need to pay back the district for promoting his wife to a position she should not have been promoted to in 2006 as the Director of Nursing and was given a 75% pay increase for that promotion.

I believe if there had been audio recordings of Fox C-6 school board meetings posted online and board meeting packets had been made available to the public prior to board meetings 5 or 6 years ago like they are now, the community would have been aware of the problems going on in our district much sooner. Those who did know were too afraid to speak up and voice their concerns for fear of retaliation. Everyone knows what happened to those that did speak up.

You can read eventual email response I received from former superintendent Dianne Brown from May 2011 addressing my concerns from my December 2010 public comments in the following article:

Emailing Fox C-6 School Board President Results in Superintendent Response

I've given numerous examples of times when the board made decisions in Closed Session meetings that should have been made during Public Session just like those mentioned in the St. Joseph state audit report, The most blatant and well documented one was the violation of Sunshine law at the November 5, 2013 board workshop when an attorney from Fox's former law firm recommended taking a public discussion into Closed Session.

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

Transparency is very important! The public needs to know what's going on in their school district and how their tax dollars are being spent. Since the school board represents the community, it's their responsibility to ensure that the public is kept informed by making sure that the board secretary properly and thoroughly documents their decisions and Public Comments from the community.

Having board members who are knowledgeable about Sunshine Law and are willing to stand up to district administrators and hold them accountable for their actions is vital to ensuring that our district properly follows the law and doesn't just pretend to be following the law.

Read what the state auditor's office had to say about Closed meeting minutes in the 2015 Missouri State Audit Report of the St. Joseph School District and why it's important that they are made publicly available just like the Public Session minutes are.

2015 Missouri State Audit Report of the St. Joseph School District

The following excerpt of information is from the Sunshine Law section of the 2015 Missouri State Audit Report of the St. Joseph School District

13.  Sunshine Law

The School Board did not always comply with the Sunshine Law and held numerous improper closed meetings.

13.1  Closed Meetings

The Board held approximately 40 closed meetings from January 2012 through June 2014, but did not always follow various requirements of Chapter 610, RSMo (the Sunshine Law).

• The Board approved a list of reasons for going into a closed session at an open meeting in several instances, but only discussed some of these topics in the closed meeting. For example, minutes of the February 10, 2014, open meeting indicated a closed meeting would be held to discuss legal; real state; hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of employees; specifications for competitive bidding; sealed bids; individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment; and, individually identifiable personnel records. However, the closed meeting minutes did not document any discussion of real estate, bidding, or sealed bids. In addition, the Board met on occasion in closed session and the only documented discussion was the approval of prior closed meeting minutes.

• The Board discussed some topics in closed meetings that are not allowable under the Sunshine Law. According to minutes of closed meetings, unallowable topics included scholarship awards, construction project updates, and department updates. The Board also discussed items in closed session that may be unallowable and did not maintain sufficient documentation to demonstrate how these issues were allowable under the Sunshine Law. Some of these issues included the creation of new or additional positions, lighting issues at an elementary school, the academic calendar, and block scheduling.

To ensure compliance with state law and the public is accurately informed, the Board should only cite reasons for going into closed session it plans to discuss, restrict discussion in closed meetings to the allowable topics listed in the Sunshine Law, and adequately demonstrate how topics comply with the Sunshine Law for discussion in closed session.

13.2   Public disclosure

The Board does not always make public the final disposition of legal matters or contracts discussed and approved in closed meetings. The Board approved the settlement of two lawsuits during the 2 school years ending June 30, 2014. The district's financial responsibility in one of these settlements, a terminated contract, was $87,500. The other resulted in a $100,000 settlement paid by the district's insurance provider to a former employee. In addition, the district agreed to pay family health insurance premiums of the former employee until she was Medicare eligible, which was approximately 17 years. The Board did not publicly disclose the final resolutions. 

The Board also voted on and approved some contracts in closed session and did not subsequently disclose those votes in an open meeting or by other means. For example, on December 21, 2012, the Board approved an amended and restated contract for the former Superintendent. Also, on February 10, 2014, the Board voted to ratify the additional duty stipends granted administrators in August 2013, and authorized the Superintendent to reissue extra duty contracts.  

Section 610.021, RSMo, requires any minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving the district or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its behalf or with its authority, including any insurance company acting on behalf of the district as its insured, be made public upon final disposition of the matter 

voted upon or upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, including the terms of the settlements. The section also requires the Board to disclose in open session or by other means the approval of all contracts. 

Recommendations - The School Board:  

13.1  Cite specific reasons for going into closed meetings only for topics it plans to discuss, and ensure items discussed in closed meetings are allowable topics under state law and adequately demonstrated as such. 

13.2  Ensure the final disposition of legal matters discussed at closed meetings and all votes to approve contracts are made public as required by state law. 

Say NO to the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program Payout!

Monday morning November 17, 2014, I sent an email to the Fox C-6 School Board, CFO John Brazeal and board secretary Debby Davis regarding the proposed Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) payment to Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman. I stated my concerns regarding the removal of the 10 Years of Service with the Fox C-6 School District that just somehow happened to no longer apply even though it's in our current school district policies, including the most recent version that was posted for review on the district in March 2014.

Later that morning I received an email from Fox's CFO John Brazeal with a PDF attachment explaining the history of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program explaining what changes were made and when over the past 9 years. I have included the district's response below. Much of the language in the response appears to be responding to my concerns in recent articles regarding the issue.

On Tuesday November 11, 2014 I wrote an article about this issue after reviewing the Tuesday November 18, 2014 Fox C-6 board meeting packet. In that board packet, there was a request to approve paying Andy Arbeitman a $67,747.50 for voluntarily departing from the district early.

My article spurred a news story on KMOV Channel 4 by Russell Kinsaul due to the fact that after only 2 years of service at Fox C-6, the taxpayers are being asked to approve paying $66,747.50 for Mr. Arbeitman for leaving early. Not so fast!

For years, Fox C-6's policies/regulations have required a minimum of 10 Years of Service in the Fox C-6 School District as explained in the district's response.

It's pretty apparent that many taxpayers and school employees are not happy about the decision to offer this early payout after only two years of service. Fox's board approved new changes to the VSIP at the November 3, 2014 school board meeting that required employees to sign an agreement stating that they would not sue the school district if they took the Early Incentive Pay.

