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 Legal Fees Dating Back to 2004 Provided by District

It's been several weeks since I've been able to find enough free time to finish an article. It takes hours to write and edit an article. I haven't been home long enough or had other higher priority activities keeping me from get any articles completed. I've been bouncing between several different subjects that need to be addressed in separate articles and hope to get them published in the next week or two.

Between helping my wife run kids to or from practices to preparing for the annual pinewood derby race as well as running the pinewood derby race with the help of other parents and scouts, to helping scouts along with others help build an all natural material klondike sled over several weekends (losing several small trees on my hillside as wood was obtained for the sled and will most likely be noticeable in the next Google Earth imagery) and attending klondike; attending STEM committee meetings, leader training and other meetings and trying to run more miles in preparation for the annual marathon and spending hours on the phone with Sprint's customer service trying to get my bill corrected after attempting to switch to Sprint from AT&T and returning the phones due to many problems with Sprint's service (that story needs to be shared with everyone), there just wasn't enough time to complete an article.

I've been asked or had comments from many people over the last couple of weeks as to why I hadn't written any articles and that's my "excuse". I appreciate those that were concerned. Not being home for more than a few minutes almost every evening other than to pick up kids or items needed for a meeting and head off to a meeting or activity really cut into my research and reporting time.

There's been quite a bit going on over the last month and since the last board meeting. Everyone should know by now that the next Fox C-6 board meeting was moved from February 17th to February 24th. You should always check the board meeting schedule on the district website at: www.fox.k12.mo.us.

Fox C-6 Legal Bills
I've been trying to get an article out about the legal bills dating back to the 2004-2005 school year that I received from Fox's CFO John Brazeal on February 3, 2015 but haven't had time to finish researching why the name of the law firm listed on the bills from 2004-2008 didn't reflect the name of the law firm as documented by articles in the St. Louis Business Journal. Plus, I wanted to provide the amounts that were paid to date to them as well.

Researching that information led me to finding another blogger in the Camdenton school district that's run into similar issues with their school district which reminded me that I had found his blog before. Apparently, Camdenton has had similar issues with the same law firm that Fox C-6 used until last June when they were replaced.

I recommend reading some of the articles from the Camdenton blogger and how their community had similar issues communicating with their school board.

http://americanspring2011.com/2013/08/05/the-bully-system/

http://americanspring2011.com/2013/08/27/the-wake-of-laker-nation/

http://americanspring2011.com/2014/04/01/camdenton-school-board-race-local-control/

http://americanspring2011.com/2014/04/02/leaked-desemasa-email-reveals-spite-common-core-bigger-picture/

I received a report of the legal bill amounts and payments from Mr. Brazeal. However, I didn't copies of the actual invoices. I was provided a list of all of the invoices paid to the primary law firm for the district along with the amount that was waived for providing me that information. Mr. Brazeal reported that the total time listed for researching and providing me the documents was approximately 6 hours of staff time, which calculates to approximately $114 of fee waived by the district. Thank you for waiving the fee.

I've listed the totals below by school year from the report. I'll post the more recent years when I get them accurately totaled and broken out from the board packets for the law firm listed in the report.
I was charged for some of the board packets in the past. I refused to pay for the board packets prior to April 2010 because the district was asking for an amount I was unwilling and unable to afford.

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

2004-2010 Fox C-6 Legal Bills Report Provided by District

What I found unusual was that the legal bills provided to me had the law firm name listed as Doster Guinn James Ullom rather than Doster Mickes James Ullom as reported in the St. Louis Business Journal articles below. The firm changed names in 2008 when Mickes split from Doster Mickes James Ullom and joined up with Goldman and O'Toole to become Mickes Goldman O'Toole.

Mickes joins Doster James firm

Legal move: Doster Mickes brings in Benson & Guest

Partners oust Mickes from law firm he helped found

I've been requesting for years the legal fees paid by the district dating back to 2008. I asked for copies of the invoices from the law firm back in 2009 which was responded to with a letter informing me that the district didn't get detailed billing and that the district would have to charge me a fee in order to obtain copies of those invoices because they would have to be redacted before I could have them. It seems that getting copies of actual invoices with the amounts broken out for services for legal fees is difficult to obtain.

Parents Club Meets with Board Candidates
The subject of being able to communicate with our school board and get feedback from the board was brought up by other parents the other night at the Lone Dell Parent's Club meeting when school board candidates Mark Jones and Sherry "Chellew" Poppen came and met with the parent's club. There were quite a few interesting comments made at the meeting. One of them brought up by another parent was that she had heard that 240 teachers had applied for the Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan. She said that she had been given that number by another teacher. When someone asked the Lone Dell assistant principal how many had applied from Lone Dell, she responded by saying that 4 or 5 had applied. The high number of applications for teachers leaving alarmed many of the parents.

I'll cover more of what was discussed with the candidates in a future article. There was quite a bit discussed and quite a few concerns from the parents. There's still a large amount of distrust in the community. It's going to take time and good decisions to rebuild the trust with the community that has been shattered by former and current administrators as well as our school board.

