There's So Much To Catch Up On at Fox C-6!

A lot has been happening in the Fox C-6 School District since I last had time to write a blog post. My last post was about the announcement that Fox C-6 Superintendent Dianne Critchlow would be retiring in 2015. This was announced at the November 2013 board meeting. Just yesterday the 2014 Fox C-6 School Board candidates were announced by the district. Between all of that time, there have been a few interesting exchanges of emails with the Fox C-6 school board. Well, I wrote to the board, but the board didn't respond. Retiring Superintendent Dianne Critchlow and Fox's new assistant superintendent Andy Arbeitman responded. Superintendent Critchlow has assigned Mr. Arbeitman the task of responding to all school board meeting Public Comments. It's apparently best for the district to respond to questions rather than allow the school board to do so. Certainly paying for another superintendent to handle her communications with the public is a good idea. Ducking and dodging the media just doesn't look good for the district.

The last couple of months have been a very busy time and I found it much quicker to provide information to the community using Twitter: (https://www.twitter.com/FoxC6Watchdogs).

So, if you haven't been following my Twitter posts, you've been missing out on a lot of information. PLEASE NOTE: You don't have to have a Twitter account in order to read what gets posted on the Fox C-6 Watchdog's twitter page. All you need to do is click on the link above to go to the Fox C-6 Watchdog's Twitter web page to read the posts.

Recently on the Twitter page I provided some of the documentation that Superintendent Critchlow has been keeping from the public for nearly 5 years. You can obtain these documents from the federal agencies via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. It's been nearly 5 years since the district signed a Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR). It's been nearly 4 years since the district was informed it would be undergoing a District Wide Compliance Review by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights which was still open as of last year.

The monitoring letters to the district that are posted on the Twitter feed are a very interesting read. The letters to the district document how after 3 1/2 years our district was still being asked by ED OCR to update their school board policies and regulations as well as student handbooks to comply with Federal Law. Three and a half years seems like an awfully long time to update some documentation. But, then again, it's been nearly 2 years since Superintendent Critchlow informed the public at the March 2012 school board meeting that the district published the "draft" of the updated board policies and regulations for review. Those documents have yet to be approved and adopted by our school board.

There are also links to letters from the USDA to the district informing them in August 2011 that Fox C-6 and Missouri DESE were found non-compliant with Federal law and USDA Guidelines and Regulations. At the time, Superintendent Critchlow forwarded the letter to the board. She informed them that the district attorney found some mistakes in the USDA's Final Agency Decision. The district's attorney filed an appeal letter with the USDA but their appeal was denied. That's why they call it a Final Agency Decision. But, it did give the district another year long delay in having to respond to the USDA.

It took more than 2 years for the district to finally comply with the USDA Final Agency Decision. Surprisingly though, after the USDA accepted the district's documentation in September 2013 and closed the complaint, the district changed the documentation. When the National Director of the USDA's Office for Civil Rights (USDA OCR) found out about the change, he contacted and questioned the district about that change. Assistant Superintendent Dan Baker informed the USDA OCR National Director and the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) via email that the updated documentation was sent out by mistake by the district. Mr. Baker told them that the district had "two different working documents" and that "with all the communication that was going on between the different parties, the incorrect version was mistakenly sent". Really? Sounds believable doesn't it?

Apparently, the USDA OCR National Director took Mr. Baker's explanation for changing the documentation after the fact as a way of trying to "subvert" the complaint process. Does changing documentation after the fact, make you question the ethics of our school district leadership? How much effort and risk are they willing to take to get around the law?

Mr. Baker originally offered to answer questions regarding the changes to the documentation. However, after being contacted by USDA OCR, Mr. Baker responded to USDA OCR, the USDOJ and the school board stating that, "upon the advice of legal counsel the District will no longer respond in writing to your inquiries. If you would like to discuss these matters, please contact me at 636.296.8000 to schedule an appointment so that the appropriate people can be made available to answer your questions.  Thank you. " It's certainly an interesting response given the fact that the district has been doing everything "above board" for years.

As taxpayers, it's good to know that our district is being advised by district attorneys paid by taxpayer dollars on these matters. The district attorney and Mr. Baker have both spoken with the USDA OCR National Director on this matter. It's interesting to note that the National Director of the USDA OCR is an attorney as well. Interesting, isn't it?

So check out those documents and other tidbits of information on the Fox C-6 Watchdogs Twitter page.

2014 Fox C-6 School Board Election

School board elections are just around the corner and candidate names were released yesterday by the school district.

Below are the 2014 Fox C-6 School Board Candidates for the April election:

Vernon Sullivan

John Laughlin (I)

Mark Jones

Chris Hastings

Dawn Mullins

Robert (Bob) Gruenewald

Notably missing from this list of candidates is Linda Nash and Dave Palmer. They both have had family members promoted to high paid positions within the district while they were school board presidents. I'm glad to see that they aren't running for school board again. I'm sure it was a win-win for Linda Nash and Dave Palmer as well as Superintendent Critchlow while Mrs. Nash and Mr. Palmer were on the school board. It wasn't so much of a win for taxpayers though. Linda Nash's daughter-in-law was hired as the Food Nutrition Services Director to a $65,000 per year job in 2012. She didn't even have the education or credentials that the district was looking for. Luckily the district is giving her 2 years to obtain her degree in Food Nutrition. The only problem is that the degree is a 4+ year program. So, that's not going to happen.

Dave Palmer's wife Gee Palmer was promoted to the District Head Nurse position in 2006 and was given a 75% pay increase for an extra 3 months of work per year on her contract. The hiring of board president's family members were smart moves by Superintendent Critchlow. There's a good chance that Critchlow got some "brownie points" for those decisions. I'm certain Superintendent Critchlow recommended those hires because she was doing "What's best for the kids!".

