Pandemic Leads To More Open Government Meetings

This week’s (November 11, 2011 Leader newspaper has an editorial "Pandemic Taught Us How to have Truly Open Meetings" written by Kim Robertson noting how some governmental meetings have become more accessible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That's why it’s important to look back and see how much things have improved over the past decade when it comes to transparency in the Fox C-6 School District and just how long it took for that happen. The Fox C-6 community was kept in the dark during former superintendent Dianne Brown/Critchlow’s tenure. From 2005 until 2014, Fox C-6 school board meetings weren’t audio or video recorded. Not having audio or video recording school board meetings made it very easy to keep anyone outside of Fox’s administration, school board and the few who attended school board meetings from learning about what was happening behind the scenes at Fox or what patrons concerns were in the district. Over the years, I wrote articles about speaking at Fox BOE meetings asking our school board to audio or video record the meetings like they did in other school districts. I even emailed examples of website links to other school districts to our school board. Dianne Critchlow would respond and tell me that it was up to our school board as to whether or not to audio or video record BOE meetings. Video Recorded School Board Meetings It’s great that we now have video recordings of our school board meetings. It allows more people in our community learn about our district and watch Public Comments as well as discussions about decisions being made in our district. It also provides the opportunity to see some of the great things happening in our district when are presentations made by groups and clubs and they are recognized for their accomplishments. You can go back and watch the videos at anytime. Posting of Board Meeting Agendas and Supporting Documents Another big improvement that I asked our school board for many times was the posting of the agenda and the supporting board packet information on Fox’s website days ahead of school board meetings. This took years to implement as well. Fox eventually chose to use BoardDocs which works well in sharing access to documents like Bill Payments and other documents such as bids and proposals, etc. When I first started asking for Bill Payment Reports, I was charged to get copies of the reports because they weren’t on the website. Sunshine Law allows for fees to be charged to provide the documents. Charging for documents is another easy way to hide things from the public. I wished I had paid the $180 for a copy of the Credit Card statements in February 2014 after I started asking our school board if they had been reviewing the credit card statements. The credit card statements weren’t included in the board packets. Read the article I wrote about speaking at the January 15, 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting to see how school board meetings were documented back then. It wasn’t the first time I spoke at a Fox C-6 school board meeting. My first time speaking at a board meeting was December 2010. There were only 7 people in attendance at that school board meeting and Kim Robertson was one of them in attendance. She wrote an article about my questioning the board about the hiring of Jamie Critchlow even though I didn't mention any names during my Public Comments. When I spoke at the January 2013 school board meeting I asked our school board again about recording board meetings and making those recordings available to the public. I also told our school board that I believe that there are people in our school community (aka administrators) who are posting defamatory comments online about me after school board meetings. The online comments after school board meetings began right after the December 2010 school board meeting. Bringing change to your school district is sometimes met with a lot of resistance. Even law firms like to get into the fray of stopping parents from speaking up. The Public Comment I made at the January 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting were documented board meeting minutes the following month as: PUBLIC COMMENTS: Rich Simpson - Requested more board information on the district website.

Once you read the public comment I made at the January 2013 school board meeting, it’s pretty easy to see why the board meeting minutes of my comment provide very little detail. That’s why having audio or video recordings of school board meetings provides a lot more transparency than the board meeting minutes like the one above from 2013. It’s no wonder why it took so long for the public to learn about what was going in our school district and oust our former superintendent. Audio or video recording BOE meetings is essential to having an accurate record of what the public's concerns are and what was really discussed or stated at the meeting and not just what our superintendent wanted the community or the public to know.

January 15, 2013 School Board Meeting Public Comment

Improvements in Transparency Helps the Community Perform Oversight

Nearly a decade ago, I was writing articles about some of the issues that our community was facing under superintendent Dianne Brown Critchlow. Between December 2010 and July 2015, I spoke at more than 20 school board meetings during the 3 minute public comments portion of the meeting because I could bring “concerns” to our school board as a whole because in 2010, school board members didn’t have individual email addresses like they do now. It took several years of me requesting for that to happen. I wrote articles on my blog and provided examples to our school board of what other school districts were doing in the area such as posting bill payments online for their community as well as board meeting packets and board meeting minutes within days of a school board meeting. Many of the school districts that Dianne liked to compare Fox to also posted audio or video recordings of their school board meetings online for the public to review. Asked to Pay For Bill Payments and Board Packets When I asked for copies of bill payments so I could review them to find out how much Fox was spending in legal fees in order to get around writing a 504 plan, I was asked to pay to get copies of the bill payments via my Sunshine Request because the law allows a school district to charge to provide copies of documents. However, other school districts were posting their bill payments online and were available for free. I pointed this out to our school board members at the time during public comments and via email. It took years for that to occur and it wasn’t until the very end of Dianne’s tenure before that started to happen. One thing that wasn’t posted online was the credit card statements. I asked our school board members during public comments at the February 2014 school board meeting as to whether or not they were being provided copies of the credit card statements with the board packets and bill payments each month for review since Fox had paid more than $2.1 million in credit card bills in the first half of the 2013-2014 school year

It became obvious that they hadn’t been getting copies of the credit card statements when I made a Sunshine Request to get copies of the credit card statements and I was asked to pay between $160 and $170 to provide me copies of those statements. It wasn’t until my Sunshine Request was fulfilled in the fall of 2014 that I noticed that copies of the credit card statements were FAXed to the district. Apparently, getting copies of those credit card statements for the school board was a problem too. Bill Payments Missing from Board Packets I'll never forget the comment I received after a school board meeting from former board member Dan Smith when I asked about posting the bill payments online. He told me that it would lead to more questions from the community. That was a pretty interesting response given the fact that bill payments are public records. Even after the board packets started getting posted online, the bill payments didn't get posted with them. When I asked about that, I was told that they didn't get posted because there were students names on the checks and that it was a privacy issue. It soon became apparent that the bill payments needed to get posted online with the board packets in order to keep the public informed about what was being spent by our school district each month. For ease of access for the community, I started posting copies of school board meeting minutes for the public to review and for me as well for quick access over on my blog. During the 2014-2015 school year, board meeting minutes started to get posted more quickly for the public and archived on the district’s website. I had to pay to obtain many of the board meeting packets in the early days when I made Sunshine Requests for copies of them even though they were already in PDF format. Below is a link to where you can review board meeting minutes and some board meeting packets dating back to the 2001-2002 school year. There's some history documented in those board meeting minutes and board packets of what went on at Fox during that time. There just wasn't a lot of detail. At least not compared to being able to watch video recordings of BOE meetings and being able to download board meeting packets from BoardDocs.