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voter's Guide in the Arnold-Imperial Leader

The March 27, 2014 Arnold-Imperial Leader has a Voter's Guide page for the Fox C-6 School Board candidates for the April 8, 2014 election posted online:

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates Voter's Guide

in the Arnold-Imperial Leader

I didn't find any information on Vernon Sullivan's education in his information. It's very evident that Vern Sullivan is a very busy person. I would be concerned that he wouldn't be able to dedicate any time towards being a Fox C-6 school board member with all of his other commitments.

It also appears that Vern Sullivan is the only Fox C-6 school board candidate that has someone working for the school district. It's reported that Vern Sullivan has two sons working for the district with one of them being in a supervisory position. Based on what's happened over the past 9 years with Superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow and school board members with spouses or children on the school board, I believe that having Mr. Sullivan on the school board would NOT be good for the community.

In 2008, Superintendent Brown had Vern Sullivan call my father into Dianne Brown's (now Critchlow) office and tell my father to tell me to stop pursuing our complaints with the federal agencies that the Missouri DESE compliance officer told me to file with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) and the USDA's Office for Civil Rights. I didn't know that you could file complaints with the ED OCR until I spoke with the Missouri DESE compliance officer. He even walked me through the process while I was on the phone with him. He told me that we should file a complaint because what Fox was doing was wrong. To me, what Vern Sullivan and Superintendent Brown did to my father was a bullying tactic which runs contrary to Mr. Sullivan's campaigning for abolishing bullying. Perhaps Mr. Sullivan is only referring to student bullying.

In 2009, Fox C-6 signed a Resolution Agreement with ED OCR to make corrections to it's school board policies and other corrections. After 4+ years, Fox still hadn't fulfilled the Resolution Agreement. USDA OCR found the district Non-Compliant with Federal Laws in 2011 and was told to make immediate corrections. The district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting ED OCR and USDA OCR over the past 5+ years. Superintendent Critchlow has brushed off the Resolution Agreement and the USDA Ruling as litigation even though there were NO lawsuits filed. The Federal agencies simply investigated and found problems in the district and with the law firm's interpretation of the law. By referring to them as litigation, Superintendent Critchlow has been able to hide the information from the public. Our school board has been willfully blind to these problems. You can easily obtain the information regarding these issues by filing a Freedom Of Information Act request with ED OCR and USDA OCR.

I didn't see any mention of transparency by Vern Sullivan in his campaign information as well. That is still a huge problem in the Fox C-6 School District. It appears that Superintendent Critchlow wants to keep as much information as possible away from the public. She obviously doesn't want school board meetings recorded because I've asked the board to record school board meetings many times over the past 3+ years and have never been given a response. It could be that she doesn't want to record them because another district attorney told a parent advocate that, "Tape recordings are notoriously unreliable." Fox used to record school board meetings in the past. So why did they stop?

I believe that Superintendent Critchlow doesn't want board meetings, IEP meetings or Section 504 meetings recorded because she can't refute what's been recorded. She's been caught having to change her story many times because of my audio recordings of Fox C-6 school board board meetings. If there's no audio recording, Superintendent Critchlow can document board meeting minutes with minimal information and the public will never know what the school board was asked during Public Comments.

It's very important for our community that you elect school board members that are honest and are willing to stand up for the community. Your school board members represent the community and are responsible for ensuring that your tax dollars are spent wisely. Please take the time to read about your school board candidates and ask them questions while they are still allowed to speak with you.

Missouri Education Watchdog Says Local School Boards Should Be Abolished!

A recent article on the Missouri Education Watchdog website says that Local School Boards Should Be Abolished.

Missouri Education Watchdog is based in the Kirkwood School District. I highly recommend reading their article.

Local School Boards Should Be Abolished

Fox C-6 uses the same law firm as the Camdenton School District that is mentioned in the article above. Last November Mickes Goldman O'Toole attorney Ernie Trakas told the Fox C-6 School Board that he didn't recommend having open discussions with the public like they do in the Rockwood School District. Some of our Fox C-6 school board members like John Laughlin were open to speaking with the public while others such as Dave Palmer were not.

I mentioned what happened at the November 2013 Board Workshop in several articles last fall. This was the meeting where the District's attorney recommended that the Fox C-6 school board go into Closed Session for reasons not permitted for Closed Session. Here are some of those articles:

Fox C-6 Violates Missouri Sunshine Law at Board Workshop

The Fox C-6 School Board Fails the Public Again

It's important for you to find out how your Fox C-6 school board candidates feel about speaking with the public prior to the upcoming April 8th election. Responding to the public has been a problem for years and needs to be resolved. Fox's current school board is being shutdown from responding to patrons by Superintendent Critchlow and the district attorney.

The Fox C-6 community will need to vote for 3 school board members in the upcoming April 8th election.