Vested in the Public School Retirement System
It's Fox C-6 taxpayer dollars that are being used to buy out anyone that wants to take the early out. It's not Public School Retirement System (PSRS) money. The rules requirements have been changed so that an employee simply had to be vested in the PSRS in order to receive the Early Incentive Pay. You must read the response from Fox to see how this has all come about.

Board Minutes and Packets Void of Changes
Over the weekend I reviewed board meeting minutes and school board meeting packets looking for the changes that had been made over the years in regards to the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program. Neither the board meeting minutes nor the board packets had any documentation pertaining to the removal of the 10 Years of Service requirement.

The response from the district states that "a vote that should have been taken in open session was taken in closed session" with regards to the changes that were made.

Not voting or discussing this issue during the Public Session or even providing documentation to the board in their board packets is a serious problem. It warrants being reviewed by the State Auditor as well as the Attorney General.

You must question why these changes weren't discussed during Public Session. The public should have been made aware of the changes. It's somewhat explained in the district's response below.

There is a Fox C-6 school board meeting this evening Tuesday November 18, 2014 at 7PM at the Fox C-6 Service Center. I encourage everyone to attend and voice your concerns to the Fox C-6 school board regarding this issue prior to them giving another hand out of cash.

According to both the current school district policy and the newly revised version posted March 2014 version "For Review", Mr. Arbeitman is not eligible for the incentive which requires 10 years of service with the Fox C-6 School District. Mr. Arbeitman began working for the district on July 1, 2013.

Below is a copy of the response I received from Fox's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John Brazeal on this issue. It's imperative that you share this explanation with your friends and neighbors in the Fox C-6 School District. After all, it's your money that the district keeps handing out!

You can also download a copy of the original PDF version of the document I received from here:

Fox C-6 VSIP Response

DATE: November 17, 2014
TO: To Whom It May Concern
FROM: John Brazeal, CFO
RE: Recent history of Voluntary Separation Incentive Program
 
This is a review of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, also known as the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program, or the Voluntary Leave Program, or the Voluntary Incentive Program. 

Policy vs. Regulation/Procedure

Generally, policy setting is the purview of the board. Policies must conform to law. Generally, establishing regulations/procedures is the responsibility of administration. Regulation/procedure must conform to policy, and therefore also to law. Anytime a regulation/procedure spends money, that regulation/procedure should be board approved rather than approved administratively. 

History

Regulation 4740.1 titled Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program was initially adopted in November 1998, with subsequent re-adoptions in April 2000, July 2000, July 2003, September 2004 and July 2005. As of the date of this report, this Regulation was still posted on the District website. 

The last re-adoption of Regulation 4740.1 in July 2005 coincides with the start of Dianne Brown/Critchlow’s tenure as District superintendent. Since that time, the incentive program has operated with a variety of modifications as described herein. Also since that time, policy and regulations/procedures generally have not been kept current.

Program Eligibility

The incentive program set forth in Regulation 4740.1 defines program eligibility to include: 

     1. Minimum of 10 years full-time service as a District employee; and
     2. Minimum of 20 years of service credit in the pension system (PSRS or PEERS), but not more than 31 years of service credit. 

For many years, courts have held that the upper eligibility limit of “not more than 31 years of service credit” to be discriminatory. 

In an email dated February 17, 2009, Dianne Brown announced changes to program eligibility for the 2008-2009 year to be as follows: 

     1. Qualify under current policy/regulation 4740.1; or
     2. Have more than 31 years of service credit in the pension system; or
     3. Have 20 years service credit in the pension system and minimum of 6 years employment with the district; or 

     4. Have meet Rule of 80 provisions with the pension system; or
     5. Be age 60 or greater with a minimum of 6 years employment with the district. 

If these changes were board approved, that fact has not been confirmed. 

In an email dated January 13, 2010, Todd Scott announced that for the 2009-2010 year, program eligibility would be as stated in Regulation 4740.1. 

In email dated February 15, 2011, Todd Scott announced program eligibility for the 2010-2011 year as: 

     1. Minimum of 10 years of full-time employment with the district; and
     2. Minimum of 15 years service credit with the pension system. 

The discriminatory upper limit was removed. If these changes were board approved, that fact has not been confirmed. 

In an email dated February 14, 2012, Todd Scott announced program eligibility would remain the same for 2011-2012 as the prior year of 2010-2011. Again, if this variance from the regulation was board approved, that fact has not been confirmed. 

In an email dated January 7, 2013, Todd Scott announced program eligibility would remain the same for 2012-2013 as the two previous years. Again, if this variance from the regulation was board approved, that fact has not been confirmed. 

In an email dated January 23, 2014, Todd Scott announced program eligibility for the 2013-2014 would match the eligibility requirements of the regulation as: 

     1. Minimum of 10 years full-time service as a District employee; and
     2. Minimum of 20 years of service credit in the pension system (PSRS or PEERS), but not more than 31 years of service credit. 

That action did not stand long. On February 19, 2014, an email was distributed announcing program eligibility for both the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 years to be: 

1. Employee must be vested (5 years service credit) in the pension system.
The announcement of this change indicated “at the February 18th Board of Education meeting the BOE made changes to the Voluntary Early Retirement Program.” 

Program Benefits

Regulation 4740.1 indicates that eligible program participants will: 

     1. Receive a payment equal to 50% of the applicant’s final year’s salary; and
     2. Be required to provide 35 hours of service to the District during the year following the end of District employment. 

Fewer changes were applied to these provisions, however, there were a couple changes through time. 

In an email dated November 30, 2012, Dianne Critchlow wrote: “I am excited to announce that the district is offering, A ONE TIME ONLY, addition to our early retirement incentive. For the first time in Fox C-6 history, we are not only offering to pay half of you highest year’s salary, we are offering 2 years of Board paid health insurance.” 

In an email dated January 7, 2013, Todd Scott announced “employees will no longer have to put in time of service after they retire.” 

February 2014 Events

On February 3, 2014, the Board met to discuss budgetary issues and also entered closed session to discuss “negotiations.” 

In closed session, the presentation to the board showed a history of the declining fund balances, and an action plan that stated: 

     1. Limit or greatly reduce spending
     2. Offer Voluntary Incentive Program
     3. Limit/freeze hiring
     4. Freeze salary schedules 

In regards to the voluntary separation incentive program, and under the heading “Things We Have Discovered,” the following statements were displayed: 

     1. We can no longer use the term “Early Retirement Incentive”
     2. The VIP (Voluntary Incentive Program) is due to PSRS by April 1
     3. Can no longer put a cap on number of years – discriminatory 

Two options were suggested by the superintendent to the board: 

Option A: Increase the incentive to 65% of final salary to employees separating in 2013-2014; 60% of final salary to employees separating in 2014-2015; and 55% of salary to employees separating in 2015-2016. 

