Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Investigation Report Narratives of the Critchlow Case

At the bottom of this post is a link to a copy of the complete Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Investigation Report in PDF format for downloading and reviewing.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) investigation was a result of the findings released in 2016 by the Missouri State Auditor from a state audit of the Fox C-6 School District which took roughly 18 months to complete.

The State Auditor’s findings raised a lot of questions but didn’t provide a lot of details. You can view the State Audit using the link below:

https://app.auditor.mo.gov/Repository/Press/2016031684913.pdf

The district informed the community in a June 2016 document that they were currently working on recovering funds from the Critchlow's and Mark McCutchen for excessive compensation as well as misuse of school district credit cards. As far as I know those funds still haven't been recovered.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigation's Incident Report provides a little more insight than the state audit report

The Incident Report from JCSO does not contain any interviews with former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Critchlow, her husband Jamie Critchlow or Mark McCutchen (Fox’s former CFO).

In fact, reading the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Incident Report raises even more questions.

As I reviewed the JCSO’s Incident Report several times over the past couple of days, I started highlighting portions of the report that stood out to me. I had been requesting for years in emails and at school board meetings that the district be more transparent.

Because of the lack of transparency, the community didn't really know that there were any issues or problems.

And, because of the toxic office environment, people were afraid to question things that didn't seem right.

Critchlow Had The Board Sign Off On Things

Dianne Critchlow had the board sign off on things. However, it appears that she didn’t always provide the information that they needed in order to perform proper oversight. Like, not providing the board with credit card statements each month in their board packets. Not even the accounts payable person was provided a copy according to the Incident Report.

There’s really so much that could be written about the report after reading it, but it would take hours and hours. I’ve already written numerous times about the issues dealing with the credit card misuse and the difficulties that I had in getting copies of the school district's credit card statements.

I went to board meeting after board meeting requesting that documents get posted to the district website so the public could review them like they do in other districts. That fell upon deaf ears until right before the “retirement” of former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Critchlow.

Check Out Page 32 of the Incident Report

Check out page 32 of the Incident Report because it documents how Dianne Critchlow reimbursed “numerous individuals” with “Holiday Days” as a reimbursement for them giving back their raises to the district. It was a good PR piece for the district, but it just doesn’t feel the same after reading the report.

Below are links to a copy of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Incident Report related to the investigation of the Fox C-6 State Audit Findings and Dianne Critchlow. I removed 3 pages from the original Incident Report that I was provided from JCSO. The 3 pages removed were the Persons portion of the report. Those pages did not contain any narrative. The Persons pages only contained information such as name, address, SSN (redacted by JCSO), DOB (redacted by JCSO), age, gender, telephone # (redacted by JCSO), weight, height, hair color, eye color and drivers license number.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Incident Report is part of what the prosecuting attorneys reviewed when deciding whether or not any criminal charges should be filed in the case.

Highlighted Version of 

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Incident Report

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

Breaking News!

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

May 2016 State Audit Report

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

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

Fox C-6 State Audit Report Review Agenda Item

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

Public Comments

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

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

Patrons Comments Agenda Item and Form

Download Public Comments Information Form

In June 2013 Fox's Board of Education Was Told Credit Cards Now Had Tighter Controls

In June 2013, the Fox C-6 Board of Education (BOE) was told that the district purchased a new module for their financial software which would allow the district to import credit card statements into their financial software. It would also allow them to "maintain tighter controls over purchases as well as increase the district's rebate."

The request also stated that the district "will need to expand the number of users through this process". I take this to mean that by providing more people with credit cards the district could earn even more rebate money. There were 25 credit card holders on the list to be approved for the 2013-2014 school year at the June 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting.

There's nothing mentioned as to how the "rebate" money would be used or applied.

After reviewing the 2013-2014 school year credit card purchases it doesn't appear that the district was very diligent in "maintaining tighter controls over purchases".