The Fox C-6 community will most likely have to contend with current Fox C-6 School Board Vice President Dave Palmer being selected as the School Board President in April. Mr. Palmer has been a friend of Superintendent Dianne Critchlow ever since Dianne recommended that Dave Palmer's wife Gee Palmer be promoted to District Head Nurse in 2006 while Dave Palmer was the Fox C-6 School Board President. Dave Palmer's wife was given a 75% pay increase when she was promoted and given a 12 month contract instead of a 9 month contract.

I recommend reading what Dave Palmer had to say at the November 2013 board workshop about speaking with the public. I transcribed his comments in the following article:

The Fox C-6 School Board Fails the Public Again

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates

Here are your choices for Fox C-6 School Board on April 8th, 2014 (pick 3):

• John Laughlin - Incumbent (John has my vote! - John's been helpful in improving transparency.)
• Mark Jones - (Fox Alumni. Very honest! Interested in accountability and transparency.)
  https://www.facebook.com/MissouriForJones
• Chris Hastings - (Wife - Seckman 2001, Mother in Law - Fox Grad)
  https://www.facebook.com/hastings4foxc6)
• Dawn Mullins - (I know very little about her.)
• Vern Sullivan - (Former Board Member and Former Employee (retired))

I don't know much about Dawn Mullins. I met her at the February 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting. She told me that she has children in the district. She did not graduate from the district. I need to find out more information about Dawn Mullins before deciding on whether or not I would support her.

I have very strong concerns about Vern Sullivan. Vern Sullivan is a close friend of Dianne Critchlow and worked for her in the district for many years. Many in the district (not administrators) are concerned about Vern Sullivan as being "an insider". 

Vern Sullivan is a co-founder of the Politcal Action Committee "Friends of Fox C-6" which has its address listed as 745 Jeffco Blvd, Arnold, MO. This is the same address as the Fox C-6 School District. 

Vern has two sons working for the school district. One of Vern's son's, Brad Duncan, is the Athletic Director at Seckman Senior High School. Vern Sullivan will never be able to approve Bill Payments each month without abstaining unless the district breaks the Bill Payments into separate sections. Every month Brad Duncan has multiple checks written to him. We don't know what the checks are for because our current Bill Payments don't have descriptions included with them anymore on the Bill Payments report. However, the checks are for thousands of dollars each month. This will be a problem!

I believe that voting for Vern Sullivan would be like voting for another raise for Dianne Critchlow.

Superintendent Dianne Critchlow doesn't need a raise and we don't need Vern Sullivan on the Fox C-6 School Board!

TWO NEW School Board Members - Thank You For Your Support!

Thank You to everyone in our community who exercised the right and took the time to vote in the April 2, 2013 election for our Fox C-6 School Board! Your Vote has changed the face of the Fox C-6 School Board more than it has in over a decade.

Congratulations to Dan Kroupa and Steve Holloway for winning seats on the Fox C-6 School Board!

The election results clearly show that the community was awakened by the extremely poor decisions made by our school board and central office administrators over the past several months. Hopefully the central office administrators that have been trying to silence the community and the teachers of our district change their ways or will be relieved of their duties. 

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the Arnold Recreation Center polling location before and after work during the election and was able to speak with many supporters of the candidates. I met and spoke with several teachers in our district who were there supporting Steve Holloway and Dan Kroupa. The teachers definitely helped get our two NEW school board members elected.

Please support Dan and Steve and their efforts to improve our school district over the next 3 years. They have the opportunity to do a lot of great things for the community and our school district with your help in their newly elected positions. It will be up to our current board members to work with them and respect their input and ideas.

While speaking with people at the Rec Center and asking for their support, I introduced myself to a man holding a Pete Nicholas sign. He introduced himself as Dennis Nash. He told me that he was Linda Nash's husband and that my father was his principal when he was in high school. I told him that I hoped he didn't have to visit my father's office too often. He said he did a good job at staying away from his office when he was in school. I then told him that it was OK for our school board and I to have differences of opinion. I said all that I have been doing is asking for them to do their job and conduct business as openly as other school districts do and that I was hoping for change in the future. It was a good conversation and hopefully he will convey this to Linda.

I got the chance to speak with Dave Palmer. Dave and I talked mostly about running and other things from our days in school.

I also had the chance to speak with Dan Kroupa. Dan certainly has the credentials to be a great school board member and his background in accounting should bring more accountability to our board. Dan now has a better understanding of how our district has been conducting business and I look forward to working with him and Steve Holloway and the rest of our school board as we start turning things around in our school district.

I would also like to thank everyone who supported Mark Jones for his bid for a seat on the Fox C-6 School Board. Mark did incredibly well for having only 100 yard signs and no print ads in any of the local papers. I learned quite a bit from helping Mark. He put together a lot of great campaign information from county records. I suspect that if Mark runs for the school board again that he has a great chance of winning a seat on the board and would make a great school board member.

Now lets start moving our school district in a positive direction and truly involve the community in educating our children. This is your school district.

You have shown that Your Vote can make a difference!