Dave Palmer's wife was promoted at the end of Superintendent Critchlow's first year as the Fox C-6 Superintendent when he was the board president. Everyone in the community is now very aware that Superintendent Critchlow's salary has sky rocketed since her first year as superintendent. In 2006, she only made $137,589. For the 2013-2014 school year her salary is $256,131. I've discussed her salary issues before in the articles below.

SUPER SALARIES!! Superintendent Critchlow's Salaryfor 2013-2014 is $256,131!

Also check out my August 2012 article on Superintendent Critchlow's salary here:

Fox C-6 Superintendent Salary

2014 Is An Important School Board Election

The 2014 school board election will be a very important election for our community. The next Fox C-6 School Board will be responsible for finding and choosing our next Superintendent. Our community, parents, teachers and school staff certainly deserve much better than what it has endured for the last 9 years. It's the community's responsibility to make sure that your school board listens to you. Currently the school board has been told to pretty much keep quite. They don't respond to letters, emails or Public Comments. When a Superintendent instructs school board members not to speak to individuals in the community and sends out Cease and Desist Letters, you know there is a problem. It's easy to understand why she doesn't want the board to get the full picture of what's been going on behind the scenes in our district. The behind the scenes don't look as incredible as she portrays them to be. So, keeping the information from the school board  and the public is important for her reputation. So, if you don't want more of the same, contact your school board.

It's all about public perception!

If Superintendent Critchlow says things are great, they must be! Right?

Superintendent Critchlow has taken the approach of keeping information out of board meeting minutes, board packets and Public Comments. Her explanation as to why things aren't documented with details as to what people's "concerns within the district" are is because state law doesn't require the district document things verbatim from Public Comments. I've written about this problem many times over the last several years. Since you don't hear about any problems there mustn't be any? Right?

The same problem applies to leaving letters and emails addressed to the Fox C-6 School Board out of board meeting packets that ask questions of the board and provide documentation to the board on issues that should be looked into by the board. For some reason those documents don't get included in the board packets even after writing and asking the board secretary to include them. However, letters of praise for Superintendent Critchlow can be found in the school board packets. The letters of praise seem to have a common theme among them. They sound as if they were written by a superintendent. Certainly it's just a coincidence!

The January 2014 school board packet included one such letter to Superintendent Critchlow. The author of the letter stated that 99.9% of the citizens in our district "are very pleased with everything".

99.9% seems maybe a little high for the percentage of people in our community that are happy about paying Superintendent Critchlow $256,131 per year. I wonder where she got her facts and figures?

You can read the letter to Superintendent Critchlow dated December 16, 2013 here:

Superintendent Critchlow is doing an "outstanding job"!

It's pretty entertaining at times to watch how our district leadership conducts business. I know that the letter to Superintendent Critchlow also said that, "Fox has always been very fiscally responsible and not one to just "jump on the bandwagon" of any new educational approach." So, I'm glad the author of the letter reassured us with her statements on fiscal responsibility. I wasn't so sure of that when I found out at the March 2013 board meeting that the district was going to have to spend an additional $52,000 to build a storage building at Fox High School to store the equipment that used to get stored under the old bleachers. District administrators didn't realize that the new bleachers didn't have any storage space below them because of the truss design. Luckily the district was able to sell the old bleachers to another school district for $30,000 to help offset the cost of the new $320,000 bleachers and the $52,000 storage building. You can read more about that in my March 2013 post here:

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

For the latest information on what's happening in the Fox C-6 District that Superintendent Critchlow doesn't want you to know, follow Fox C-6 Watchdogs on Twitter (https:www.twitter.com/FoxC6Watchdogs) or check out the Fox C-6 Watchdogs blog right here (https://FoxC6Watchdogs.blogspot.com).

Superintendent Critchlow to Retire in October 2015!

At the November 19, 2013 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting, Mr. Todd Scott announced that Superintendent Dianne Critchlow would be retiring in October 2015.

Mr. Scott stated that the information was in the late materials presented at the school board meeting that evening.

At the November 19, 2013 board meeting, I made a public comment expressing my concerns to the school board regarding the recent November 5th board workshop in which our school board violated Missouri Sunshine Law by taking an open meeting agenda item that was being discussed into Closed Session.

At the beginning of my public comment, I gave an apology to the board stating that my Tuesday November 19th email was not intended to be a personal attack against anyone. However, Superintendent Critchlow interpreted my email as a personal attack against her and the district. My email presented some areas of concern to the board. Apparently, Superintendent Critchlow does not respond well to anyone who points out areas of concern or provides non-glowing comments about the district.

It's human nature to want to point out the positive. However, at some point in time we must all weigh our obligation to provide a complete disclosure of the facts, imperfect as those facts may be, especially when our employer is the public. Public entities are held to a higher standard of accountability for a reason. Missouri DESE sets that standard and our teachers and administrators work hard to achieve that standard. However, there are areas of concern that deserve attention.

For example, Superintendent Critchlow told the board at the September school board meeting that Fox C-6 had the highest MSIP 5 score out all of those in attendance at meeting of Jefferson County schools. That is as long as you don't count the Festus school district which had a higher score than Fox. Was Festus not in attendance?

Fox's Percentage of Graduates Taking the ACT
Another area of concern which I pointed out in my email is the fact that the Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT test at Fox is only 56% which is relatively low compared to the state average of 75% and to Rockwood and Parkway which each have 96%.