Fox C-6 School Board Meeting Minutes and Packets

Here’s a link to an article written in April 2014 about those missing credit card statements.

What About Those Bill Payments and Credit Card Payments

Why the Fox C-6 Community Wasn't Aware of Problems in the District

So, why wasn't the Fox C-6 community aware of ongoing problems in our school district for such a long time? Why weren't charges filed during the investigation of the state audit findings? I was told that school board meeting minutes were reviewed as part of the investigation. So, the fact that our school board meeting minutes did not contain details about what concerns were being brought to our school board members and district leaders during Public Comment, investigators could only go on what was documented in the minutes. I voiced my concern about the lack of details in board meeting minutes for years and was met with a lot of resistance from our former superintendent on the issue. That's why I always audio recorded my Public Comments because I knew they wouldn't be documented very well in the board meeting minutes. Defending Lack Of Detail In Board Meeting Minutes In defending her position on the lack of detail in our school board meeting minutes, former superintendent Dianne (Critchlow) Salsman sent me the following statement in a September 17, 2013 email:

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

Below is an example of what Fox's board secretary saw through her eyes and documented for the January 15, 2013 school board meeting that I spoke at. PUBLIC COMMENT AS DOCUMENTED IN BOARD MEETING MINUTES: Rich Simpson - Requested more board information on the district website. PUBLIC COMMENT READ AT THE BOARD MEETING:

Over the last several years I have attempted to encourage you to do the right thing and you have repeatedly failed to do so. I have invested thousands of hours into researching how our school district operates as well as that of other school districts across the state, and across the country. During which, I have gained a tremendous amount of information and knowledge. Much to my disappointment however, I have come to the realization that the school district that I grew up in and loved as a child is not at all what I thought it would be when my children began attending. We have a lot of great teachers in the district, however, the leadership and school board has stifled their abilities to do a great job – even made them fearful for their jobs if they were to express their opinions. Tell me, is this how a school district should be run? I have requested for our community to have board meetings video or audio recorded due to the fact that our board minutes are vague or not always accurate. I have requested that school board meeting information packets be published online prior to school board meetings or after board meetings along with the minutes so our community can be more informed and involved in what is going on within our district. Our school board policies even require that board minutes be accurate and complete and without the board meeting information packets they are not. I have requested that school board member contact information be placed on the district website so our board members would be accessible to the community. All of these things are done in other school districts. 

Why can’t our school district do these things? 

I have never received an answer from our school board as to why these things cannot be done. Our superintendent has informed me that this information is not on our website which I am aware of and that is why I have been asking for it to be. It is my hope that you respect others in our community that may speak at this evening's school board meeting and that the individuals in our school community refrain from making defamatory comments in online forums in the coming days as has been done to me after I have spoken at previous school board meetings. Those who are making the defamatory comments have no business teaching our children, running our school, etc. if they are employees of our school district. I believe that they are, because no one other than those present in this room at those past board meetings had knowledge of who was present and what was said. They are simply playground bullies. Our district has a no bullying policy but it appears that it does not apply to school officials. It is clear that you have embarrassed not only our school district but our community. Our district is not as well respected or as academically advanced as you tout or would like to believe. You may complement each other here and pat yourselves on the back with the thought that you believe that you are doing a great job. However, a growing portion of the community does not share your same point of view and neither does the community of our peers in surrounding school districts. I respectfully request that our current school board members resign and that past board members do not seek re-election. There are administrators that should resign as well so our school district and community can get a fresh start towards building a new and improved school district and one that we can truly be proud of. Thank you!

Of course, there were defamatory comments posted on TOPIX shortly before and after the January 15, 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting in an attempt to intimidate anyone from speaking at the board meeting. Below is a link to the article I wrote on January 27, 2013 regarding the documenting of school board meetings and how our former superintendent kept the community from knowing what concerns were being brought to our school board. The real question is, why didn't our school board act upon the concerns being brought to them at the time? Online Posts Traced to District Employees

I made sure that our school board members were aware of the online posts being made and that I believed that they were being made by District employees. In 2014, the online defamatory posts were traced to school district computers and school district employees homes. Imagine that! Since I wasn't a District employee, I couldn't be targeted by District leaders like others who have stood up against the district culture. Instead, District leaders had to tackle the problem in the online forums anonymously and by not documenting in detail the concerns being brought to our school board's attention.

January 15, 2013

School Board Meeting Public Comment

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

Congratulations to the 2015 Fox and Seckman High Graduates!

Congratulations to all of the Class of 2015 Seniors who graduated from Fox and Seckman High School this year!

Good luck to all of our students taking finals this week! Hopefully they have been studying and are ready for their exams.

Tonight is the May 19, 2015 Fox C-6 school board meeting

Public Session: 7PM

Closed Session: 5:30PM

You can access the agenda for tonight's Fox C-6 School board meeting using the following link to BoardDocs:

May 19, 2015 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting Agenda

It's been an extremely busy month which started with days and days of water damage cleanup after the torrential downpour that swept through our neighborhood April 9. That was followed by attending a Seckman High volleyball games and other school events as well as scouting activities and a slow running of the St. Louis marathon.

While running the marathon, I met a firefighter from Imperial, MO who ran the full 26.2 miles while wearing 70 pounds of firefighting gear. He was running his 19th marathon. It was his first time running a marathon with his gear on which included an air tank. Luckily it stayed somewhat cool that day.

While running with the firefighter for a couple of miles, he told me that his grandmother named Clyde Hamrick Elementary School. His children attend school in the Fox district as well.