The Unofficial Election Results reported by the Jefferson County on April 3, 2013 is as follows:

---

FOX C-6 SCHOOL DISTRICT

Total Votes            9355

Times Over Voted          1

Number Of Under Votes  1169

---

RUTH ANN NEWMAN        1564   16.72%

PETE NICHOLAS          1209   12.92%

MARK S. JONES          1108   11.84%

ANTHONY W. THEBEAU      435    4.65%

STEVE P. HOLLOWAY      2236   23.90%

DAN KROUPA             2776   29.67%

---

Please Vote April 2nd and Make A Positive Change In Our District

You have a great opportunity on Tuesday April 2, 2013 to make a POSITIVE change in the Fox C-6 School District by casting your vote and ELECTING TWO NEW SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS to the Fox C-6 School Board.

Please VOTE for
 MARK JONES and STEVE HOLLOWAY!!

Your Vote WILL Make a Difference!!

I have spoken with all of the candidates that have been at public meetings and I am putting my support behind Mark Jones and Steve Holloway. They are both graduates of Fox Senior High School. They both have successful careers and are very dedicated individuals. Mark Jones graduated in 1985. Steve Holloway graduated in 1990. They both have children attending our school district and want to see our school district improve its reputation and how it involves and respects our community.  They will be working to increase Transparency and Accountability in our school district which is something that our district has been severely lacking.

Mark Jones doesn't have any family members working for the school district. Steve Holloway's wife is a teacher at Antonia Elementary. I have met and spoken with her in person and I was very impressed by her. I have heard a lot of great things about her as a teacher and I just learned today that a retired Fox elementary school teacher I know had her in his class when he was teaching.

Our district has been like a family for years. However, that family oriented emphasis has been taken too  far recently and it has brought unwelcome attention to our school district. Our current board members that are up for re-election stand behind their recent hiring decisions. These same incumbent board members voted in 2006 to promote another board president's wife to the position of district head nurse despite the fact that there were at least 9 or 10 nurses with more years of experience than her in the district at that time. One of those other nurses had nearly 3 times the number of years of experience in the district. The board also voted to increase her salary by 75% by changing her contract from 9 months to an 11 or 12 month contract. The recent hiring of a board president's relative is not new. But, the most recent decision really stood out due to the fact that board president Linda Nash's daughter-in-law did not have the college degree or certification that the district was looking for in their job post. Those in the community that have seen the recent media attention our school district received have been telling me that they want to see a change in our school board as well. In order to make that change, I am asking that you vote for Mark Jones and Steve Holloway. 

Questions For The Community

ANY VOTE for an incumbent school board member this year would show that you are willing to continue to put up with a school board that is unresponsive and shows very little respect for the community they were elected to serve. Our school board members are elected to be our voice in the school district.

Let me ask you some questions to see if you believe that our school board has been representing us as you elected them to do:

• Would you have asked our school board members to approve spending more than $3 million dollars to install artificial turf to upgrade our athletic fields to multi-purpose fields if they had asked you?
  
  (NOTE: Pete Nicholas stated on his campaign Facebook page that, "I presented the idea of upgrading our fields from grass to turf, to our School Board of Education. After weighing in the pros and cons, the motion was passed." Pete also stated that, "what sold me in the end, was the deal to get 2 turf fields for the price of 1. Plus, two turf baseball/softball fields and the icing on the cake was a digital electronic sign for FHS." So, Pete “promoted” the idea to the Board. Then the Board approved his idea and decided to spend over $3 million dollars on the new fields. Do you believe that we got 2 fields for the price of 1? Pete, your voice is heard loud and clear! Plus, the decision to get the new digital electronic sign decision was not yet decided as of the March 2013 BOE meeting.)

• Would you have asked your board members to replace the bleachers at Fox High School for $320,000 and sell the old bleachers to another school district that could use them for $30,000 despite the fact that the public was told that the old bleachers were old, damaged and needed to be replaced?
  
  (NOTE: It was announced at the March 2013 BOE meeting that the district didn't realize that the new bleachers wouldn't be able to store any equipment underneath them like the old ones due to their design until after they were installed. They are now erecting a new building for $52,000 to store the equipment in that used to be stored under the bleachers.)

• Would you have asked the school board to hire the daughter-in-law of our current school board president Linda Nash as the Food Nutrition Services Director with her high school diploma and experience working at McDonalds if our school board had asked for your opinion?

• Would you have voted to post the board meeting packets on the district website to be more transparent to the community and not discuss the decision during the open meeting nor document the decision in the board meeting minutes?

• Would you have voted to NOT post the Bill Payments on the district website with the board packets that the board members receive due to privacy concerns - not for the employees, but for the students?