When I point out concerns to our school board, our Superintendent responds with claims that I am making personal attacks against her and the school district. My pointing out of facts are not intended to be a personal attack. Shouldn't these areas of concern be a concern for everyone?

Is it misleading by not providing information to the public or to the school board?

Or is it merely accentuating the positive?

Should our Superintendent provide the public and the board with a complete and accurate picture of our District regarding college admissions testing?

Wouldn't it be more productive if we, as a community, would be given information about our relatively low number of students taking the ACT and simply say, “this is an area in which we need to improve”?

It’s a shame that our Superintendent does not seem to trust the public with all the facts, and only highlights those facts that are positive. Only by recognizing the negative and owning it are we actually able to truly eliminate the concerns.

Superintendent Critchlow responded to my concerns regarding the ACT data with the following statement which she copied to myself and the school board:

Project Lead the way is a goal of the districts and is currently being researched in depth by our career readiness director. We would love for you to come in and discuss this issue. In addition, come in and talk to Dr. Rizzi about your thoughts on ACT. He will provide you with accurate data on the ACT and the Fox school district.

Rather than being concerned with the low number of students taking the ACT, our Superintendent appears to try and discredit my information. If Superintendent salary is based upon school district performance against other districts, one would hope that our school board looks at the complete picture.

You can see a comparison of some of the "facts" and statistics of the Top 25 School Districts in the state ranked by Superintendent Salary to see how Fox compares to those other districts in my previous article here:

Fox C-6 Superintendent Was 4th Highest Paid Superintendent In Missouri for 2013

School Board Approval of Audit Report for June 30, 2013
A representative from the Daniel Jones and Associates accounting firm presented the annual audit report to the school district for approval. The annual audit done by the Daniel Jones and Associates firm is nowhere near as in depth as when the state auditor reviews a school district like the one recently done for the Rockwood school district.

It should be noted that the audit report was not posted on the district website and it was not included in the school board meeting packets for the public to review.

Not posting the information for the public doesn't give the appearance of being openly transparent. This should raise some red flags for the public. It has been more than 10 years since Fox has had a state audit done. It takes a petition to get a state audit done. So, it's time for Fox C-6 to have a state audit done. It's definitely needed given the lack of oversight from our board over the last 8 or 9 years and given some of the decisions that they have made since that time.

It's also odd that only our superintendent responds to requests to have the school budget and other financial information published on the district website. And, she has refused to publish the school budget and has refused to publish prior years of board meeting packets even though they already exist. Superintendent Critchlow has only given excuses as to why these documents can't be published on the website. Perhaps if more people requested them, the district would realize that it would be much more efficient to publish them on the website rather than individually having to respond to each and every request.

After the representative from the accounting firm presented the report, board president Dan Smith asked if there were any questions. Steve Holloway spoke up and asked that the board be given more time to review the report. Mr. Holloway commented that the audit report was 60 pages long and that they had just received it a week ago and so he would like to defer approving the report to have more time to review it. It was good to see a board member wanting to review an item more in depth. John Laughlin seconded the motion to defer the report instead of just rubber stamping it.

Here is a transcript from this portion of the meeting after the representative said a few words about the report from the Daniel Jones and Associates company:

Dan Smith - Board President 

"Anyone have any questions or comments for the report?"

Cheryl Herman 

"I appreciate you coming. It makes me feel better that someone else on the outside look at the books and look at everything to make sure that it's going like it's supposed to. Thank you." 

Dan Smith  

"Anyone else?" 

Finance Director 

"I would just like to add one thing. He's really summarizing the process. We spend up to 2 or 3 weeks getting information. He's here for about 7 days and um, it just makes it a nice neat document but there's a lot of work that goes into this. We really do appreciate their help on this." 

Dan Smith 

"Anyone else?" 

Steve Holloway 

"So and, hold on. Sorry. So, so we're actually voting to receive this? Like. So, with it being, I mean we've had it for about a week. Is there anyway that we can defer this to vote on it until, uh, next month and maybe talk about this at one of our workshops? Go over what the audit means and some of the details in it and things like that?" 

Superintendent Dianne Critchlow 

"I think it has to. Does it have to be approved by December 31st?" 

Finance Director 

"Yes."

Finance Director 

"We also have to do a federal clearing house submission which is dated at the time. Our time starts once it's approved."

Superintendent Dianne Critchlow 

"So, if they approved it on December 17th, is that enough time?"

Finance Director 

"Sure."

Superintendent Dianne Critchlow 

"We could do this. I know we don't have a workshop planned for December." 

Steve Holloway 

"Oh that's right we don't. I guess we could go. Has, has anybody else had a chance to read this? I mean it's like 60 plus pages. Have you guys read through this?"

At this point Dave Palmer asked a question about the items on Page 14 concerning the fund balances and was responded to to by the district's director of finance filling in for Mark McCutchen.

After Mr. Palmer's question, Board President Dan Smith made the following comment telling the board that they should just go ahead and approve the audit because he looked over the report and it looked fine to him and because the audit company as been doing it for years and years.

Dan Smith - Board President 

"I have had the chance to look over this and, you know, Daniel Jones and Associates have, have done this for us for a number of, number of years. And uh, I mean if the board decides they want to defer this until the next meeting that's fine but. and I said, I've looked over it and it looks, it looks good to me. And, you know that if the numbers look good and like I said, these guys have looked at our district. It's not that their first time in the uh ball game here, with us. So, I mean they have audited us year after year after year. Know our numbers. Know where the numbers are coming from. So, I would, just as soon go ahead and do it tonight but if the, if the board decides they want to defer this till the next meeting."

Steve Holloway 

"I'll make a motion to defer if we want to."