Option B: Keep the incentive at 50% of final salary, but add 2 years of district paid health insurance to employees separating in 2013-2014; add 1 year of district paid health insurance to employees separating in 2014-2015; and no health insurance to employees separating in 2015-2016. 

The proposal stated “employees must be vested in the retirement system to be eligible,” but made no mention of minimum employment with the district or any other minimum amounts of service credit with the pension system. 

On February 18, 2014, the Board held its regular meeting and also entered closed session to discuss “negotiations.” 

The minutes of the close session state: “After discussion Mrs. Hermann made a motion and was seconded to approve the recommendation from the committee to continue the Voluntary Leave Program for the 2013-2014 and the 2014-2015 school year as presented. After the 2014-2015 school year the District will no longer offer the Voluntary Leave Program.” The motion was approved 6-1. 

Directors voting in favor of the motion: Palmer, Hermann, Laughlin, Nash, Holloway and Smith. Directors voting against the motion: Kroupa. 

Motive And Intent

It is impossible to fully assess motives and intentions, but here are a few observations. 

The concept of incentivizing higher cost staff to separate employment as a method for lowering payroll costs can have merit. However, by offering an incentive every year, the program had become more of a retirement bonus with major cost to the District rather than an incentive with cost savings to the District. 

As the District’s financial condition deteriorated, Dianne Critchlow sought to boost the incentive, while members of the Board sought to end the costly program. Some back and forth pushing on the issue exposed some motives. 

When Board members attempted to end the program sooner than later, Dianne Critchlow vehemently objected, potentially due to her own pending retirement date. With her retirement date already announced, she pushed for boosting the program benefits and pushed for expanded eligibility. 

The push for expanded eligibility coincides with the planned separation for Jamie Critchlow. The push for increased benefits coincides with the planned separations for both Jamie and Dianne Critchlow. 

November 2014 Events

I joined the Fox District in July 2014. As the program parameters had been set in February 2014 and announced to staff, I did not attempt to modify the either the eligibility criteria or the program benefits. However, upon noticing that the district was not receiving any benefit from the employee in return for the incentive payment, I did propose there be a separation agreement wherein the separating employee would waive any and all claims that person might have against the District. In this way, the District gains protection from potential employment related liabilities. 

Due to the fact the plan would be ending after the 2014-2015 school year, the program was finally an incentive. In an effort to boost participation and enable employees to leave before they otherwise might, I did propose paying the incentive payment before employment ended so that this payment could be used to purchase service credit in the pension system. 

At the November 3, 2014 board meeting, the program was modified to include payment of the incentive at an earlier date and require a waiver of claims in exchange for the incentive payment. No proposal was made regarding eligibility since that had already been announced to staff as being applicable for the current school year. 

Open Session vs. Closed Session

The discussion and action related to the incentive program took place in closed session during February 2014. The closed session topic was listed as “negotiations.” It is acceptable for the Board to enter into closed session to discuss negotiations in relation to negotiating with employee groups. Normally, the negotiation matters discussed by the Board in closed session proceed to the negotiating table with employee representatives. Later when agreement has been reached between the parties, the resulting agreement is presented to the Board in open session for approval. 

During February 2014, the Board was within its rights to take up the topic for discussion in closed session. Dianne Critchlow contended that a decision was required prior to April 1, 2014. Thus, a vote that should have been taken in open session was taken in closed session. Additionally, the topic was never taken to the negotiating table, which eventually convened in May 2014. 

Policy/Regulations/Procedures on Website

Obviously the objective of posting policy/regulations/procedures on the website is to provide a public resource and public notice of District policies and procedures. Naturally, when a policy is revised, there can be a delay between Board adoption of new policy and posting of the revised policy on the website. This delay should be minimized. 

According to Debby Davis, Custodian of Records for the District, she was instructed to leave the unrevised version of Regulation 4740.1 on the website, despite its revision in February 2014. Please note, the incentive program had been revised almost annually, without revised posting to the website. That should not have been the case. If things have been handled correctly, the revised program would have been posted promptly after each revision. 

As pointed out early in this memo, this matter and many other policy matters appear to be out of date. Policy requires almost constant attention and revision in order to avoid obsolesce. Dianne Critchlow allowed many policy matters to go stale. 

Status

The incentive program exists in its current form until it is changed or ended. The incentive program is an offer from the District to employees. Eligible employees are entitled to accept the offer as it exists or is modified from time to time. The Board should be the only entity with authority to authorize the incentive program and/or modification to an existing incentive program.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone stayed at the same hotel. 

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

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

Additional data will be provided as it becomes available. 

John Brazeal

Conference Hotel Cost Comparison

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Missing Airfare Charges

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

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

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

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

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

Missing Hotel Charges

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

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

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

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

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

Rental Car Expenses - $1,757.20

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

View Marzano Conference Related
Credit Card Statements

Marzano Conference Related Charges on VISA Card

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

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

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

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

Tim Crutchley - $3,008.79

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

July 2013 DISCOVER Card Statement Charges

Debbie Davis - Positive Charges Only: $1676.67

Total of ALL Charges on Statement - ($905.7)

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

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

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

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

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

More Information Needed (Airfare and Hotel)

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

2011-2012 Fox C-6 Superintendent Credit Card Usage Revealed!

The 2011-2012 Fox C-6 VISA card statements provide another interesting look into the spending habits of several of the Fox C-6 School District superintendents.

Since Fox C-6 superintendents were using public funds to make purchases, the credit card statements are public records.

Shortly after originally posting this article, I received an email from Fox's new CFO John Brazeal regarding some of the credit card charges.

Mr. Brazeal stated that:

"Sometimes the raw data creates as many questions as it does answers. Although I am unable to interpret all the charges, I can update you on some items.

The series of odd charges in Colorado that were later reversed were the result of a card being compromised. 

A number of charges on the D Brown (Critchlow) card are allegedly related to the golf tournament intended to raise funds for scholarships. 

A few larger charges on the D Brown (Critchlow) card at regional restaurants tie to the Jefferson County Superintendents Association for which Fox served as the fiscal agent. These charges were covered by the dues collected from members of the association."