Below is the text from the June 25, 2013 request to the BOE to approve employee credit cards and what the BOE was told about how the cards would be limited in types of purchases and limits. You can click on the link below the text to view the document presented to Fox's BOE in their June 2013 board packet. The pages from the June 25, 2013 board packet also includes the names of the card holders and their credit limits.

The District currently has credit cards through UMB. Per Policy #3181, the cards must be approved by the Board of Education. The District's bank, United Missouri Bank (UMB), provides cards without an annual fee. The cards are able to be coded for specific types of purchases and limits. 

The District also has Discover Cards. The card fees are more than offset by the rebates generated by using the card. 

The District also has an American Express card with no fees. 

We have purchased the P-Card module with our new SIS-FIN software. We are working with our credit card vendors to develop reports that will enable us to import credit card statements into the new system. The P-Card espansion will simplify our purchasing process, maintain tighter controls over purchases as well as increase the district's rebate. This year we will receive rebates of $30,317.92. We will need to expand the number of users through this process.

A list of employees who will have a UMB, American Express, and Discover credit card is attached.

View the June 25, 2013 Critchlow's Request to BOE

To Approve Employee Credit Cards

from the Board Packet

Admins Knew Credit Card Policy

The interesting thing about this request to the board is that it references Fox's Credit Card Policy #3181. If Critchlow, Berblinger and McCutchen were referencing the policy in their request to the school board to approve the credit cards, then the administrators were knowledgeable about the Credit Card Policy. Fox's credit card policy states that credit cards are limited to purchasing Instructional Materials.

However, Fox's credit card statements document that credit cards weren't used solely for Instructional Materials. Policy #3181 is the same as the new Credit Card Policy #3125 which is still awaiting adoption by the school board.

The school board and the district have been working on updating board policies for almost 5 years but still haven't completed that task. That's why the request above referenced Policy #3181 instead of Policy #3125.

SIDE NOTE

Several people have posted questions asking who Sue Belleville is and why she purchased $211.57 at TOYSRUS-BABIESRUS in December 2012 using a district credit card. Sue Belleville works in the CKC program and is listed as a credit card holder on the List above. Is it possible that the purchase could have been for toys or games for the kids in the CKC program? Just a thought.

Fox C-6 School Board Unanimously Agrees To Request A State Audit!

August 12, 2014 - The Fox C-6 School Board unanimously agreed to request a State Audit of the Fox C-6 School District. There was enough evidence to demonstrate that the Fox C-6 School District has had some very serious issues going on internally for many years that have been hidden from the public.

Mr. John Brazeal, Fox's new CFO ran through several of the problems that gave him reason to encourage the school board to request a State Audit.

One of the things that Mr. Brazeal pointed out as being a problem was that "The buildings seem to operate on a great deal of intimidation."

This probably isn't a surprise to anyone working for the district. But, it's not what the public has been lead to believe. It's also not the way to operate and lead a National District of Character.

Superintendent Critchlow's tag line on her Twitter account was, "Every decision is based on what's best for the kids!". I think everyone now knows otherwise. This was about control and getting the most out of the taxpayers for her own personal gain and the gain of those she favored.

Mr. Brazeal outlined some of the reasons that he believes that the Fox C-6 School Board should request a State Audit of the school district and they are listed below from the audio recording of the meeting.

Reasons For Requesting a State Audit

• Noticed a number of transactions that were of personal nature rather than a business nature. We all know how wrong that is.
• Unauthorized rates of compensation. People were paid at rates above what they were above what were authorized by board action to be paid.
• Misuse of district property for personnel purposes.
• Transactions that were illegal.
• Some bond issue monies were possibly use to cover or hide deficits at an earlier date.
• In mid June Mr. Crutchley recalled all of the credit cards.
• A limited number of credit cards have been reissued with new guidelines and user agreements.
• Mr. Brazeal's predecessor (Mark McCutchen) shred most of the documents in the his office.
• Other people in the organization attempted to destroy records by deleting electronic records and attempted to wipe there computers and network drives clean. (The district is working on recovery that data and a lot of that data has been recovered already.)
• Actions have been taken to alter the way they do business and curtail the situation.