There has been a lot to write about, just not enough time to get it all written. I have started many articles but haven't had time to finish them.

I did want to mention, that I was told after last month's board meeting that the district doesn't need any more negative publicity. I was also told that it would be helpful if I could concentrate on the positive things going on in the district. I would certainly like to do that. But, some matters shouldn't be swept under the rug.

I brought up concerns at last month's meeting because so many people have been questioning some of the recent hiring decisions. The district has made a lot of good hires recently. In fact, Fox C-6 board member Dan Kroupa spent 5 minutes during the board comments at last month's meeting exuding all of the great things that the board has done over the past year. You can listen to his comments on Fox's YouTube channel recording of last month's board meeting. You can also be assured that I didn't say that our school board was "worthless" as Mr. Kroupa said you would think they are after hearing my Public Comments. It's too bad that the board hadn't done much for the prior 8 to 10 years when things were brought to their attention.

It's probably much easier to dismiss people's concerns since they didn't have to endure years of having online derogatory comments made about them for bringing concerns to their school board. It's also amazing how some people continue to ignore some of the things that have occurred. 

Listen to Dan Kroupa's board report at the April 2015 Board Meeting

For years it's been pretty easy to overlook things going on in the district that shouldn't have been going on because everyone who worked for the district who weren't in the "inner circle" were afraid to speak up. They still are. The culture still hasn't changed as much as it needs to.

After last months board meeting I was also told that we have a new "hiring process" in place and that we need to trust that hiring process to find the best candidates for the job.

Prior to last month's board meeting, I emailed the board and asked to be put onto the Closed Session agenda per board policy to discuss the recent hiring of the Seckman Elementary principal and Seckman High School principal.

At 1:30PM the day of the board meeting, I received the following response from our school board president.

The Board of Education does not typically meet with members of the public during closed session. Members of the public are encouraged to speak during the public comments portion of the regular Board Meeting. If you wish to contact Board Members or the superintendent to schedule private meetings to discuss confidential matters, you may do so. Any such meetings will be at the discretion of those specific individuals.

I understand that the Board of Education does not typically meet with members of the public. But our board policies specifically state that we are supposed to contact that board if we wish to meet with the board on matters that involve specific individuals which is what I did.

I also tried to meet with our school board in September 2008 during Closed Session. But in 2008, I was told by our former superintendent while at the board meeting that night that the board had already decided not to meet with me on my issue. She was telling me that while the board president at the time was putting me on next month's agenda. He had forgotten to put me on that night's agenda after speaking to him earlier in the day. I guess she didn't realize that he wasn't in on the board's decision not to meet with me.

Below is a link to the Public Comments I made at the April 2015 Fox C-6 School Board meeting. I spoke during Public Comments since I wasn't given the opportunity to speak with the school board in Closed Session prior to the meeting.

Listen to my Public Comments at the April 2015 Fox C-6 Board Meeting

I was also told after last month's meeting that I had been trying to influence the hiring process with my comments and emails.

So, what were the Seckman Elementary teachers that spoke during Public Comments at the March 2015 board meeting and all of the emails they sent the school board telling them who they would like to see hired as their new principal doing? 

It was stated that the teacher's influenced the board's decision to approve the hires. 

It's Time for the Palmers to Step Down!

It's time for current Fox C-6 school board vice-president Dave Palmer to step down from his position on the Fox C-6 school board.

At the October 21, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting Mr. Palmer stopped parent and taxpayer Jim Osia from asking Fox's "acting" superintendent Tim Crutchley a question about his recent interview on Fox 2 News with Elliot Davis on a You Paid For It segment regarding the MarzanoGate hotel fiasco.

Fox C-6 taxpayers have the right to ask the superintendent that they "hire" or "fire" questions about their actions in public. Forcing questions into Closed Session is simply a way of hiding things from the public or sweeping them under the rug.

For years the practice has been to tell anyone making Public Comments at a Fox C-6 school board meeting that they needed to "refrain from using individual's names and positions" during their Public Comments.

You can listen to how Public Comments used to be handled at Fox C-6 board meetings prior to Dianne Brown-Critchlow's "paid leave" by clicking on the link below. You will hear former superintendent Dianne Critchlow tell everyone that now is a good time to leave the school board meeting followed by Dr. Rizzi reciting what he was told to say regarding making Public Comments. It was quite convenient for Critchlow to have people leave the board meeting prior to my asking questions of the board.

By not allowing taxpayers to question what their superintendent was doing or others in the Central Office gave the public and the board the impression that things were going as well as Dianne Brown-Critchlow said they were. And, if you questioned things in an email, you would receive responses like I've documented in past articles.

Listen to the 08-27-2013 Fox C-6 Board Meeting Public Comments Introduction

Those on the board that were too naive to believe that former superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow could do no wrong never got the chance to hear a Public Comment complaint about her or others because no one was allowed to mention names or positions. No one working for the district was going to speak up at a board meeting due to fear of losing their job. Everyone should know by now what happened to those of us that did speak up at school board meetings over the last several years.

Mr. Palmer is the last of the "old" Fox C-6 school board members. He has served on the Fox C-6 school board since 2002. There was only one year in the last 12 years that Mr. Palmer didn't serve on the board.

Mr. Palmer's actions at the October 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting of stopping Mr. Osia from asking Mr. Crutchley a question is one of many reasons as to why he should step down.

The Fox C-6 taxpayers are the ones that hire or fire the superintendent. The Fox C-6 board members represent the taxpayers. If a taxpayer has a question regarding what our superintendent or acting superintendent did, then they should be allowed to ask those questions in a public session. The board openly discussed and fired Cheryl Hermann's daughter at a Fox C-6 school board meeting during open session the month before. Therefore Mr. Osia should not have been stopped during his Public Comments.

When you listen to the following introduction to Public Comments by Dr. Rizzi at the October 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting you will notice that Dr. Rizzi DOES NOT mention that you must "refrain from using individual's names and positions" during your Public Comment. Dr. Rizzi stopped reciting that after Dianne Critchlow began her "paid leave".