Based on the above information from Mr. Brazeal, caution should be used when interpreting some of the credit card charges. The community is certainly looking forward to having many of the credit charges explained.

Explanations should be thoroughly verified. Past behaviors and explanations that turned out to be false have lead to a lot of distrust of our district's leadership.

Some of that distrust comes from years of being provided false or misleading information and the fact that obtaining information from the district was very difficult or next to impossible to obtain for years. Repeated requests were made to publish board packets and bill payments on the district website. Those requests or questions went unanswered or were ignored for years. Sometimes a request was responded to with answers like we don't have the staff to provide that information. Superintendent Brown/Critchlow would tell me that the district would rather put the money into the classroom when asked to publish the data.

That being said, there are still a large number of food charges that were made on a nearly daily basis that are listed in this article. Many people question why administrators weren't paying for their own meals for many of the local food charges.

Fox superintendents who were among the highest paid superintendents and assistant superintendents in the state of Missouri should have been able to purchase their own local meals like most people do in the work force.

Keep in mind that the charges documented in this article are only for the school district's VISA card for the 2011-2012 school year. It DOES NOT include any charges that were made on school district DISCOVER CARDs or the AMERICAN EXPRESS card for the 2011-2012 school year.

It's been stated that Dianne Critchlow used other district credit cards for purchases such as the DISCOVER CARD held by Debby Davis and Jerry Kwiatkowski. Once the DISCOVER CARD statements become available for prior years, they will be posted as well.

The credit card usage by some of our Fox C-6 school district superintendents has definitely riled the public in our community. It took nearly 6 months of requesting to obtain the credit card statements from the school district. The difficulty in obtaining the credit card statements simply added to the distrust of district administrators. I documented this in a prior article about Why It Took So Long To Get Fox C-6's Credit Card Statements.

It's difficult to understand why the credit card statements weren't being provided to our school board each month in their board packets. It's also difficult to understand why the Fox C-6 school board hadn't been asking for the credit card statements to verify what was being purchased considering how much money was being paid to the credit card companies each month. By not reviewing credit card statements each month, questionable charges have been made for years which DID NOT follow school district policy.

Finally in June 2014, the Fox C-6 school board must have realized that there may have been a problem with how some Fox C-6 superintendents were using their district supplied credit cards because all superintendents had their district supplied credit cards taken away. The fact that the school board took credit cards away from all district superintendents validates some of the communities concerns.

School district policy limits the use of credit cards to the purchase of Instructional Materials. As you can see by reviewing the charges listed below, the cards weren't used solely for Instructional Materials.

Some of the charges below have been highlighted to help you find charges that really stand out. Some of the charges have different colored text to help them stand out and to help match them up with similar charges for hotel bills at conferences.

Some of the charges also include links to the hotel or the restaurant menus to help you understand why some of the charges seemed expensive.

A Few Observations and information about the 2011-2012 VISA Charges:

• There were a lot of food purchases that could only have been for 1 or 2 people on many of the food charges.
• The hotel and food charges for the Houston trip were quite expensive.
• Airfares for the trip to Houston were not on the VISA Card Statements and must be on the DISCOVER CARD.
• Lots of gasoline was purchased by Dianne Brown/Critchlow
• Dianne Critchlow charged $100 at Q-Nails nail salon in Fox Valley across the street from the Fox C-6 Central Office.
• Dianne Brown/Critchlow had quite a few car washes.
• Dianne Brown/Critchlow made quite a few high dollar purchases at TARGET, LOWES, WALMART, HOBBY LOBBY and WALGREENS.
• Dianne Brown/Critchlow had 9 high dollar charges to the DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON. Perhaps some of these charges were for the Jefferson County Superintendent's Association.
• Starting at the beginning of the school year the charges were listed under Dianne Brown for her charges. Starting with the April 2012 VISA card statement charges were listed under Dianne Critchlow for her charges.
• There are multiple charges on the same day at a few restaurants using the same credit card.
• There were some legitimate charges for Instructional Materials on Dan Baker's credit card such as at DRYERASEBOARD.COM but a large portion of the charges were for meals.

To view ALL of the charges from the 2011-2012 Fox C-6 VISA Card Statements, click on the link below. There are a few charges to restaurants from other former Fox C-6 employees that are not listed in this article that are on the VISA Card Statements. 

It should also be noted that there were many credit cards that were used by district employees for Home Ec classes, now known as Family and Consumer Science (FACS) to purchase items such as food for cooking. The FACS teachers used their credit cards responsibly. So, don't panic when you see a lot of charges to Save-A-Lot, Schnuck's, Walmart or Shop-N-Save, those charges were most likely Instructional Materials made by FACS teachers.

2011-2012 Fox C-6 VISA Card Statements

Below are all of the charges that were made on the district credit cards for former Fox C-6 Superintendent Dianne Brown/Critchlow, Assistant Superintendent Dan Baker, Assistant Superintendent Todd Scott and Superintendent and School Board Secretary Debby Davis.

NOTE: There were several odd charges that appeared on Dan Baker's credit card on 02/01/2012 and 02/02/2012 to Walmart for $500 and to BJS RESTAURANT. Fox's new CFO John Brazeal clarified for me that the charges were due to the card being compromised. The charges were reversed and corrected in March and May 2012. It took VISA two times to properly adjust the charges. For that reason, all of the charges and credits were not listed in this article. Only the initial charges were listed for reference and for explanation purposes. The compromised card charges were not included in Dan Baker's total charges for the year.