Dan Smith 

"We have a motion to defer until the next meeting. Do we have a second?"

John Laughlin 

"I'll second that."

Dan Smith 

"OK we have a motion and a second. Any comments? Other comments?"

John Laughlin 

"Yeah, I have a comment, there's no specific reason you can't wait till the 17th. I just don't understand why we can't have 30 days to look at it. It just seems pretty easy. No sorts of specific reason for having a (inaudible)."

Linda Nash 

"I would agree with that. I also think that, um, we could even though we don't have a workshop. Uh, if, if as long as we don't find anything obviously we can vote on it on the 17th. But. we can still have it as a topic in a workshop even after it's approved."

Steve Holloway 

"That's true."

Dan Smith 

"Anyone else? OK. We have a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor? (yes) Any opposed? (none) OK. Motion carries."

Jamie Critchlow Is Not A Principal
Another note of interest from the meeting was the introduction of Mr. Jamie Critchlow as the principal of the Bridges program by assistant superintendent Tim Crutchley. According to Missouri DESE records and in speaking with Missouri DESE certification in the past, Mr. Jamie Critchlow has NOT earned an Administrative Certificate to have bestowed upon him the title of school principal. This has been looked into before by Missouri DESE Area Supervisor Dr. Tim Ricker when Jamie Critchlow's email address had the title of Principal of Bridges which was subsequently corrected to the title of Director.

According to Missouri DESE records as of November 20, 2013, Mr. Jamie Critchlow only possesses an INITIAL PC which was issued on January 13, 2011 and expires on January 13, 2015.

Mr. Critchlow took the Praxis tests in 2010 for the following courses to obtain his Initial Professional Certificate in the following two areas of study:

• Principles of Learning & Teaching (7 - 12)
• Social Studies: Content Knowledge

This concern was brought to the attention of the Fox C-6 School Board at the December 2010 school board meeting when I asked the school board how an individual had been hired into a director's position without proper certification. Mr. Critchlow was hired as a teacher in September of 2009 and promoted to the Director of Bridges in November 2009. That original promotion after only working for the district for two months raised is salary from in the $30,000 range to $98,569. That was quite a promotion considering he didn't obtain his Initial Professional Certification until January 2011.

Teacher Certification information can be found on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary (DESE) website here where you can personally verify the information:

https://k12apps.dese.mo.gov/WebApps/HQT/CredentialListerChecker.aspx

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

On Friday November 15, 2013, I emailed Superintendent Dianne Critchlow and Fox C-6 school board to ask if the school board was still planning on hosting the open discussion session with the public prior to the November 19, 2013 board meeting like they do in the Rockwood school district.

I sent my email as a reply to Superintendent Critchlow's October 4, 2013 email in which she told me that the Fox C-6 school board would begin hosting listening sessions beginning in November before each board meeting (see email below).

Mr. Simpson. 

I did take your suggestions to the board on the workshop Tuesday evening.  I copied and pasted the info from Rockwood’s website that you provided. The board is going to host listening sessions beginning in November before each board meeting. 

Have a great day! 

Dianne

I sent my November 15th email to the board after reading the November 5th board workshop / meeting minutes that were included on page 38 of the November 19th board meeting packet. The board meeting packet was posted on the district's website on Tuesday November 12th. From the workshop minutes, it appeared as if the district was no longer planning on hosting listening sessions with the community. 

So, I sent the following email to the Fox C-6 school board and Superintendent Critchlow on Friday November 15th:

Does the school board still plan on hosting a listening session at the November 19^th board meeting like you stated they would in your email below?

If not, then when was it decided that they would not be hosting one?


Thank you,

Rich Simpson

Here is the response I received within a couple of hours from Superintendent Critchlow regarding the school district's decision on hosting public discussions with the school board:

Mr. Simpson, 

I believe that you were at the workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 5^th when this was discussed.

After further discussion and advice from the attorney, the district will not be hosting listening posts.

You are welcome to continue making your public comments as explained in the last email you sent.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy this great weather with your family before winter strikes.

Dianne

So, the Fox C-6 school board is now unwilling to provide the same type of open communication with the public as they are now providing the public in the Rockwood school district.

The Fox C-6 community should be extremely concerned with the fact that our school board doesn't respond to emails and that they don't respond to Public Comments at board meetings contrary to what Superintendent Critchlow stated at the board workshop. The public is currently allowed 3 minutes to speak to the board at a school board meeting. Superintendent Critchlow told the board at the November 5th workshop that "every single person that's made a comment has received feedback" is NOT a true statement.

Furthermore, the community should be even more concerned with the fact that our school board violated Missouri Sunshine Law by taking the public discussion about Board Meetings into Closed Session at the November 5th board workshop at the suggestion of school district attorney Ernie Trakas as documented by Superintendent Critchlow's email to me on November 15th. Mr. Trakas did so after board president Dan Smith suggested that maybe the school board could respond to the public at the next school board meeting. Mr. Smith made this suggestion shortly after Superintendent Critchlow had just finished telling the school board that she has always provided feedback to every single person who has made Public Comments within a week as documented in our board policies. Mr. Smith's statements were a direct contradiction of what Superintendent Critchlow just stated otherwise there would be no reason to respond to the public at the next meeting.

The two newest board members may not know that Superintendent Critchlow's statement wasn't true regarding always responding to the public within a week. However, the other board members know that it's not true as they've received numerous emails from me over the past several years requesting responses from them after I've spoken at school board meetings. I never received a response from them. Even recently, I had to send another email asking that if Mr. Smith would not respond to my emails if another board member could and Cheryl Herman responded to let me know she received it. Mr. Smith has never replied to my emails.