Listen to Mr. Palmer Interrupt Jim Osia at the October 2014 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting

Did Mr. Palmer stop Mr. Osia in order to protect the enrichment that his family has received and continues to receive while he has served on the board?

Mr. Palmer was the Fox C-6 school board president in 2006 when then superintendent Dianne Brown promoted Dave Palmer's wife Gee Palmer to the position of director of nursing. Instead of just receiving a stipend for the director of nursing position, Gee Palmer was given a 2 month contract extension and a 75% pay increase!

You will notice on the district's Board of Education page that Mr. Palmer did not serve on the board during the next term following that fiasco. In fact, you need to read the following article that was published on March 13, 2007 in the Jefferson County Suburban Journal on STLTODAY.COM related to Nepotism. Please note that Mr. Palmer could not be reached for comment. This goes along with his November 5, 2013 board workshop comments about not talking to people as a board member because he didn't want to be misquoted.

Hear Dave Palmer's thoughts at the November 5, 2013 Workshop on having Open Forum Discussions with the Public

FoxC6Watchdogs article covering the November 5, 2013 Workshop and transcription of Dave Palmer's Comments

FOX SCHOOLS: Nepotism Complaints Unfounded, District Officials Say - STLTODAY.COM March 13, 2007

Gee Palmer only possesses a nursing diploma even though she is the director of nursing. She does not have a bachelors or masters degree in nursing. This makes me question how she can do reviews of nurses in the district that possess more education than she has. It seems very similar to the same issue that we have with Kelly Nash who is our Food Nutrition Director.

When Gee Palmer was promoted to the director of nursing in 2006 there were at least 10 other nurses in the district that had seniority over Gee. So, it makes you question why she was chosen for the job of director of nursing. I have written about the issue of receiving unjust enrichment before about being related to school board members in the following article:

How Much Extra Does It Pay to be Related to a Fox C-6 School Board Member

Both Dave Palmer and Gee Palmer need to step down from their positions in the district. I encourage every parent and taxpayer in the district to email the board and Mr. Palmer asking them to step down.

Hopefully the Palmer's will pay back the Fox C-6 taxpayers for the last 8+ years of undeserved income that Gee Palmer earned while she was "Director of Nursing".

As a nurse, Gee Palmer is supposed to advocate for students in the district but that has not been the case. I'd like to know how the opinion of an arrogant nurse who only possesses a nursing diploma could outweigh the opinion of a 20+ year board certified medical doctor. Perhaps the Missouri Association of School Nurses could explain that one for Mrs. Palmer. Or, you may wish to ask assistant superintendent Dan Baker who was Fox's former 504 coordinator since he was ultimately responsible in the decision making process.

Gee Palmer supported the whims of former Fox C-6 superintendent Dianne Brown-Critchlow and the former law firm in their stance against providing students with medical related disabilitiesl with Section 504 plans. Gee Palmer participated with Dan Baker in recording a phone call with a doctor and used the recording during a Due Process Hearing to try and discredit another doctor. I plan to cover more about that in a future article now that students have recently been provided Section 504 plans in the district under the new law firm. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights was involved in making that change in an Early Complaint Resolution meeting held in August 2014.

It took more than 6 years for the district to 'understand' that they weren't properly following Section 504 law as conveyed to them many times over the last several years by the USDA's Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Now that things are finally being made public as to what's been going on in the district for years, perhaps the Kansas City Office for Civil Rights will begin working on their District Wide Compliance Review again that was opened in March 2010 and has been sitting idle for the last 4+ years. I'm sure there is a lot that could be discovered now that the district is being more open with their records.

Again, don't forget to email Mr. Palmer and the Fox C-6 school board and ask the Palmers to step down from their positions in the Fox C-6 school district.

Email addresses for the Fox C-6 board members and director of nursing can be found on the district website using the links below:

Fox C-6 Board of Education Email Addresses

Fox C-6 Department Contacts

Quick Overview of July 22, 2014 Fox C-6 Board Workshop

Last night's school board workshop was mainly about discussing the 2014-2015 budget as the board and the district work on eliminating our deficit spending. The board approved bill payments at last night's meeting and some of the board members just received the bill payments report at the meeting. The bill payments report should have been published on the district website ahead of time for the community to review as well. Transparency has improved and will continue to improve as that was commented on by the board last night. An audio recording of the school board meeting is posted below the meeting highlights.

Meeting Highlights

• Public Comments were not listed on the original agenda for the workshop but did have them listed on the agenda on Monday July 21.
• There was roughly 80 to 100 people in attendance at last night's meeting.
• There were 3 Public Comments at last night's meeting.
• Fox's CFO John Brazeal gave a presentation on the 2014-2015 proposed budget cuts.
• Mr. Brazeal proposed $2.25 Million dollars in budget cuts for the current year which was approved by the school board.
• Mr. Brazeal's presentation showed that Fox's salaries are around 90% of revenue which is too high compared to other districts that are in the 80% to 85%. Fox needs to be around 80% to maintain reserves.
• It was announced that there is a pay freeze.
• $50,000 in savings was from the CO Admins voluntarily taking a 5% pay cut. (People I spoke with after the meeting didn't think that 5% was enough. Fox had the 2nd highest average admin salary in the state in 2013 which doesn't match our demographics and budget. The public needs to know what the two pay increases were for last year for admins to give feedback on how much the community thinks should be voluntarily cut.)
• I believe it was Mr. Crutchley that said that they hoped that the other admins such as principals and directors would voluntarily take the same pay cut.
• Mr. Brazeal's presentation showed the savings through various items which totaled $2.25 million dollars. (Hopefully the district will post Mr. Brazeal's presentation on the website soon.)
• The board went into closed session after comments from Cheryl Hermann, Dave Palmer, Dan Kroupa, Vern Sullivan and John Laughlin. I will post the audio in the next day or two so the public can listen to their comments. (Hopefully the district will begin recording meetings in the near future so they can be posted on the district website for those that can't attend.)
• Mr. Laughlin explained that the board workshops were at 5:30pm rather than 7pm because a year ago when they started them they were meeting before board meetings. (I know that they were originally working on reviewing the board polices and regulations which took a lot of time for review. Our updated policies and regulations still haven't been adopted. At the moment there are issues that need more attention.)