Dianne Brown/Critchlow - Superintendent - $12,072.16
06/28/2011 -   $78.53 - EXPRESS MART SECKMAN - Imperial, MO
07/07/2011 -   $46.67 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO
07/16/2011 -   $48.45 - EXXON MOBIL - St. Louis, MO
07/18/2011 -   $89.24 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO
07/19/2011 - $123.84 - POMODOROS - Arnold, MO
07/20/2011 -   $15.06 - SHELL OIL - Hillsboro, MO
07/20/2011 -   $31.56 - MCDONALD'S - Hillsboro, MO
07/22/2011 -   $81.26 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO
07/25/2011 -   $45.36 - EXPRESS MART SECKMAN - Imperial, MO
07/28/2011 -   $55.80 - FORTEL'S PIZZA DEN - Arnold, MO
07/30/2011 -   $42.74 - CLARK - Doe Run, MO
08/01/2011 -   $57.74 - QT 652 - Fenton, MO
08/06/2011 -   $43.41 - UGAS P66 OUTER ROAD - Arnold, MO
08/08/2011 -   $76.86 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO
08/09/2011 - $192.82 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO

08/09/2011 -     $1.59 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO
08/10/2011 - $110.90 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

08/10/2011 - $100.00 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

08/12/2011 - $158.55 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

08/12/2011 - $248.24 - DETOUR BAR & GRILL - Imperial, MO

08/14/2011 - $163.96 - JO-ANN STORE #2219 - St. Louis, MO

08/14/2011 -   $44.58 - UGAS P66 OUTER ROAD - Arnold, MO

08/15/2011 - $301.03 - OFFICE DEPOT - Arnold, MO

08/15/2011 -   $51.36 - OFFICE DEPOT - Arnold, MO

08/16/2011 -   $53.90 - ARNOLD PLAZA - Arnold, MO

08/17/2011 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

08/21/2011 -   $44.88 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO
08/23/2011 -   $70.42 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO
08/24/2011 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

08/27/2011 -   $68.27 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

09/02/2011 -   $36.35 - BEST BUY - St. Louis, MO

09/03/2011 -   $34.17 - ARNOLD PLAZA - Arnold, MO

09/07/2011 -   $33.82 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

09/19/2011 - $170.00 - HUEY'S CAR WASH - Arnold, MO

09/19/2011 -   $47.63 - TARGET - Arnold, MO

09/21/2011 -   $92.20 - POMODOROS - Arnold, MO

09/22/2011 -   $64.04 - EXPRESS MART SECKMAN - Imperial, MO

09/28/2011 -   $37.89 - ARNOLD PLAZA - Arnold, MO

09/29/2011 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

09/30/2011 -   $40.90 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

09/30/2011 -   $53.14 - WALGREENS #5058 - Arnold, MO

10/01/2011 -   $16.16 - ARBY'S - Wentzville, MO

10/01/2011 -   $39.75 - QT 654 - Wentzville, MO

10/02/2011 -   $41.21 - WESTLAND TRAVEL - Kingdom City, MO

10/03/2011 - $539.00 - MARCO BEACH RESORT - Marco Island, FL (Credit in 12/2011)

10/06/2011 -   $17.24 - PANERA BREAD, Arnold, MO

10/07/2011 -   $72.41 - EXPRESS MART SECKMAN - Imperial, MO

10/07/2011 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

10/07/2011 -   $75.10 - ETCETERA (Flowers & Gifts) - Marion, IL

10/12/2011 - $146.91 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

10/12/2011 -   $50.87 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

10/13/2011 -   $53.20 - EXXON MOBIL - Festus, MO

10/15/2011 -   $54.44 - UGAS P66 OUTER ROAD - Arnold, MO

10/20/2011 -   $75.00 - JEWEL BOX FLORIST - Arnold, MO

10/23/2011 -   $44.58 - UGAS P66 OUTER ROAD - Arnold, MO

10/25/2011 -   $76.57 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

10/26/2011 - $211.76 - CECIL WHITTAKERS PIZZA - Arnold, MO

11/01/2011 -   $57.02 - QT 656 - Fenton, MO

11/02/2011 -   $53.20 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

11/10/2011 -   $63.83 - BRAVO WEST COUNTY - Des Peres, MO

11/15/2011 - $194.97 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

11/18/2011 - $203.24 - LOWES #02303 - Arnold, MO

11/18/2011 -   $58.71 - LOWES #02303 - Arnold, MO

11/18/2011 - ($69.16) - LOWES #02303 - Arnold, MO

11/21/2011 -   $33.41 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

11/22/2011 -     $6.56 - DOLLAR TREE - Arnold, MO

11/22/2011 -   $32.78 - DIERBERG'S - Arnold, MO

11/22/2011 - $300.23 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO - (Picture Frames - SHS Football)

11/26/2011 -   $61.89 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO

11/27/2011 -   $19.82 - FASTLANE  - Kingdom City, MO

11/27/2011 -   $50.79 - BREAK TIME - Columbia, MO

11/28/2011 -   $76.52 - OFFICE DEPOT - Arnold, MO

12/09/2011 -   $80.00 - DON F STENGEL SIGNS INC - Fenton, MO

12/13/2011 - $674.90 - TARGET - Arnold, MO - (NIKON 1 Digital Camera)

12/13/2011 - $264.97 - WALGREENS - Arnold, MO - (Candy & Gift Cards)

12/14/2011 -   $52.47 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO

12/15/2011 - $146.15 - TARGET - Arnold, MO - (NIKON 1 Lens, Batteries & Memory)

12/20/2011 - ($539.00) - MARCO BEACH RESORT (CREDIT)

12/26/2011 -   $38.64 - EXXON MOBIL - Pevely, MO

01/03/2012 -   $59.98 - WHIMSICALWINDS.COM - NJ

01/05/2012 -   $14.90 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

01/05/2012 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

01/13/2012 -   $76.91 - WALGREENS - Arnold, MO

01/13/2012 -   $91.48 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO

01/14/2012 -   $13.78 - WALGREENS - Arnold, MO

01/18/2012 - $143.73 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

01/24/2012 -   $18.00 - WENDYS #11175 - Arnold, MO

01/28/2012 - $270.82 - TARGET - Arnold, MO

02/02/2012 -   $13.18 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

02/06/2012 -   $40.00 - QT 655 - Eureka, MO

02/06/2012 -   $16.59 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

02/06/2012 -   $19.27 - SPECTATORS - Jefferson City, MO

02/07/2012 -   $38.34 - 41 FASTLANE - Foristell, MO

02/07/2012 -   $21.43 - EL MAGUEY - Lake St. Louis, MO

02/07/2012 - $121.74 - CAPITAL PLAZA - Jefferson City, MO

02/08/2012 - $148.70 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO 

02/10/2012 -   $18.19 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

02/13/2012 -   $37.46 - GARVEY'S GRILL - Mehlville, MO

Trip to Houston, TX with Dan Baker and Todd Scott:

02/15/2012 -   $68.84 - EXXON MOBIL - St. Louis, MO

02/15/2012 -   $26.04 - GREAT AMERICAN BAGEL 2 - St. Louis, MO

02/16/2012 -   $11.85 - PHOENICIA SPECIALTY FOODS - Houston, MO

02/18/2012 -   $39.23 - GUADALAJARA DEL CENTRO MEXICAN REST - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 -     $7.58 - FOUR SEASONS HOTELS - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 - $873.38 - FOUR SEASONS HOTELS - Houston, TX

02/22/2012 -   $52.52 - EXPRESS MART SECKMAN - Imperial, MO

03/01/2012 -   $15.28 - CHIK-FIL-A #02629 - Arnold, MO

03/01/2012 - $349.99 - AT&T (new cell phone?)