I have emailed the board sometimes weeks and months after asking questions of the board and still no one on the board responded. Occasionally, Superintendent Critchlow would respond to some of the questions. However, she was very selective on what she responded to. The questions that I asked were directed to our school board and not our superintendent. The school board is elected to represent the public, not the superintendent.

This is the very reason that it is time for our community to speak up and start asking our school board questions and demand that they start looking for a new superintendent who can tell the truth and is willing to be transparent and open with the community. Right now Superintendent Critchlow is running our school district and our school board. The school board is supposed to hold our superintendent accountable for her actions and they are not doing their job.

I certainly hope that everyone in our community contacts our school board members and asks them why they violated Missouri Sunshine Law and why they are unwilling as a whole to host open discussions with the community.

Mr. John Laughlin, Mr. Steve Holloway and Ms. Cheryl Herman appear to be willing to speak with the community openly after listening to them speak at the November 5th board workshop. However, I don't believe that Mr. Dave Palmer, Mr. Dan Smith, Ms. Linda Nash or Mr. Dan Kroupa share the same sentiment based upon their comments at the workshop.

Below is an excerpt of the transcript from my audio recording of the November 5th workshop from when Mr. Dave Palmer spoke at the board workshop. These were his comments right after school district attorney Ernie Trakas told the board that he felt that community listening times were a bad idea.

Dave Palmer - Board Vice President
"I can tell you going to the MSBA meeting. They uh, when we were up there and we were doing the votes. They only allow 3 minutes. That's what they uh, recommend. They don't. They don't change it. Uh, I can tell you that there was plenty of times when the people that were trying to articulate their thoughts across appropriately stated and it worked. Uh, I agree with Ernie. I just think for (inaudible) purposes, it's not to the board's and the school district's benefit. If somebody wants to talk to you, let them talk to you. But, even then you need to be careful, I believe what you're talking about because you never know what subject you're broaching and I'm not sayin people will do this but there's always gonna be somebody out there that might possibly be upset enough to take somebody personally to court over something they stated. 

Uh. And I don't think, you, or me, or us as a board should put the district in that position. That's just my candid thoughts. It's not that I don't want to hear people. I'll listen to em. I'm probably not going to respond to em. I'm thinking about what they say. But I'm not gonna to take the chance on them saying "He said this" and it gettin twisted. I'm not doin it. I grew up with a brother that's a judge. I'm not doin it."

(laughter) 

Dan Smith - Board President"OK. So, I would take it, uh, Dave, uh, that you were leaning towards not doing this at this time."

Dave Palmer - Board Vice President 

"Yeah I mean, I just. If they want to talk to me personally, I'll listen to em. I think we should. I think we owe that to them. I'm just sayin if you listen to somebody be careful what you say to em. How you respond. I pretty much when I listen to somebody on certain subjects, I'm pretty much closed lip. Not because I'm afraid, cause I don't want anything to get misconstrued, even accidentally. Not that somebody's going to do it on purpose. Maybe I misstated. You know misstate something that I've, it's possible, you know. If I'm not answerin, I didn't say it. You know and then I can take everything they said; all the information I can get from you guys and administration and I can come to a better decision at that point."

Did Fox C-6 Violate Sunshine Law at Board Workshop?

The Fox C-6 school board held a board workshop on Tuesday November 5, 2013. There were only 3 people in attendance at the meeting besides the board members and school administrators. It was an interesting meeting as Superintendent Critchlow used the opportunity to "go on record" stating all of the things that she says she does that she doesn't really do with regards to responding to people that speak during Public Comments. I should know as I've spoken at several board meetings over the past 3 years and it has been extremely rare that I have received feedback and that feedback was not from the board.

Why won't the school board respond to questions that can only be answered by the board?

Below is one of the statements Superintendent Critchlow made at the board workshop which simply isn't true with regards to her stating that she has gotten back to "every single person that's made a comment has received feedback". Maybe she considers a glaring look "feedback".

Numerous times over the past 3 years I had to email the board weeks after speaking at board meetings asking for a response from the board. My emails quoted board Policy #0403 which states that the board will respond to all public comments within a week. On occasion I received an email response from Superintendent Critchlow with a reply to some of my questions while other questions were simply ignored. The short of it being that her statement below about getting back to every single person is False. However, her statement that she probably failed to tell the board is True. Cheryl Herman spoke about not knowing if the district ever responded to people during the workshop.

Listen to Superintendent Critchlow's Comments
on Public Comment

"I can go on record saying that every single person that's made a comment has received feedback. It may not always be the feedback they want to hear. ... But, never is there a public comment, unless they're really just not asking anything and just stating a comment. But, if they ever want answers, they get them! We have a policy that says we'll get back to them within a week. The only thing that we probably fail to do all the time is to tell you."

The most important thing you need to know right now about the board workshop meeting is that in my opinion, our school board violated Missouri Sunshine Law by taking an open meeting agenda item discussion on "Board Meetings" into closed session.

School district attorney Ernie Trakas was one of the 3 people in attendance at the meeting. Early in the meeting he spoke to the board about why they shouldn't have open discussion sessions with the public prior to board meetings like I suggested they do a couple of months ago. They do this now at Rockwood. You can hear Superintendent Critchlow mention that I suggested this idea to the board in the audio below.