Audio Recording of July 22, 2014 

Fox C-6 School Board Meeting

Overall, the meetings have become more of what you expect from a school board meeting. The board is running the meeting and not the superintendent.

I believe the school board is working on doing the right thing. Without documentation, it's difficult for them to make the decisions that need to be made and that almost everyone in the community expects them to make. Providing the school board with documentation is critical towards implementing the changes that need to occur.

Many have feared speaking out in the past. That has now changed. Full and open communication is important to making improvements and rebuilding our school district. The school board is definitely listening and working on getting things moving in the right direction.

The board has been getting a lot of emails and they are working on responding to them. If you have information or suggestions that can help improve our school district, please contact the board.

A New Era in the Fox C-6 School District

The June 30, 2014 Fox C-6 school board meeting was very different than the board meetings that I've attended over the last several years. First, there were more than 200 people in attendance at the meeting. This was the largest turnout of citizens that I've ever seen at a school board meeting.

For many people attending the board meeting, this was the first time they've ever attended a school board meeting. It's important to stay involved in your school district and ensure that your concerns and suggestions are heard. Thank you for attending and showing your support and desire to see changes in our school district.

Controversy and Budget Concerns Awaken Community
A little controversy and budget concerns within our school district appears to have awakened the community to the problems that have been plaguing the Fox C-6 School District for quite some time. It's going to take time to get things turned around but I believe we have enough new and concerned school board members to lead the school district in a positive direction. Board president John Laughlin addressed the public on many issues of concern during the meeting.

Public Comments
Four individuals made Public Comments at the board meeting. Kevin Harding, Rich Simpson (myself), James Osia and Matt Hay. It was good to see more people from the community voicing their concerns to our school board. I believe that the concern of the community is making the school board more responsive. The school board is realizing that they work for the citizens and taxpayers of the school district and not for the superintendent.

During my public comments I renewed my request to the school board to have open public discussions with the school board prior to board meetings like they do in the Rockwood School District.

I suggested that the school board and/or our acting superintendent request a State Audit to ensure that our district is following good accounting procedures and processes.

School Board Members Respond to State Audit Request
Board president John Laughlin and board member Cheryl Hermann responded to my public comments about requesting a state audit. Cheryl Hermann told the public that the district had a state audit before and that they "didn't find anything out of place". Perhaps Mrs. Hermann hasn't read Fox's 2002 State Audit Report for quite some time.

I've posted a link to the 2002 state auditor's report below her response to my public comments. The first sentence starting on page two of the 2002 Fox C-6 State Audit Report, states:

"The following problems were discovered as a result of an audit conducted by our office of the Fox C-6 School District." 

Here's what Cheryl Hermann told the public at the school board meeting in response to my request that the district ask for a State Audit:

"Yes, I would like to point out that we have had the state auditor here, and that was back when we had a lot of concerns about our operating procedures. Even before she came we cleaned them up. As a school board and as a district when she came in she didn't find anything out of place. Since then we continue to have a yearly audit to make sure that our procedures are done above board and honestly."

It's obvious that Mrs. Hermann doesn't understand the difference between the yearly audit the district pays for and the rigor at which a State Audit is conducted. I don't believe that Mr. Laughlin has read many of the state audit reports to understand how in depth they really are compared to the district's annual audit. However, he said that he would look into the possibility of having a state audit. Cheryl Hermann's lack of understanding of the district's annual audit probably contributed to her surprise about the financial state of our school district at the June workshop.

Read the March 2002 State Audit Report of Fox C-6

After reading the 2002 State Audit, do you think Cheryl Hermann's comments about Fox's last State Audit are accurate?

It would appear that Cheryl Hermann was not aware of the fact that the 2002 audit did in fact discover problems as a result of the audit. It was a nice statement to toss out for the public. However, her statement was not accurate.

It would also help the community and the school board if they reviewed the Rockwood School District's Annual Budget Report. The Executive Summary in Rockwood's Annual Budget report explains things very well. Fox needs to have a similar report and perhaps we will be getting one in the future from Fox's new Chief Financial Officer John Brazeal.

Audio of Public Comments at the June 30 Board Meeting

You can listen to my audio recording of the Public Comments from the Monday June 30 Fox C-6 school  board meeting by clicking on the link below. The audio levels were adjusted to help you hear everyone's comments since everyone doesn't speak into the microphones at school board meetings.

Listen to my Public Comments and 

Board Member's Responses

Listen to All Public Comments from June 30 Meeting

Some notable points about the meeting:

• More than 200 citizens attended the school board meeting.
• School board president John Laughlin answered patron's questions during Public Comments.
• The school board procedurally approved the 2014-2015 budget but plans to be making amendments to the budget over the next several months.
• School board president John Laughlin responded to Kevin Harding and informed the public that the school board did not request/authorize sending out Cease and Desist letters to citizens in the community. (NOTE: Board policy allows the superintendent to use legal counsel for school matters without prior authorization for most issues.)
• The board has been operating without a Chief Financial Officer for several months.
• The new CFO (John Brazeal) will start on July 9th.
• No administrators told the audience that they could leave prior to Public Comments. (Typically Dianne Critchlow would inform the audience that now was their chance to leave the meeting just prior to Public Comments.)
• KSDK, KMOX and Fox 2 News were at the board meeting and interviewed board president John Laughlin and citizens attending the meeting.
  

New Bill Payments Report to Debut in May 2014 Board Packet

I received an email from Fox C-6 Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lorenzo Rizzi on Wednesday April 14, 2014 in response to my Public Comments about the Bill Payments and Credit Card Statements I made at the April 2014 school board meeting. I also commented about the Bill Payments and Credit Card Statements at the at the February and March 2014 school board meetings as well.