03/01/2102 - $110.00 - PAPA JOHNS

03/07/2012 -   $43.05 - WALGREENS - Arnold, MO

03/08/2012 -   $62.72 - EXPRESS MART SECKMAN - Imperial, MO

03/14/2012 - $147.99 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

03/20/2012 -   $64.40 - QT 654 - Wentzville, MO

03/20/2012 -   $59.58 - CHIK-FIL-A - Arnold, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks with Dan Baker and Todd Scott:

03/21/2012 -   $26.88 - SHONEY'S #332571 - Osage Beach, MO

03/22/2012 -   $32.22 - LODGE FOOD & BEVERAGE - Lake Ozark, MO

03/23/2012 -   $64.49 - WESTLAND TRAVEL CENTER - Kingdom City, MO

03/23/2012 -     $9.20 - SUBWAY - Kingdom City, MO

03/24/2012 -   $54.72 - SUBWAY - Pevely, MO

03/25/2012 -   $54.46 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

03/29/2012 - $133.85 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

04/01/2012 -   $71.66 - ARNOLD COP - Arnold, MO

04/03/2012 -   $55.85 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

04/03/2012 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

04/04/2012 -   $24.56 - MARSHALLS #0341 - Marshall, MO

04/04/2012 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

04/11/2012 - $155.10 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

04/12/2012 - $300.00 - ACT*MOASBO SPRING CONFERENCE

04/17/2012 - $106.94 - WALGREENS - Arnold, MO

04/17/2012 -   $42.60 - LOWES - Arnold, MO

04/17/2012 -   $16.91 - LOWES - Arnold, MO

04/17/2012 - $200.00 - ACT*MOASBO SPRING CONFERENCE

04/18/2012 -   $34.20 - TERRAZZA GRILL - Arnold, MO

04/24/2012 -   $14.34 - TA #175 FORISTELL MO - Foristell, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks with Dan Baker and Todd Scott:

04/26/2012 -   $63.85 - BREAK TIME - Lake Ozark, MO

05/04/2012 -   $13.11 - TEQUILA MEXICAN RESTAURANT - St. Louis, MO

05/09/2012 -   $19.67 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

05/11/2012 -   $78.95 - QT 629 - St. Louis, MO

05/12/2012 -   $58.84 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO

05/16/2012 - $127.96 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

05/19/2012 -   $50.00 - NORTHSIDE - Poplar Bluff, MO

05/19/2012 -   $61.80 - APPLEBEES - Farmington, MO

05/20/2012 -   $53.57 - ARNOLD PLAZA 66 - Arnold, MO

05/31/2012 -   $25.01 - CHIK-FIL-A - Arnold, MO

06/01/2012 -   $63.76 - SHELL OIL - Arnold, MO

06/04/2012 - $100.00 - Q-NAILS - Arnold, MO

06/10/2012 -   $38.37 - UGAS P66 OUTER ROAD - Arnold, MO

06/13/2012 - $139.51 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

06/13/2012 - $129.53 - DOUBLE DEUCE SALOON - Imperial, MO

06/19/2012 -   $64.00 - 7-ELEVEN - Barnhart, MO

Dan Baker - Assistant Superintendent - $8,651.36

06/22/2011 -   $36.00 - 54TH STREET BAR & GRILL - Arnold, MO

06/30/2011 -   $25.73 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

06/30/2011 -     $5.00 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO
07/18/2011 -   $30.00 - BLARNEYSTONE SPORTS BAR & GRILL - St. Louis, MO
07/20/2011 -   $15.85 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks and Jefferson City, MO

07/24/2011 - $195.00 - JB HOOKS RESTAURANT - Lake Ozark, MO

07/25/2011 -   $46.00 - LIL RIZZOS - Lake Ozark, MO

07/26/2011 -   $78.03 - WESTLAND TRAVEL - Kingdom City, MO

07/26/2011 -   $12.59 - MCDONALD'S - Jefferson City, MO

07/28/2011 - $247.17 - FAIRFIELD INN - Jefferson City, MO

08/03/2011- $172.14 - OFFICE DEPOT - Arnold, MO

08/03/2011 -  $21.57 - JIMMY JOHNS - Arnold, MO

08/09/2011 -  $32.83 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

08/15/2011 -  $16.35 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO
08/15/2011 -  $54.33 - CARNIVAL & PARTY SUPPLY - Arnold, MO
08/16/2011 -  $24.33 - QDOBA MEXICAN GRILL - Arnold, MO