Mr. Trakas's main concern on that topic was that there would be no contemporaneous record of the open discussion and that "it could lead to very interesting publicity". There would be a "contemporaneous record" if our school board meetings were video or audio recorded. This is why I record all meetings that I attend so there is an accurate record of what was said at the meeting since Mr. Trakas alluded to the problem of accuracy. This is why Fox should record all meetings like they do in other districts and Fox used to do in the past. I believe meetings aren't recorded anymore to allow our administrators the freedom to deny what was said in the board meeting as Superintendent Critchlow did in March 2012 about posting the board policies on the district website. Once I emailed her what she said at the meeting, she posted the updated board policies on the district website as she said she would at the board meeting.

So, did Mr. Trakas help our school board violate Missouri Sunshine Law?

He told Superintendent Critchlow and the board that "If we're going to discuss this, it needs to be discussed in Closed Session." after Superintendent Critchlow asked Mr. Trakas to respond to board president Dan Smith's idea about responding to the public at the next board meeting with answers from questions from the previous board meeting. NOTE: The board doesn't respond to Public Comments at board meetings.

Dan Smith tossed out this idea right after Superintendent Critchlow had just finished telling the board and those in attendance, that she's always responded to all public comments with feedback. She said that maybe the public just didn't like the feedback that they were given as to why the public asked the questions again and again. Critchlow even mentioned the board Policy 0403 that I have quoted many times in my emails to the board asking for answers weeks after making public comments. Board Policy 0403 states that the board will respond to all public comments within a week. That doesn't happen. I've brought this to their attention many times because I've never received a response from the board. I've only received responses from Superintendent Critchlow or one of the other administrators even though my questions were directed to the board.

Below is the audio recording and transcription from my audio recording of the November 5th board workshop when district attorney Ernie Trakas tells Superintendent Critchlow and the board that if they are going to discuss responding to the public at a board meeting that they need to discuss that in Closed Session.

According to Missouri Sunshine Law, Closed Meetings are only used to discuss issues such as Litigation, Personnel matters and Real Estate transactions. According to Missouri Sunshine law Section 610.022.3 requires that the meeting be closed only to the extent necessary to discuss the specific announced exception. No other business should be discussed during the closed meeting. The discussion of board meetings which includes the topic of responding to the public was listed under the board workshop agenda as part of the Open Meeting.

The only items listed on the board workshop agenda for Closed Sessions were 610.021.1 Litigation, 610.021.3 Personnel, 610.021.9 Negotiations and 610.021.13 Personnel Records. Therefore, I believe that Fox violated Missouri Sunshine Law by taking what was being discussed in the public into Closed Session.

Public Discussion Taken To Closed Session

Here is a transcribed portion of the audio leading up to board president Dan Smith adjourning the meeting to closed session after he suggested giving responses to the public at the next board meeting:

Listen to the Audio Recording of this Discussion

Board President Dan Smith 

"Here's an idea, I'm just gonna throw this out. What if at the next board meeting we give a response after one of the administrators has had some time to research the question, gotten the information, gotten the answers maybe it's been run through, then we can give the public some answers."

Superintendent Critchlow 

"From the previous one?"

Board President Dan Smith 

"From the previous meeting."

Superintendent Critchlow 

"Oh! (surprised response followed by a long pause) Ernie?" (nervous laughter)

Ernie Trakas (School district attorney)

"You're now, um, in my opinion anyway, if we're going to discuss this, it needs to be discussed in Closed Session."

Board President Dan Smith 

"Alright. Alright. Then I make a motion to adjourn."

At this point the board adjourned to Closed Session after Mr. Smith was told by the board secretary to read the agenda items for Closed Session. Discussing board meetings was not on the list of items to be discussed in Closed Session.

So, what reason did the attorney have for taking the Open Meeting discussion about Board Meetings into closed session?

It seems very clear from Mr. Trakas's statement, that he felt that the topic that Mr. Smith just brought up, needed "to be discussed in Closed Session" and that would violate Missouri Sunshine Law. The district attorney was responding to Superintendent Critchlow's request for counsel on Mr. Smith's statement on responding to the public at the next board meeting.

At the beginning of the board workshop, the district attorney expressed his concerns to the board about having open discussions with the public prior to board meetings. I want to commend board members Steve Holloway, John Laughlin and Cheryl Herman who all expressed their desire for wanting to speak and meet with the public prior to board meetings which I will cover in more detail in another article. It's important for the public to know what the school district attorney's opinion is on having listening sessions for the public with the board.

Early in the meeting, board president Dan Smith asked the Fox C-6 legal counsel Ernie Trakas for his input about the open session discussions prior to board meetings. Here is what Mr. Trakas had to say on that subject.

Listen to Ernie Trakas Speak About Open Discussions

"And I'm going to speak candidly. That is what I would hope you expect. In my opinion, there's no upside to this. For perhaps 3 or 4 reasons. 

One. 

Your policy already provides an ample and sufficiently comprehensive and coordinated method for Public Comment. 

Two. 

This board listening period, inevitably is going to be monopolized by a handful of people, almost every time. So that means that your goal, which is admirable, will never be accomplished. One, two, three people will constantly buttonhole board members and will turn it into what I believe ultimately will be a gripe session. 

Most important! 

Third and most important to me, the absence of a contemporaneous record poses significant problems. Not so much what you relate but what the person you spoke with relates to others in the media what you said. I guarantee you as I'm standing here tonight. It will never be accurate. So, for those reasons, I just don't see an upside to it. Um. Whatever another school district may do, good for them. But, um, for my money, the downside risk far outweighs any upside gain. 

Look, if nothing else, it's certainly going to um, it certainly has the potential for interesting publicity. Um. If not flat out inaccurate because there's an absence of a contemporaneous record. There's also no opportunity for you as a board member for any type of input from the administration for background or other information that may be important for you to understand what it is this person's talking about. So for all those reasons I just don't see it as a good idea."