Dr. Rizzi's email stated:

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

So, starting in May 2014, you will be able to download school board meeting packets and review the bill payments for the month in the new format. I responded to Dr. Rizzi and thanked him for the change. Hopefully, the district will update ALL of this school year's board packets to the new Bill Payments Report format on the district website. It will be very easy for the district to rerun the reports using the new format and replace the pages in the board packets. The district already updates the board packets on the district website each month a few days after the school board meeting to include the Bill Payments Report that was provided in the "Late Materials" just prior to the school board meeting. It should only take a few hours to replace the Bill Payments reports in the board packets for the entire year.

The updated report will be very similar to the old report that had been in use for years before the district switched to the Tyler Systems software last July. The new report format includes two new columns of data. There will be a TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION column and an ACCOUNT DESCRIPTION column for the the fund account.

View a Sample of the New Bill Payments Report

Each month you can download the public portion of the school board meeting packets from the district's website. The board packets contain the board meeting minutes, letters to the district, bill payments report, staff separation and new hires reports and other documents that are provided to our school board members each month a week prior to the next school board meeting. School board meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of the month each month (other than July when there is no meeting). So, you can look for the documents online a week before the next board meeting.

The school board meeting packets contain the Bill Payments Report that our school board members review prior to approving the payments each month. Not all of the Bill Payments are included in the board meeting packets prior to the board meeting. There is usually another Bill Payments Report included in their "Late Materials" which is provided to them just prior to the board meeting. The payments in the Late Materials can be anywhere from $1.5 Million to $4 Million dollars or more. The April 15, 2014 school board meeting Late Materials contained an additional $1,582,835.19 in payments for the board to approve. Having descriptions in the bill payments report will help our board members and the public.

You can download Fox C-6 Board Meeting Packets from the district website using the link below. Currently only the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school year board packets are on the district website.

Fox C-6 Board Meeting Packets on District Website

It's taken a while to convince our school district to put the payment descriptions back onto the Bill Payments report. Last fall I spoke to Assistant Superintendent Mark McCutchen at the Arnold Days parade about the missing descriptions. Since Mr. McCutchen is in charge of finance, I asked him if he could add the payment descriptions back onto the bill payments report because the public has no idea what the purchases were for without a description.

The public is certainly going to ask questions when they see a payment for $24,723 that was paid to The Bridal Shoppe and there's nothing describing what the purchase was for. The majority of people have quite a puzzled reaction when they find out that the district spent $24,723 at The Bridal Shoppe. Had there been a description column on the bill payments report documenting that the payment was for choir robes, then maybe there would have been fewer questions regarding the payment.

It's good to know that our school board is beginning to see the need to be more transparent. It's a very important step towards rebuilding the public's trust of our school board and school district leadership. Prior school board decisions and lack of communication with the public have caused a great deal of distrust in the community. It will take time to restore that trust. Superintendent Critchlow has made it quite clear by her responses that transparency isn't as important to her as it is to the community.

And, attempts to block the public from speaking with the school board without first speaking to a school district administrator regarding school board decisions also undermines the public's trust and it does not follow school board policy.

It's important that our administrators and school board members read and understand our school board Policies and Regulations and that they follow them as well. They clearly document the roles of our school board and our Superintendent. They were written and adopted to be the rules for governing our school district.

Per our school board policies, 

"As a member of the school Board, I shall: Accept my policy-making responsibilities and require the Superintendent to administer the school in accordance with those policies."

You can read more from Fox's school board policies about School Board Member Qualifications, their Role, Oath, Code of Ethics and more in the document below that contains just those sections from the Fox C-6 School District's board policies and regulations.

Fox C-6 School Board Member Qualifications,

Role, Oath, Code of Ethics and More

Still Waiting for Answers to My Questions from the February 2014 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting Public Comments

The Fox C-6 School Board still hasn't answered my questions from the February 2014 school board meeting. No one from the Board of Eduction has even responded to my follow up emails requesting answers to my questions.

Perhaps our board members aren't familiar with our School Board's Code of Ethics that states, “As a member of the school Board, I shall: Maintain the public trust through full and open communication.”

The Code of Ethics also states, “As a member of the school Board, I shall: Insist that school funds be spent prudently and effectively to provide maximum educational benefits.”

Since I hadn't received a single response from my March 28, 2014 email to the board, I sent the email at the end of this article on Friday April 4, 2014 reminding the board about the Code of Ethics that they swore to uphold when they took their oath of office.

The only response I received yesterday was an email from Superintendent Critchlow telling me that, "I will forward to Ms Davis as a custodial request."

You'll have the opportunity to vote on April 8, 2014 to elect 3 school board members. They will be responsible for approving payments of more than $120 Million dollars per year of your taxpayer dollars. Should board members know what your taxpayer dollars are being spent on? Our school board policies state that they should.

Fox C-6 has a school board policy on Fraud Prevention. It is Policy 3106 in the Financial Management section of our board policies. Policy 3106 defines Fraud and Corruption and states that the District is committed to protecting the public funds with which it has been entrusted. Here is part of Policy 3106 from our most recent draft copy of our school board policies. If the board isn't provided credit card statements in the board packets as a supporting document, how can they ensure the public that our taxpayer dollars are being used for the purpose for which they are intended?

Policy 3106  

Financial Management 

Fraud Prevention 

The District is committed to protecting the public funds with which it has been entrusted. Minimizing the losses to fraud and corruption is an essential part of ensuring that all of the District's resources are used for the purpose for which they are intended. 

The public is entitled to expect the District to conduct its affairs with integrity, honesty and openness, and demand the highest standards of conduct from those working for it and with it.

Definition of Fraud and Corruption 

Although there is no precise legal definition of fraud, the term is used to describe a multitude of offences, including deception, forgery, theft, misappropriation, collusion and false representation of material facts. 

Corruption arises when a person receives any benefit which influences them and causes them to act differently when conducting District business.

Certainly you want school board members that are going to communicate with the public and answer questions. You also want a school board that realizes that it's their responsibility to run the school board meetings as documented in our board policies. The board needs to know that the superintendent works for the board and ultimately Fox C-6 taxpayers. The school board DOES NOT work for the superintendent. Therefore, if our school board is asked to provide documentation to the public, they should convey this request to the superintendent and they shouldn't accept excuses as to why the district can't easily and openly provide such documents to the public.