I believe that the majority of parents and patrons in our community wouldn't have asked our school board members to speaking for us as they have. That is why as a community, you need to make a change to our school board by casting your vote on April 2nd in the Fox C-6 School Board election and MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

How Our Incumbents Respond To The Community

Our incumbent board members state that they listen to the community and that they are doing this for the kids. However, from my experience, they only listen and respond if you are praising them for doing a great job. Asking your board members to do simple things like correct the school calendar, or correct a school board policy they adopted that didn't meet state law, or asking them to correct school board policies for typographical and grammatical errors and remove points of contacts who retired from the district 4 years ago should not cause them to lash out at you and tell you that all you do is complain. That is NOT how I expect school board members to respond. But, that has been my experience.

Pete Nicholas is running for re-election had the following quote on his campaign Facebook page that tells me that he is out of touch with reality as to how some of our school district administrators feel about "anyone" attending board meetings and addressing their concerns to the board. Here is what Pete Nicholas says on his Facebook page:

Board meetings are openly displayed on the Fox School District website. Anyone can attend the meeting and address their concerns to the board. Attendance of school board meetings is something that I will continue to encourage if I'm re-elected to the school board.

There are several problems with his statements here. One being that Pete says that "Anyone can attend the meeting and address their concerns to the board." I have attended many board meetings and spoken during Public Comment at most of those meetings and addressed my concerns. However, I NEVER received a response from the school board regarding my concerns I presented to the board. What good does it do to address your concerns if your school board does not respond? Also, my concerns weren't documented in the board meeting minutes with anything more than a mention of the fact that I spoke and possibly the topics that I commented on. The meeting minutes said nothing as to WHAT my comments were regarding those topics. As proof that our board members help to cover up those concerns, they will approve the vaguely written minutes at the next month's meeting. That is how our district censors the concerns of the community. Pete's actions speak louder than words about transparency and caring what the community has to say.

Additionally, I have been ridiculed and threatened by individuals online for attending and speaking at board meetings as have others in our school district. Teachers that attended the January 2013 school board meeting were called into the principal's office over the next couple of days after the board meeting and questioned as to why they attended the meeting. Does this seem as if "Anyone can attend the meeting"?

On May 17, 2011, I wrote an email to then school board president Ruth Ann Newman to which she never responded regarding the December 2010 and April 2011 board meetings I attended and spoke at. My email resulted in a very unprofessional response from Superintendent Dianne Brown at the time. Please note that our Superintendent addressed my concerns regarding the poorly documented board meeting minutes. My email also addressed an incident that occurred at the April 2011 board meeting with Mr. Jamie Critchlow who is now our Superintendent's husband. Mr. Critchlow approached me at that meeting and introduced himself. He then proceeded to inform me that he did not appreciate the fact that I went and spoke to the school board regarding his hiring and that if I had any questions, that I should contact him directly. It appears to me that Pete Nicholas is out of touch with reality as to how encouraging he has been with regard to anyone attending board meetings and addressing their concerns to the board.

My email to Ruth Ann Newman and our Superintendent's response can be found in my article published on January 5, 2013 titled:
Emailing Fox C-6 School Board President Results in Superintendent Response

You should not get a "Cease and Desist" letter if you don't vote for our incumbent board members this Tuesday! Hopefully our Superintendent won't be spending anymore taxpayer dollars in the future on "Cease and Desist" letters just because she wants critics to stop talking.

On April 2nd, please tell our Board of Education and our central office administrators that you are ready for change by VOTING IN TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS!

• Let them know that you want people on the school board that you can trust.
• Let them know that you want school board members who read and follow our school board policies and obey state and federal laws.
• Let them know that you want a school board that will respond to your questions and concerns.
• Let them know that you want a school board that will question our Superintendent and her recommendations.
• Let them know that the school board should demonstrate their Commitment to the Character Education Program as they have adopted in our school board policies.

Accountability and Transparency is important in Open Government and without it, there is a good chance that things are being done that you would not approve of.

So, what does this all mean to you, the parents and patrons of the Fox C-6 School District?

If you really care about the future of our school district and want to improve your child's educational experience and make a positive change in our school district, please vote for Mark Jones and Steve Holloway on Tuesday April 2, 2013!!

Thank you!!

Rich Simpson

Still No Response From The Board - What Are They Hiding?

It's been two weeks since I first emailed our entire school board questions regarding the recent publishing of school board meeting packets on the district website. I asked the board why they decided not to publish the Bill Payments. I received an initial response from board member Ruth Ann Newman. However, no one has responded as to why their decision wasn't discussed during open meeting or why their decision wasn't documented in the board meeting minutes. Our school board is the voice for the community and is obligated to keep the community informed. By not documenting this decision in the board meeting minutes and not responding to questions gives the community even more reasons to doubt the honesty and integrity of our school board and administration.

The questions that our school board has not yet responded to are:

• Was the decision to post the board meeting packets on the district website made at the February 19 BOE Meeting?

• Why wasn't the decision to post board meeting packets listed as a business item for discussion in the February BOE meeting agenda?

• Why wasn’t the decision to post board meeting packets documented in the board meeting minutes?

• Why wasn't the decision to post board meeting packets discussed in an open meeting? 