Fox C-6 Watchdogs Is Now on Twitter!

Fox C-6 Watchdogs is now posting on Twitter as well!

Follow us on Twitter at: https://www.twitter.com/FoxC6Watchdogs

Fox C-6 Watchdogs follows several Educational and STEM related sites. Parents, educators and students will find a lot of educational posts and links to Educational and STEM related articles and information.

SUPER SALARIES!! Superintendent Critchlow's Salary for 2013-2014 is $256,131!

The front page article of the September 19, 2013 issue of the Arnold-Imperial Leader newspaper will hopefully wake up the community to the ongoing problems with the Fox C-6 School Board and their lack of oversight and accountability. The article is a review of the administrator salaries at Jefferson County's 11 public school districts. It's no surprise that Fox C-6 Superintendent Dianne Critchlow has the highest superintendent salary in Jefferson County. Her salary isn't just a little bit higher than the next highest paid superintendent in Jefferson County. It's a lot!! (see below) Her salary is $76,000 higher than the next highest superintendent in the county!

In fact, last year she had the 4th Highest Superintendent Salary in the entire state of Missouri.

Superintendent Critchlow's 2013-2014
Salary is $256,131!

How did that happen? ASK YOUR SCHOOL BOARD!

Please ask your school board how they justify our superintendent's salary. You can now email every Fox C-6 board member directly. You can find their email addresses on the district website.

It's doubtful that you will receive a response or even an acknowledgement from the board based upon my experience. The 3 newest board members have been acknowledging my emails. However, Dan Smith our current school board president has failed to respond or even acknowledge any emails ever sent to him. What kind of a school board president fails to respond to his constituents? When Mr. Smith ran for State Representative he touted his service on the school board and the fact that he would listen to the community. Please send Mr. Smith an email (SmithD@fox.k12.mo.us) and voice your concerns about our superintendent's salary and handling of our school district. Let me know if you get a response. I know of several people that have emailed Mr. Smith and they've never received a response as well. Why can't you respond Mr. Smith?

When a superintendent makes as much money as Dianne Critchlow currently is, there shouldn't be any excuses as to why she can't get things done. Superintendent Critchlow responded to me in an email earlier this week to questions I sent to our school board on Tuesday September 17 prior to the board meeting. One of the questions I asked was in regards to posting the late materials provided to board members before board meetings onto the district website for the public to review. She explained that, "We simply just do not have the staff to accommodate all requests and suggestions.  I wish we did, but we try to put all our dollars into the classrooms for the students."

Really? A salary that high doesn't give me the impression that Fox is trying put all of its dollars into the classroom. It's time that our school board stops accepting excuses and starts demanding results. It's their job to hold our superintendent accountable and make sure she gets things done. As the 4th Highest Paid Superintendent in the state last year, our district should be ranked up there with the top districts. However, the recent MSIP 5 results had Fox ranked at 173rd out of more than 500 districts. Fox's Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT is ranked in the bottom 25% of the state. The board needs to reduce her salary by $100,000 so she can hire the additional staff to get the job done. It's her job to keep the public kept informed. Making excuses as to why she can't get that done should be a red flag for the community and our school board. Keeping the public in the dark has allowed her salary to skyrocket because very few people were even aware of what she has been getting paid. If she can't get the job done then the board needs to find someone who can.

Last year Superintendent Critchlow had the 4th Highest Superintendent Salary

in the state of Missouri. 

Last year Fox C-6 as a whole had the 2nd Highest Average Administrator Salary

in the state of Missouri.

Read the Arnold-Imperial Leader Newspaper article:

Administrators: Who Makes What

The Fox C-6 School Board is responsible for setting Superintendent Critchlow's salary. They need to be held accountable for giving her such an outrageous salary. It's very obvious that our school board doesn't have a clue as to how out of line Superintendent Critchlow's salary is compared to other districts with similar demographics; square mileage; number of students; ACT Scores and Percentage of Graduates Taking the ACT.

Jefferson County

Superintendent Salaries
2013-2014

District Name	Superintendent	2013 Salary	2014 Salary	Years Super in District	Years Super Exper	Years in District
Fox C-6	Dianne Critchlow	$246,824	$256,131	9	9	24
Northwest R-1	Paula Ziegler	$180,369	$180,369	7	7	13
Windsor C-1	Joel Holland	$154,627	$163,878	3	7	5
Festus R-6	Link Luttrell	$165,500	$155,000	1	1	6
De Soto	Trish Burkeen	$154,438	$149,284	1+	1+	27
Hillsboro R-3	Aaron Cornman	$147,824	$140,000	1	7	1
Jefferson R-7	Clint Johnston	$135,000	$140,000	4	4	4
Dunklin R-5	Stan Stratton	$133,576	$136,181	7	7	13
Grandview R-2	Jack Mann	$120,000	$126,520	1	1	14
Crystal City	Philip Harrison	$114,597	$105,000	1	9	1
Sunrise R-9	Clay Whitener	$53,800	$53,800	7	9	7

August 2013 Fox C-6 School Board Meeting - More Lies, More Deception and More Willful Blindness!

The August 2013 Fox C-6 school board meeting was truly an experience to remember listening to Superintendent Critchlow run through her presentation that she has been giving to the staff around the district. Her presentation was like a "State of the District" address to the board.