When your school district superintendent has a salary of $256,131 and your district's administrators have the 2nd highest average salary in the state, there really shouldn't be ANY EXCUSES as to why Fox can't do what so many other school districts across the state routinely do for their patrons.

April 4, 2014 Email to the Fox C-6 School Board

Date: April 4, 2014 7:49:32 AM CDT
To: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent, Dan E. Smith, David Palmer
Cc: Crutchley, Tim - CO Admin., Davis, Debby - CO Secretary, Critchlow, Dr. Dianne, Steve Holloway, John Laughlin, Cheryl Hermann, Linda S. Nash, Dan Kroupa
Subject: Questions for the Fox C-6 School Board and Missouri Sunshine Law Documents Request

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

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

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

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

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

I also renew my request to the school board to post the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school district budgets on the school district’s website like they do in many other school districts such as Northwest, Parkway, Rockwood, Camdenton and many more. It takes less than 30 seconds of time to publish the documents on the district website. Hearing Superintendent Critchlow state that there is no state law or mandate that requires our school district to even have a website is not a good excuse for not publishing the data. As a school board, you should be requesting that this data be made available to the public on the district website.
As Fox C-6 school board members, you were elected by the community to represent us. You took an oath and are required to follow the Code of Ethics as documented in our school board policies. You are required by the Code of Ethics to “maintain the public trust through full and open communication” and “Insist that school funds be spent prudently and effectively to provide maximum educational benefits.”

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

Thank you, 

Rich Simpson

  

Date: March 28, 2014 7:34:53 AM CDT
To: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent, Dan E. Smith, David Palmer
Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary, Critchlow, Dr. Dianne, Steve Holloway, John Laughlin, Cheryl Hermann, Linda S. Nash, Dan Kroupa
Subject: RE: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Please email me electronic copies in PDF format of the Credit Card statements for the American Express, Visa and Discover card for the 2013-2014 school year.
Also, please email me a PDF copy of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 Fox C-6 Administrator Salary schedules that include salary amounts. 

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

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

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

I look forward to your response.

Thank you,

Rich Simpson 

==============================================================
From: Rich Simpson
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 7:24 AM
To: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent
Cc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Dan E. Smith; David Palmer; Steve Holloway; John Laughlin; Cheryl Hermann; Linda S. Nash; Dan Kroupa
Subject: RE: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting 

==============================================================
From: Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 1:09 PM
To: Rich SimpsonCc: Davis, Debby - CO Secretary; Critchlow, Dr. Dianne; Arbeitman, Andy - Assistant Superintendent
Subject: Response to public comment at the February 18, 2014 board of education meeting 

Mr. Simpson, 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• the School Board may refuse to respond to a public question/concern about Board actions unless the resident “first” submits their concern to you

• you, Andy Arbeitman, an employee of the school district, hold the authority to prescreen questions and concerns from members of the public to determine if, in your assessment, the concern is “valid” or not “valid” for consideration by the Board

• the Board has made the decision to abdicate its responsibility and has expressly delegated its authority to you to determine if questions/concerns from the public are “valid” or not “valid” and deserving of a reply from them  

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

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

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

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

Thank you, 

Rich Simpson

Why Does Fox C-6 Have a School Board?

Why do we elect school board members to watch over our school district and maintain the public trust if our Superintendent is going to undermine that public trust?

Is Superintendent Critchlow supposed to respond to the community or is the school board supposed to respond to the community?

I think it says a lot to the Fox C-6 community when Superintendent Critchlow informs you via an email from her Assistant Superintendent that the school district / school board won't respond to your questions posed during Public Comments anymore with anything other than a "thank you" unless you speak to a district employee first.

Below is a portion of the email that Mr. Arbeitman sent me the day after I spoke at the February 2014 board meeting. Mr. Arbeitman's email was only sent to me and copied to Superintendent Critchlow and board secretary Debby Davis (Critchlow's administrative assistant). None of the board members were included in the email unless they were blind copied even though Mr. Arbeitman appears to be speaking for the board.

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

So, it appears from Mr. Arbeitman's email that I am being treated differently than other people who come and speak at school board meetings and have their questions answered without first having to speak with Mr. Arbeitman. School board policy DOES NOT state that a person has to contact a district employee prior to making a Public Comment in order to get a response. If it is a student matter at a building, then a person is asked to go through the chain of command from the teacher to the principal to the Superintendent before speaking to the board. However, my questions can only be answered by the school board. I cannot be required to call Mr. Arbeitman in order to ask the school board a question. The school district doesn't want me asking the board questions that they should be asking the district.

Perhaps the board is asking questions about Bill Payments. If they are, they aren't asking these questions during the public portion of our board meetings. I've been to the board meetings. The board simply approves the payments and abstains when needed.

From the public's perspective during the open session, it doesn't appear that the board is asking any questions about bill payments. They shouldn't be discussing bill payments during Closed Session. Bill payments is not a matter for Closed Sessions. It is a public matter.

Apparently asking our elected school board members at a school board meeting as to how they are able to approve bill payments without knowing what the payments are for doesn't sit well with Superintendent Critchlow. At the February 18, 2014 school board meeting I asked the board how can they approve bill payments when they aren't provided descriptions for those payments in their board packets?

Descriptions for bill payments used to be provided to board members each month in their board packets prior to the district switching to the new school software this year. During my Public Comment, I also asked our board members how they have been able to approve paying nearly $2 Million dollars in credit card bills so far this year when they aren't provided the credit card statements to document where the money was spent? If they knew, they didn't answer my question. I waited for a response. All they said was "thank you". (See below as to how much money was paid to Credit Card companies in January and February 2014.)

Should the community expect our school board to follow district policy under the Code of Ethics section which states, "As a member of the school Board, I shall: Insist that school funds be spent prudently and effectively to provide maximum educational benefits."?