Very Valid Questions
The questions I posed to our board members are definitely valid questions. Some of the questions I posed to the board were asked of me by other public officials after I informed them that board meeting packets had been posted on the district website without the Bill Payments.

If a decision is made to change the way the district has been doing business for more than a decade it should be documented in the meeting minutes. According to school board policy 0405, the Board of Education speaks through its minutes. Therefore, this decision should have been recorded in the minutes. Picking and choosing what portion of the District's Public Records they wish to post is not an option.

Reason Not To Post Bill Payments Raises Eyebrows
Literally!! Everyone I've spoken to as to why our school board decided not to post the Bill Payments on the district website causes them to raise their eyebrows in disbelief.

So, why did the school board decide not to post the bill payments on the district website?

Board member Ruth Ann Newman informed me in an email on Monday March 18, 2013 that the reason that the the board didn't post the bill payments on the district website was that, "Right now, we felt like this was a privacy issue--not for the employees, but for the students.  Someone is checking to see what other districts are doing and why, or why not."

Why would there be privacy concerns for the students? It really doesn't make sense. But, that's the reason that was given by our school board.

When I made Missouri Sunshine Law requests for board meeting packets in the past, the bill payments were always included with the board meeting packets that the school sent me. The school board meeting minutes references the pages in the board meeting packets that are the bill payments. The board members approve these bill payments each month.

So, what are they hiding from the public by not posting the bill payments?

Call or email your school board members and ask them. It appears that they may not respond to your questions. You have the right to know how your taxpayer dollars are being spent. Our school board gets an "F" for failing to disclose this information. Perhaps the board doesn't want you to know until AFTER the school board elections. Once the bill payments get posted online, the community will be able to find out how much it cost the taxpayers for the "cease and desist" letters that our Superintendent sent out to members of our community because she didn't like the criticism she was receiving.

Hopefully, the patrons of our school district will show their discontent with our current school board in the upcoming election by voting in new school board members. Our community has the opportunity to make a positive change to our school board by replacing the incumbents on April 2, 2013. We need school board members that are responsive to the community and believe in Open Government and Transparency.

Please vote for Mark Jones and Steve Holloway for Fox C-6 School Board on Tuesday April 2, 2013!

Take Note Community - Your School Board Failed To Respond

It is less than a week before the April 2, 2013 School Board Election and your current school board has failed to respond to my questions regarding the posting of the Bill Payments on the district website. I think this is a huge failure by our school board given the fact that the election is so close. Possibly, the school board believes that if the community knows nothing about the fact that they did not respond, everyone in our community will think things are going great in our school district because our Superintendent told you so.

Maybe our superintendent will send me another Cease and Desist letter due to the fact that I sent several emails trying to find out why the district didn't post the Bill Payments with the board packets on the district website. You can read the email exchanges and the questions that they DID NOT respond to in my previous article here:

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

For nearly 2 years, I have been asking our school board to post the Board Packets, Bill Payment and Financials on the district website at numerous board meetings and in emails without receiving a single response from our school board as to why they refuse to post them. Our school board does not understand Open Government and Transparency. This is one of the biggest failures and most disrespectful behaviors I have ever come across in dealing with elected officials. 

Our school board members were voted into office to represent the community and be our voice in the school district and listen to our concerns. I told Ruth Ann Newman that corrections needed to be made to our school board policies for typographic and grammatical errors as well as removing points of contact from them that have retired years ago in February 2011. She told me that all I did was complain and that they were working on rewriting them at that time. That was more than 2 years ago. The district posted a completely overhauled and updated version of the policies on the district website more than a year ago. The board and school district still haven't finished reviewing them and approving them for adoption. If this is how your school board responds to the community and fulfills their role as school board members, then WE SHOULD NOT BE VOTING INCUMBENTS BACK ONTO THE SCHOOL BOARD! 

Ruth Ann Newman and Pete Nicholas are up for re-election on the April 2, 2013 ballot. I hope that the voters and patrons of our school district take note and spread the word that OUR SCHOOL BOARD IS UNRESPONSIVE AND THAT OUR COMMUNITY NEEDS NEW PEOPLE ON THE BOARD! It would be nice to let our superintendent know that the community has reached its limit with the problems going on in our school district by NOT CASTING ANY VOTES for Ruth Ann Newman or Pete Nicholas. We DO NOT NEED Ruth Ann and Pete on the school board for another 3 years. From speaking with many people in the community that have been paying attention to the press that our school district has been receiving, they will not be casting votes for our incumbents. It is up to you to inform your friends, family and neighbors before the election about how our school board and school district has been treating the public. Please link to this article on Facebook and Twitter. You can make a Positive change in our district.

On April 2, 2013, I will be casting my votes for Mark Jones and Steve Holloway. Both Mark and Steve are graduates of Fox High School and have children in our school district. Mark Jones doesn't have anyone working for the school district and he cares a lot about our school district just as I do. Steve Holloway's wife is a teacher at Antonia Elementary and I was very impressed when I met her. Many people have told me great things about her as a teacher. I also know that Steve has done a lot of work helping Antonia Elementary and he cares about our district as well. Neither Mark nor Steve come from a political background. They just want to help improve our school district!