Audio Recording of August 12, 2014 

Fox C-6 Special School Board Meeting

Regarding State Audit Request (26min)

Cheryl Hermann had questions about the state audit. She said that Fox had a state audit 15 years ago. That audit occurred in 2002. Cheryl Hermann believes that the state audit in 2002 didn't go deep enough. There was some laughter and disbelief from the audience regarding her comments.

Mrs. Hermann does NOT understand that the school board is responsible for overseeing the payment of bills. It's the school board's job to review what they are approving when authorizing payments each month.

Mr. Brazeal believes that there will be civil and criminal actions coming out of the audit. He believes that our financial statements are materially correct. He said that the credit card statements that were recently released generate a tremendous amount of questions.

Mr. Brazeal also gave his thoughts on why things were happening the way they were based on stories he had been told.

"Apparently there was a great deal of intimidation towards people raising objections to what they were doing. People were always being told what they were being instructed and directed to do. That's unfortunate. Now what has happened I don't believe was the work of one person. Things takes collusion. My predecessors could have done a better job in dealing with these issues. The superintendent could have done a better job in dealing with these issues. The culture that was set. Between those two parties they hold a good deal of responsibility of keeping the thing on track."

Acting Superintendent Tim Crutchley spoke after Mr. Brazeal made the above statement. I think almost everyone realizes that Mr. Crutchley was in the middle of all of this as well and so having Mr. Crutchley involved with the audit and providing documentation is a grave concern to the community. There should be very few people in the Central Office that are able to walk away from this unscathed.

Mr. Brazeal answered more of Cheryl Hermann's question as to how this could happen. The Fox C-6 school board should have been asking more questions and not just taking Superintendent Critchlow's word on things.

"You were presented with a hire. You didn't necessarily see the contract and I believe you should see all documents in their final form before you vote on them. I believe you were voting on a number of documents, situations, transactions, hires and compensation rates, etc. without seeing the document. The documents but even if you did there are cases that I found where those documents were altered after the fact. It's that serious. ... It's that wrong."

I'm very familiar with the changing of documents after the fact. All of this has been allowed to go on for far too long. I'm glad to see that things are starting to change!

Fox C-6 Provides Documents From Sunshine Request For FREE!

The Fox C-6 School District responded to my July 30, 2014 Sunshine Request for documents on Monday August 4, 2104. Fox provided all of the documents that I requested for FREE!

Not charging for documents was a huge departure from previous years. I attribute this to the fact that the leadership of the district has changed. You could say that the district is Under New Management. The days of information hiding and denying wrong doing are on the way out. The truth will prevail and the facts will be more readily available as the school board begins running the district rather than the Superintendent.

A small group of really bad apples in the bunch has stained our school district's reputation for years to come. The disdain for those individuals will take years to be forgotten, if ever for some of us who were caught in their crossfire. Individuals in the federal agencies who have been working on bringing our district into compliance for the last 5 or 6 years are fully aware of what's been uncovered in our district. They are amazed at what's been going on in our district for so long.

It's going to take quite some time for all of the issues and facts to surface and for our district to rebuild. But, the district is starting to move in the right direction. The new superintendent search person referenced several times at last night's meeting how what has happened recently in our district may very well affect our search for a new superintendent.

Fox provided copies of all of the credit card statements with transactions for the 2013-2014 school year. After a quick review, I noted to the district's custodian of records at last night's school board meeting that the DISCOVER and AMEX credit card statements will need to be rescanned at a higher DPI in order to make them legible. The VISA was legible but rescanning would help.

Making these documents available to the public is a great start towards improving transparency and regaining the trust of the community.

Thank you to the Fox C-6 School Board for doing the right thing in providing these documents!

Credit Card Statements Beg For Supporting Documentation
I think the majority of the community will have a tough time understanding how many times Dianne Critchlow paid for gas and food using her credit card in the 2013-2014 school year. It will lead to more Sunshine requests for supporting documentation and statements from previous years. There are also a lot of airline ticket purchases for air travel on a lot of the administrator credit cards supplied by the district. Those will need to be reconciled as well.