How can school board members insist that school funds are being spent prudently and effectively if they don't know what our tax dollars are being spent on?

Perhaps the community needs to request a state audit of the school district.

Paying out nearly $2 Million dollars in credit card bills without oversight by our school board should raise some "red flags" for the community or any auditor for that matter. It's an easy way for someone to abuse taxpayer dollars when there's very little oversight.

What's the purpose of having a school board if only the superintendent's office is going to respond to Public Comment? It defeats the purpose of having a school board and violates school board policy which states that As a member of the school Board, I shall: Maintain the public trust through full and open communication. Is only receiving responses from our Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent on board matters "full and open communication"?

The response from the school district regarding my Public Comments reads almost like a Cease and Desist letter. Perhaps Superintendent Critchlow doesn't want the public to know how their tax dollars are being spent.

According to the district's response letter, only one person in the district is concerned about having descriptions on bill payments or having credit card statements to document the nearly $2 Million dollars the district has spent so far this year on credit cards. Since no one else is concerned, there's no reason to provide the information to the public like they do in other school districts. The district says they will provide me the information upon request. We will have to see if the district is going to charge me to obtain that information when it is requested as a further deterrent to making the information available to the public.

Would you be concerned if you saw a bill payment to THE BRIDAL SHOPPE for $24,723 from your school district?

Apparently Superintendent Critchlow looked up the check in question after reading my Twitter post last week about the check to The Bridal Shoppe. She told me at the school board meeting that the check to The Bridal Shoppe was for choir robes. I told her that if there had been descriptions on the bill payments, then the check might not have been questioned. She told me that I could call the district anytime if I have a question about a payment. She also informed me at the board meeting that the check to her husband that I mentioned on Twitter was for Professional Development.

Perhaps school board members are calling the school each month asking them what each of the questionable payments are for since they don't have any description or account codes to explain what the payments are for in the board packets (see below). It seems like the district is making it more difficult for our school board to do their job by not providing the descriptions with the bill payments like they used to do in the past.

So you can see how the district is handling things, I've included the email that I received from Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitman the day after I spoke at the school board meeting below. Below the district's response, I've posted some sample check payments with amounts from the board meeting packets. Below the check payments, I have listed some of the items from our school board policies Code of Ethics that our board members are supposed to follow.

February 19, 2014 response email from Assistant Superintendent Andy Arbeitmen to my Public Comments at the February 18, 2014 board meeting:

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

-include more information in our board packets online
-more detailed credit card bills
-the district budget online
-more descriptions of payments
-the statement according to your calculations the district has approximately $2,000,000 in credit card bills to date

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

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

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

Andy Arbeitman
Assistant Superintendent of Instruction

Sample Payments from Check Register
Below are some sample entries from the Check Register listings found in the January and February 2014 school board meeting packets from the district website that the board approved payments for. As you can see the Transaction Description only lists the PAYEE Name. It does not provide any type of description as to what the payment is for. The Check # and Check Date have been left off this list for readability. You can download the board meeting packets from the district website that contain these checks by clicking on the link below. The February 18th board packet was updated on February 20th to include another $1,747,606.45 in payments that was included in the board members late packet just prior to the board meeting for approval.

2013-2014 Board Meeting Packets

• CARD SERVICES - $85,252.99
• CARD SERVICES - $81,808.52
• CARD SERVICES - $74,379.38
• SAMS CLUB DISCOVER - $26,998.43
• SAMS CLUB DISCOVER - $30,099.44
• SAMS CLUB DISCOVER - $26,072.46
• AMERICAN EXPRESS - $52,543.60
• AMERICAN EXPRESS - $12,127.42
• AMERICAN EXPRESS - $22,141.69
• THE BRIDAL SHOPPE - $24,734.00
• THE ELECTION AUTHORITY FUND - $78,555.00
• MICKES GOLDMAN O'TOOLE, LLC - $4,802.00
• MICKES GOLDMAN O'TOOLE, LLC - $3,494.50
• MICKES GOLDMAN O'TOOLE, LLC - $7,953.50
• PUBLIC SCHOOL RETIREMENT - $1,434,314.66
• PUBLIC SCHOOL RETIREMENT - $1,441,290.46
• LINDBERGH SCHOOL DISTRICT - $14,250.00
• TYLER TECHNOLOGIES INC - $22,465.00
• TYLER TECHNOLOGIES INC - $134,151.17
• Critchlow, Dianne P. - $50.06
• DUNCAN BRAD - $2,485.00
• DUNCAN BRAD - $2,720.00
• CC DILLON COMPANY - $33,203.29
• K & K CAR REPAIR - $50,425.31
• EXQUISITE CATERING - $3,977.50
• DETOUR GRILL & BAR - $2,456.55
• VIG SOLUTIONS - $82,560
• JEFFCO TRAVEL SERVICES - $31,970.00
• PONDEROSA STEAKHOUSE - $239.70
• AMEREN UE - $140,855.64
• SOUTHWEST AIRLINES - $9,562.80

School Board Code of Ethics

Below are a few of the important points from the School Board's Code of Ethics (Policy 0333 in the current version or Policy 0340 in the updated version) that are in Fox's school district policies.

As a member of the school Board, I shall:

• Endeavor to understand the present and future educational needs of the community.
• Maintain the public trust through full and open communication.
• Insist that school funds be spent prudently and effectively to provide maximum educational benefits.
• Recognize that the public schools are agencies of the state for betterment of the entire community.
• Encourage citizens to participate through channels in shaping the purposes and policies of the local school system.
• Accept my policy-making responsibilities and require the Superintendent to administer the school in accordance with those policies.
• Delegate to the Superintendent of schools and other school employees authority in keeping with their responsibilities.
• Demand that the schools be operated by the best trained technical and professional personnel it is possible to procure.
• Employ only such qualified employees as are properly recommended by the Superintendent of schools.
• Insist that the Superintendent be responsible for keeping the Board properly informed on school matters at all times.
• Make my decisions only after judicious consideration of the evidence and viewpoints of competent and/or interested individuals.

How closely are our school board members following the Code of Ethics?