Dan Kroupa is also running for the school board and I have my concerns if he were to get elected onto the school board due to his political connections with the City of Arnold and Ron Counts.  Ron Counts was helpful in getting Dianne Brown-Critchlow placed as our school district superintendent. Ron Counts and Dianne Critchlow are very close and with Dan Kroupa being closely involved with the City of Arnold, I believe that if Dan were to get elected that it would significantly upset the chances of getting a school board that is responsive to our community. These are my opinions and I have the right to voice them. I have always been respectful in expressing my concerns and opinions despite what our superintendent, some of our administrators and school board may want you to think.

As a Community, I hope that you vote for Mark Jones and Steve Holloway in the April 2, 2013 school board election. Please put the Community back into our school board and remove the self-serving and non-responsive members of our current board. 

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THINGS IN OUR SCHOOL DISTRICT WITH YOUR VOTE ON TUESDAY APRIL 2, 2013!!!

By casting your vote on April 2, 2013, you can exercise your right to show our school board anonymously how you feel about their behavior, attitude and unresponsiveness without having to endure the ridicule and offensive slander that I have received for voicing my concerns at school board meetings and in speaking with people in our community.

You have the right to vote and I hope you exercise that right in the upcoming election!

Fox C-6 March 19, 2013 Board Meeting Report

More Realistic Than Last Month
The March 19, 2013 Fox C-6 Board of Education meeting was a nice change of pace from last month's meeting. This month's meeting brought some genuine highlights of students and teachers that are making a difference in the district. A student from Fox Elementary was highlighted for her heroic action of using the Heimlich maneuver to save a fellow classmate from choking on a piece of popcorn chicken. The American Heart Association honored Rockport Elementary for its fund raising efforts this year by raising over $33,000 for the American Heart Association. It was the top fund raising school in the state of Missouri for the American Heart Association's Jump Rope for Heart. Rockport has been raising funds for more than 20 years for the American Heart Association. Mr. Steis the assistant principal at Antonia and Ridgewood middle schools highlighted some of his students that are tutoring special needs students. These were truly meaningful stories by students and teachers in our district. It was a far cry from what went on at last month's meeting during Public Comment. Last month a new school record was set for the most number of Public Comments made at a board meeting since 2001.

In contrast, the February 2013 BOE meeting couldn't have been better scripted by our superintendent in her efforts to combat the bad press that she and the district have been receiving lately. It was as if she had handed out writing assignments to 5 individuals (some being teachers) from our school district to come up with something great to say about the district. It was very amusing listening to the over the top Public Comments last month. It was even more interesting to see how they were documented in the board meeting minutes in contrast to how my comments were documented. It speaks volumes as to how our district filters the information to keep the public from getting an honest summary of board meetings and the public's concerns. At least the minutes stated more than "Concerns within the district" which is how my Public Comments were documented in the December 2010 BOE meeting minutes. I emailed the board regarding my comments being documented as "Concerns within the district.". I received quite an unprofessional response from our superintendent informing me that our school board secretary had contacted the Missouri School Board Associations's legal counsel and that the board meeting minutes fully complied with the law. I wonder if anyone remembers what my "Concerns" were back then?

February 19, 2013 Board Meeting Minutes
Public Comments:

• Madelyn Layman - the importance of using positive character in our schools.
• Barb Wiley - commented on the progress of the district over the past 24 years.
• Joe Simino - Success and growth in the Fox C-6 School District music department.
• Cailyn Hotop - thanked the board for all of the decisions they had made that have helped to shaped her high school career.
• Katherine Luh - expressed gratitude for the exceptional education.
• Rich Simpson - commented on ACT data, school calendar, textbooks, public comments policy.

Last month our superintendent wanted to make sure that the community knows how great a job our school board is doing right before the election. She has been doing this for years in the local papers. She needs to keep the incumbents in place. I am sure that everyone in the community has already forgotten about the recent decision by our school board to hire the daughter in law of our school board president as the district's new Director of Food Nutrition Services for $65,000 a year. Linda Nash's daughter in law has a high school diploma and had worked at McDonald's for 17 years.

This month I felt that I needed to address my concerns regarding the Cease and Desist letters that the district has been spending taxpayer dollars to send out to citizens in our community for voicing their concerns and opinions and for asking the school district to be accountable and transparent. These letters were sent to try and silence those being critical of our district.

Public Comments
There is not a whole lot you can say in 3 minutes to get your point across to the school board and administration and inform the Public. It slows the progress of change by restricting what can be conveyed to the board and the public. That's also why there are blogs like this so more information can be conveyed to the public; and, so they can become more educated on the process and what is really happening within our school district.