08/16/2011 -  $29.24 - QDOBA MEXICAN GRILL - Arnold, MO

08/16/2011 -  $12.23 - QDOBA MEXICAN GRILL - Arnold, MO

08/16/2011 -  $10.25 - QDOBA MEXICAN GRILL - Arnold, MO

08/19/2011 - $207.41 - AT&T 

08/24/2011 - $110.04 - JAM PAPER & ENVELOPE - NJ

08/25/2011 -     $7.64 - JIMMY JOHNS - Arnold, MO

08/28/2011 -   $16.97 - AMAZON MARKETPLACE

09/01/2011 -  $17.33 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO

09/01/2011 -  $79.20 - AMAZON MARKETPLACE

09/02/2011 -    $1.08 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO

09/07/2011 - $483.50 - DRYERASEBOARD.COM - TN

09/08/2011 -  $19.85 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

09/09/2011 -  $71.00 - APPLEBEES - Des Peres, MO

09/23/2011 -    $8.49 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

09/30/2011 -  $30.14 - BELLACINO'S PIZZA AND GRINDERS - Arnold, MO

09/30/2011 -  $26.93 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

10/11/2011 -  $31.04 - LION'S CHOICE 20 - Arnold, MO

10/24/2011 -  $55.59 - OFFICE DEPOT - Arnold, MO

10/27/2011 -  $33.21 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

11/07/2011 -  $27.08 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

11/08/2011 - $481.68 - THINK SOCIAL PUBLISHING - CA

11/10/2011 -    $8.49 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

11/14/2011 -    $8.29 - MCDONALD'S - Arnold, MO

12/01/2011 -  $16.38 - JIMMY JOHNS - Arnold, MO

12/05/2011 - $587.89 - PRE-SCHOOL PREP COMPANY - CA

12/08/2011 -   $10.16 - BELLACINO'S PIZZA & GRINDERS - Arnold, MO

12/08/2011 -   $41.60 - TERRAZZA GRILL - Arnold, MO

12/14/2011 -   $25.16 - PANDA EXPRESS - Arnold, MO

12/21/2011 -   $28.24 - TARGET - Arnold, MO

01/03/2012 -   $38.89 - BATTERYEDGE.COM

01/10/2012 -   $17.89 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

01/23/2012 -   $15.13 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO

01/23/2012 - $104.12 - HOBBY LOBBY - Arnold, MO

01/26/2012 -   $40.00 - BLARNEYSTONE SPORTS BAR & GRILL - St. Louis, MO

The following charges from Colorado were due to the credit card being compromised. These charges were eventually credited on the May 2012 statement and were NOT included in total charges for Mr. Baker:

02/01/2012 - $500.00 - WALMART - Westminster, CO

02/01/2012 - $509.69 - WALMART - Westminster, CO

02/01/2012 - $500.00 - WALMART - Westminster, CO

02/01/2012 - $500.00 - WALMART - Lafayette, CO

02/01/2012 - $500.00 - WALMART - Westminster, CO

02/01/2012 - $503.37 - WALMART - Lafayette, CO

02/02/2012 -   $91.13 - BJS RESTAURANT - Aurora, CO

02/13/2012 -   $19.52 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

02/14/2012 - $238.96 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

Trip to Houston, TX with Dianne Brown and Todd Scott:

02/16/2012 -   $25.25 - PHOENICIA SPECIALTY FOODS - Houston, TX

02/16/2012 - $104.00 - TEJAS GRILL & SPORTS BAR - Houston, TX

02/17/2012 -   $26.31 - LONE STAR CAB - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 -     $9.47 - FOUR SEASONS HOTELS - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 - $865.80 - FOUR SEASONS HOTELS - Houston, TX

02/20/2012 - $124.46 - FOUR SEASONS HOTELS FOOD & BEVERAGES - Houston, TX

02/27/2012 -   $54.00 - 54TH STREET BAR & GRILLE - Arnold, MO

02/29/2012 -   $64.49 - BARNES&NOBLE.COM - NJ

03/03/2012 - $127.68 - DOMINOS PIZZA 1568 - Arnold, MO

03/08/2012 - $385.83 - ECC*DSS DISCOUNT SCHOOL SUPPLY - CA

03/09/2012 -   $15.16 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

03/15/2012 -   $59.93 - ECC*DSS DISCOUNT SCHOOL SUPPLY - CA

03/16/2012 -   $25.99 - BATTDEPOT

03/19/2012 -   $47.17 - BARNES&NOBLE.COM - NJ

03/19/2012 - $522.62 - BARNES&NOBLE.COM - NJ

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks with Dianne Critchlow and Todd Scott:

03/21/2012 -   $41.90 - 53 FASTLANE - Kingdom City, MO

03/21/2012 -   $11.39 - MCDONALD'S - Kingdom City, MO

03/22/2012 - $451.75 - NEW FOUNDATION PRESS - Kennewick, WA

03/23/2012 -   $34.40 - APPLE ONLINE STORE

03/24/2012 - $311.63 - APPLE ONLINE STORE

03/22/2012 -   $72.00 - LIL RIZZOS - Lake Ozark, MO

03/23/2012 -     $5.71 - BURGER KING - Warrenton, MO

04/12/2012 -   $19.46 - LIONS CHOICE - Arnold, MO

04/17/2012 -   $21.74 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

04/19/2012 -   $51.48 - BELLACINO'S PIZZA & GRINDERS - Arnold, MO

04/21/2012 - $189.99 - APPLE ITUNES STORE

04/24/2012 - $261.40 - SSI CLASSROOM DIRECT - WI

04/24/2012 -   $26.13 - AMAZON MARKETPLACE
04/25/2012 -   $46.74 - U GAS TELEGRAPH - Oakville, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks with Dianne Critchlow and Todd Scott:

04/26/2012 -   $65.00 - HIDEOUT BAR AND GRILL - Osage Beach, MO
04/27/2012 -   $69.49 - WESTLAND TRAVEL CENTER - Kingdom City, MO
04/27/2012 -   $34.40 - DENNYS RESTAURANTS - Kingdom City, MO

05/05/2012 -   $29.44 - APPLEBEES - Arnold, MO

05/10/2012 - $188.61 - THE BLUE OWL - Kimmswick, MO

05/17/2012 -   $85.10 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

05/23/2012 -   $19.57 - PANDA EXPRESS - Arnold, MO

05/30/2012 -   $42.97 - 54TH STREET BAR & GRILLE - Arnold, MO

05/30/2012 -   $18.92 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

05/30/2012 -   $53.44 - OFFICE MAX - St. Louis, MO

06/13/2012 -   $68.00 - 54TH STREET BAR & GRILLE - Arnold, MO

Todd Scott - Assistant Superintendent - $9,318.47
06/27/2011 -   $44.28 - CAFE ARNOLD - Arnold, MO
06/29/2011 - $150.00 - MO ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
07/08/2011 -   $83.23 - AMAZON.COM
07/13/2011 -   $51.28 - BANDANAS BBQ - Arnold, MO
07/19/2011 -   $66.83 - AMAZON.COM

07/20/2011 -   $10.91 - OFFICE MAX - Arnold, MO

07/22/2011 - $150.00 - MO ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

07/22/2011 - $150.00 - MO ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS (2nd charge)

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks

07/24/2011 -   $20.00 - LODGE OF THE FOUR SEASONS - Lake Ozark, MO

07/25/2011 -   $71.00 - JJ TWIG'S PIZZA & PUB - Lake Ozark, MO

07/26/2011 -     $5.61 - STEAK N SHAKE - Osage Beach, MO

07/26/2011 - ($20.00) - LODGE OF THE FOUR SEASONS - Lake Ozark, MO

08/01/2011 - $615.38 - SOLUTION TREE LLC

08/02/2011 - $454.71 - AMAZON.COM

08/02/2011 - $454.71 - AMAZON.COM (2nd charge)