Reviewing the credit card statements and lack of description on Bill Payment Reports makes a State Audit a necessity. I believe most Fox C-6 taxpayers will be quite vocal after reviewing the credit card statements which will lead to even more questions.

What does current Fox C-6 School Board Policy #3125 say about using school district credit cards?

Policy 3125 – Credit Cards (05/97)
School district credit cards will only be issued to employees upon the approval of the Board of Education. Use of the credit card will be limited to the purchase of instructional materials, items related to the improvement of instruction or materials related to capital improvements or supplies.

Fast food restaurants and bars and grills are probably NOT considered "instructional materials". It appears that Superintendent Critchlow's use of her district supplied credit card violates current school board policy.


Below are links to some of the documents supplied in my recent Sunshine request.

2013-2014 Credit Card Statements

VISA Credit Card Statements
Dianne Critchlow's Purchases Begin on Page 11

DISCOVER Credit Card Statements

AMERICAN EXPRESS Credit Card Statements

Settlement and Release Agreements

with Fox C-6 and Contracts

Dianne Critchlow's July 11, 2014 

Settlement and Release Agreement with Fox C-6

Dan Baker and Angela Burns Baker July 17, 2014

Waiver and Release Agreement with Fox C-6

June 10, 2014 Fox C-6 Board Meeting Closed Session Minutes

Redacted with Votes for Critchlow's Early Retirement

Dan Baker's 2014-2015 Employment Contract with Fox C-6

New Chief Financial Officer Hired at Fox C-6

Fox C-6's Chief Financial Officer's recent and sudden departure from the school district has been kept pretty quiet. The district hired a new CFO at the May 20, 2014 school board meeting during Closed Session. There was no mention of a need for a new CFO or any mention of the departure of the current CFO in the board packets that were posted on the website ahead of the board meeting. Fox's CFO was not at the May school board workshop held on Wednesday May 14, 2014. However, information about his departure was included in the Staff Separations in the Late Materials given out to the school board members at Tuesday night's board meeting. The Late Materials information was not provided to the public at the board meeting.

The May 20, 2014 board meeting packet was updated on Wednesday May 21st. The updated included Mark McCutchen, Fox's now former CFO, in the Staff Separations report. The report shows that Mark McCutchen will be leaving the district as of June 30, 2014.

From what I understand, the new CFO at Fox is Affton School District's current Chief Financial Officer who is John Brazeal. John Brazeal is a former City of Arnold councilman and former city administrator.

I look forward to working with Mr. Brazeal on making more improvements to Fox's Bill Payments and Credit Card purchase reports. Fox posted the new formatted reports in the May 20, 2014 school board packets but they didn't provide much more information than the previous reports. You can download and view the updated May 20 school board packet from the link below. The new report simply duplicated the Vendor Name in both the Vendor Name and the Transaction Description columns for the check payments. I mentioned this during Public Comments at the May 20 school board meeting. I also discussed it after the meeting briefly with Assistant Superintendent Rizzi and Superintendent Critchlow.

On Monday of this week I emailed the Fox C-6 school board members a copy of Wentzville School District's Bill Payments report as an excellent example of a bill payments report that Fox could use as a model report for enhancing Fox's reports. The public should be kept better informed as to how the district is spending taxpayer dollars especially when the district is trying to cut costs. Currently, Fox is set to deficit spend $4.5 Million dollars next year. The recent school board workshop had the Board of Education asking the district to cut it's deficit spending to zero by 2017.

Hopefully Fox will start publishing their credit card statements in the monthly school board packets like the Affton School District has been doing for years. Being full transparent is the only way for a school district to operate if they expect the community to trust them.

The Board of Education needs to realize and demonstrate that they understand that they represent the community and our concerns. It's their job to ensure that the Fox School District is nothing less than completely transparent. Sweeping things under the rug or hiding them from the public is not acceptable.

Fox's May 20, 2014 School Board Packet

View Wentzville's Bill Payments Report