Since this was the last board meeting prior to the election, I felt that it was really important to point out a systemic problem that has been occurring for more than 2 years. It is a fact that there have been individuals posting in an online forum known as Topix. I happened upon this website in October 2010 while researching information about the district to send to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (ED OCR). It is like the gossip channel for communities across the nation. Comments can be posted anonymously. This allows anyone to say anything about anyone without fear of reprisal to the real poster of the comment. In fact, I have been the subject as well as my parents of many false, defamatory and slanderous comments over the past couple of years because of my efforts to educate our school board and inform the public. 

What was my major point in telling the board about this? Despite the false accusations and claims posted on TOPIX that I was the person making posts in this online forum, I have not posted on Topix in over 2 years.

So, while some Fox C-6 administrators may be mad that people were speaking about them over the last couple of years on TOPIX, I have not been the one posting those comments. Nor did I ask anyone to post comments on that site for me.

The first slanderous comment directed at my parents and I was posted only a week after I spoke at the December 2010 school board meeting and 2 days before an article was published in the Leader newspaper about the newly appointed head football coach at Seckman High School. What a coincidence! Especially given the fact that there were only 7 people in attendance at the December 2010 board meeting besides the board members and administrators. Those in attendance included myself, a reporter from the Leader and a few students and a couple of accountants. The board meeting minutes didn't get posted for over a month and then there weren't any details of my public comments in those board minutes.

Recently, the personal attacks made against me have really picked up after I spoke at the December 2012, January 2013 and February 2013 board meetings. Those personal attacks have also been directed at others who have voiced their concerns about our school district, superintendent and school board. I believe as well as many others in our community that there are only a few people that would be so upset over critical comments made of our superintendent and school board. The language in the posts and the people that have been attacked speaks even louder as to who might be posting these defamatory and slanderous comments. Even more telling is the fact that some of the information posted would have only been known to school administrators. As I stated in my public comment at the March 2013 board meeting, remarks such as those that have been posted online, would lead to the dismissal of any educator who would make such comments. Rather than calling people names and making false accusations, they should be addressing the problems and criticisms rather than risking their careers.

Here is what I read at the March 19, 2013 school board meeting.

My March 19, 2013 Fox C-6 board meeting Public Comment

I would like to report that I have been getting a lot of positive feedback from the community and from teachers and staff and even retirees for my efforts in helping to bring accountability to our school district. It is good to see that the public is becoming more aware of how our school district leadership and school board has been conducting business compared to other school districts under our current administration. I think it is very important for the community to know that using taxpayer dollars to send out cease and desist letters to individuals in the community who voice their concerns at board meetings and in the community is unacceptable. It is also very unacceptable for individuals who are very well in the know of actions being taken by our administration prior to them even being public to be making slanderous comments about individuals in online forums anonymously. Well, actually they use a variety of different names all within minutes of each other but spreading the same message. This type of conduct will eventually lead to the dismissal of educators within our district if proven to be who everyone now believes to be the person or persons posting these messages.

I would like the school board to know that I have never made ANY defamatory or derogatory comments at school board meetings or to school board members as was misrepresented in the cease and desist letter sent to me by our school district last fall. I would also ask that our school board read up on Missouri’s Anti-SLAPP law regarding this topic. Our school board and administrators should also know that I have not posted anything on the TOPIX online forum for more than 2 years. I made a total of 18 posts between October 2010 and January 11, 2011 providing statistical data and information from Missouri DESE and school board meeting minutes and information regarding a District Wide Compliance Reviews that was being conducted by the Office of Civil Rights of our school district. That Compliance Review has been ongoing since March of 2010. I certainly have not deserved the crude and slanderous remarks that have been made against me and my parents for my advocacy efforts and efforts to hold our school district accountable. You have some very serious issues to deal with and I am glad that the community is beginning to realize that things aren’t as glowing and as positive as you would like everyone to believe.

So, in closing would like to say that I certainly hope that the upcoming election will bring a new set of faces to our school board and that our district begins to head in a new direction. It will take a concerted effort by our community to encourage a change in leadership. It will also require that our school board and school administrators conduct themselves with the Character traits of Honesty and Integrity that they so often tout. 

Thank You!

Fox C-6 School Board Election
I have been asked by quite a few people including my parents as to who I support for the upcoming Fox C-6 School Board election. I am putting my support behind Mark Jones and Steve Holloway. Mark Jones is a 1985 graduate of Fox High School and Steve Holloway is a 1990 graduate of Fox High School.

Mark Jones and Steve Holloway have information on Facebook. Mark Jones has a website as well.

Mark Jones Website
Mark Jones Facebook Page

Steve Holloway's Facebook Page

My father told me just the other day that he thought Mark Jones had a good chance at getting on the school board. He said that having 6 people running for 2 positions makes it more difficult but he still liked his chances. I was really glad to hear that from my father. My father knows a lot of people in our school district and in the community.  He and my mother are very well respected and his remarks should say a lot to the community. I hope Mark Jones and Steve Holloway gets elected to the school board. Both Mark and Steve have a background in computer science and work in the technology field. Their skills could benefit our school board and community greatly.