08/02/2011 - $177.93 - AMAZON.COM

08/03/2011 - $542.72 - ASSOC. OF SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

08/04/2011 - $103.60 - MONGOLIAN BAR-B-QUE BUFFET - Chesterfield, MO

08/08/2011 -   $16.78 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

08/09/2011 -   $62.80 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

08/10/2011 - $547.33 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

08/10/2011 -   $18.91 - WALGREENS - Arnold, MO

08/26/2011 -   $16.77 - IMOS PIZZA - Arnold, MO

09/07/2011 - $436.00 - AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

09/08/2011 - $630.00 - AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

09/22/2011 -   $95.24 - 54TH STREET BAR & GRILL - Arnold, MO

09/28/2011 -   $12.00 - MONGOLIAN BAR-B-QUE BUFFET - Chesterfield, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks

09/29/2011 -   $16.15 - LIL RIZZOS - Lake Ozark, MO

09/30/2011 -   $36.54 - RUTHIE DS - Lake Ozark, MO

09/30/2011 - $269.50 - LODGE OF THE FOUR SEASONS - Lake Ozark, MO

10/04/2011 -   $94.42 - GARVEYS GRILL - Mehlville, MO

10/13/2011 - $199.00 - NIS (Periodicals) - VA

10/18/2011 -   $16.77 - IMOS PIZZA - Arnold, MO

10/19/2011 -   $24.95 - HARTERS BAKERY - Arnold, MO

10/19/2011 -   $18.52 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

10/26/2011 -   $26.27 - BANDANAS BBQ - Arnold, MO

11/03/2011 -   $59.60 - TERRAZZA GRILL - Arnold, MO

11/04/2011 -     $9.99 - AMAZON.COM KINDLE SERVICES

11/05/2011 - $154.56 - AMAZON.COM

11/08/2011 -   $19.00 - BLUEBERRY HILL - St. Louis, MO

11/09/2011 -   $12.97 - MAMA TOSCANOS RAVIOLI - St. Louis, MO

11/10/2011 -   $30.00 - PI PIZZA DELMAR - St. Louis, MO

11/16/2011 - $154.85 - CHILI'S 108 - Arnold, MO

11/18/2011 - $327.90 - SOUTHWEST AIRLINES (Angie Burns) STL - HOU - STL

11/18/2011 -   $27.30 - OFFICE MAX - Arnold, MO

12/08/2011 -   $38.48 - PANDA EXPRESS - Arnold, MO

12/08/2011 -     $9.96 - PANDA EXPRESS - Arnold, MO

12/16/2011 -   $29.22 - PANDA EXPRESS - Arnold, MO

01/05/2012 -   $16.22 - LIONS CHOICE - Arnold, MO

01/27/2012 -   $97.19 - PANERA BREAD - Arnold, MO

02/09/2012 -   $13.37 - SUBWAY - Arnold, MO

02/15/2012 -     $7.57 - GREAT AMERICAN BAGEL 2 - St. Louis, MO

Trip to Houston, TX with Dianne Brown and Dan Baker:

02/15/2012 - $115.80 - GUADALAJARA DEL CENTRO MEXICAN REST - Houston, TX

02/17/2012 -   $97.03 - DAILY GRILL HOUSTON - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 - $101.50 - LAMBERT ST. LOUIS

02/19/2012 - $1013.90 - FOUR SEASONS HOTEL - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 -   $96.03 - PAPPAS BURGERS #610 - Houston, TX

02/19/2012 - ($32.48) - FOUR SEASONS HOTEL (CREDIT) - Houston, TX

02/17/2012 -   $27.00 - YELLOW CAB COMPANY - Houston, TX

02/23/2012 -   $38.00 - KUDUS BAH TAXI CAB SERVICE - Houston, TX

03/13/2012 -   $29.03 - PENN STATION - Arnold, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks:

03/21/2012 -   $16.68 - BOOTLEGGERS SALOON - Osage Beach, MO

04/20/2012 -   $20.00 - PANDA EXPRESS - Arnold, MO

04/24/2012 -     $7.21 - ARBY'S - Arnold, MO

Trip to Lake of the Ozarks with Dianne Critchlow and Dan Baker:

04/24/2012 -   $85.00 - GUEST HOUSE INN & SUITES - Osage Beach, MO

04/25/2012 -   $67.71 - LIL RIZZOS - Lake Ozark, MO

04/27/2012 - $285.72 - LODGE OF THE FOUR SEASONS - Lake Ozark, MO

04/27/2012 - $345.72 - LODGE OF THE FOUR SEASONS - Lake Ozark, MO

04/27/2012 -     $7.29 - MCDONALD'S - Kingdom City, MO

05/11/2012 -   $50.00 - TERRAZZA GRILL - Arnold, MO

05/22/2012 -   $15.31 - AMAZON.COM

05/22/2012 -   $16.39 - AMAZON MARKETPLACE

05/23/2012 -   $23.79 - AMAZON.COM

05/30/2012 -   $99.99 - MASTERINGANGER.COM

06/04/2012 -   $15.00 - MONGOLIAN BAR-B-QUE BUFFET - Chesterfield, MO

06/12/2012 -   $69.73 - OFFICE MAX - Arnold, MO

06/13/2012 -   $25.35 - BANDANAS BBQ #1 - Arnold, MO

Debby Davis - Superintendent & Board Secretary - $2,211.98

07/08/2011 -   $25.00 - AT&T DATA

08/22/2011 - $630.00 - AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

09/19/2011 -   $34.88 - WALMART - Arnold, MO

09/19/2011 -   $22.49 - OFFICE MAX - Arnold, MO

11/18/2011 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

01/24/2012 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

03/11/2012 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

03/20/2012 -     $4.99 - APPLE ITUNES

04/11/2012 - $100.00 - COOPERATING SCHOOL DISTRICT

05/14/2012 -     $8.00 - JEFFCO AUTO PRIDE CARWASH - Arnold, MO

05/17/2012 -   $85.00 - MO SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION

06/05/2012 -   $40.16 - CHILI'S 108 - Arnold, MO

06/06/2012 - $125.00 - MO SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION

06/06/2012 - $659.46 - TAN-TARA-RESORT - Osage Beach, MO

06/13/2012 -   $28.00 - HUEY'S CAR WASH - Arnold, MO

06/14/2012 - $425.00 - OFFICE SOURCE INC - MO