Superintendent Critchlow should be complimented as to how well she did in presenting her version of the information. However, accuracy, completeness and honesty is important as well. Giving a letter grade on her presentation could be rated as follows:

Exaggerating the Truth and Enthusiasm - "A+"

Accuracy, Completeness and Honesty - "F"

Exaggerating the Truth and Enthusiasm must be what the Board of Education (BOE) basis their pay raises on for Superintendent Critchlow. You'll want to see how Superintendent Critchlow's salary compares to the superintendent she listened to from North Carolina who is responsible for 75,000 students and 170 schools covering 864 sq. miles compared to Superintendent Critchlow who is responsible for 11,695 students and 19 schools covering 74.03 sq. miles. Click on the link below to listen to her presentation for a better understanding of why Fox C-6 had the 4th Highest Paid School Superintendent in the state of Missouri last year. As you're listening to her presentation, read through the transcript of her presentation below to see what is Fact and what is Fiction in the [red comments]. Much of it is like listening to a fairy tale!

This is one of those articles that you should share with your friends and neighbors within our district.

Listen to Superintendent Critchlow's Presentation

There are many things that she conveniently leaves out of her presentation each year to the BOE. Leaving out key facts gives the "appearance" that things are really great. But without those key facts and without the BOE doing their own research appears to be rewarding our superintendent with much more than she deserves and needs to be called into question by our community. Hopefully more and more people in our community will begin to see how much money is being wasted on her salary for very little return. Being honest with the BOE and the community should be an important part of a superintendent's job.

Shortly into her presentation she touted how much the district's ACT Composite Score has improved since she became the Superintendent. But she failed to point out the fact that the district still ranks in the bottom 25% of the state for the Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT. She missed pointing that fact out last year as well.

She eventually spoke about the recent Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP 5) Scores that were released by Missouri DESE to the public the Friday before the board meeting.

That's when she made the claim that
Fox ranked "The Highest in Jefferson County!"

THAT'S NOT TRUE!!

Fox scored a 92.1%

Festus scored a 96.4%

It's the Superintendent's job to make sure the district is seen in a positive light but not at the expense of making UNTRUE Statements. Her claim stood out like a sore thumb to those of us that knew her statement wasn't true. No one on the board said a thing. No one questioned her false claim that Fox had the Highest Score in Jefferson County. She asked the board if they had seen the article in the Post Dispatch that highlighted our district. If she had read the article, she would have known that Festus scored higher than Fox. So, why would she make such a claim?

Her UNTRUE Statement stood out even more when the school district MSIP 5 Scores and Rankings were published on the front page of the August 29th edition of the Arnold-Imperial Leader newspaper.

As the Superintendent of schools, she continuously reminds everyone that Fox is a National District of Character. According to the District Statement of Commitment to the Character Education Program in our school board policies, "the role of the school is to support the family by upholding the highest example of morality, ethics, and integrity". Shouldn't our Superintendent be setting the example as written in our board policy?

It would seem that lying to the board and to the public contradicts many of the Character Education traits that Fox is teaching to our students such as: Honesty, Integrity, Trustworthy, Responsibility and Respect. As a community, we should be questioning our board as to whether our Superintendent is expected to be Honest, Trustworthy and Responsible to the taxpayers as part of her job especially considering the amount of money that they are paying her.

Does our school board not know the truth?

Is this more Willful Blindness on the part of our school board?

Shouldn't the board hold our Superintendent accountable for her statements?

How many times will she be allowed to deceive the public before she is fired?

If you didn't attend the board meeting you didn't get a chance to hear her presentation or view the slides from her presentation. Her slides weren't included in the board meeting packet as they should have been. My father used to record all school board meetings when he worked for the district and while he served on the school board. The district is no longer doing this. I audio record the board meetings whenever I attend in order to have an accurate depiction of what occurred.

I have asked the board many times over the last several years to record the meetings like they do in other districts. They have never responded to my request. The public needs to know what is really going on in the district and not just the information that the district chooses to document in the board meeting minutes or allow the newspapers to publish.

Another problem that needs to be corrected is the fact that board meeting minutes aren't made available to the public for nearly a month after a meeting. Our school board members should be insisting that draft copies of the board meeting minutes be posted on the district website the same week of a board meeting like they do in other districts. Better yet, post an audio or video recording of our board meetings within a few days of the meeting like they do in other districts. This will keep them from hiding things from the public.

More information about the August 2013 board meeting will be forthcoming as there was a lot of misinformation to cover. The community can review a transcript of our Superintendent's presentation below. You can click on the link below to listen to her presentation in her own words. My comments have been added in red throughout the transcript of her presentation on items that stood out during her presentation.

Listen to Superintendent Critchlow's Presentation

Superintendent Critchlow's Presentation

to the School Board (transcribed)

"If you recall it was either last June or maybe it was May. I can't recall. We talked about how important we believed as a board and as administration that we needed to tackle some items with our staff. Um. In the last week and I think I started, August. I think on the 19th. I've done two or three presentations. If you'll just flip the lights for me Dan. I'm just going to go through you very quickly. What I've been addressing the staff every morning and afternoon. 

OK. So, an overview of the district, where are we now? We all know we're a National District of Character. We've been a Missouri Distinction of Performance for 13 years. The last, the last 11 years it was awarded by DESE and then MASA took over awarding Missouri Distinction of Performance. Our ACT right now is 22.3. [NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH: Critchlow left off of her slide the fact that ONLY 56% of Fox's graduates take the ACT compared to the state average of 74% as listed on DESE's Top 10 by 20 Dashboard (which includes private schools) or the state average of 66% that is listed on DESE's School Report Cards (which only includes public schools). Fox's percentage is so low that Fox ranks in the bottom 25% of the state. Critchlow left this fact off of her slide from last year's presentation as well.] When I came in the office, we were 20.5. [NOT TRUE: According to DESE, Fox had a score of 20.8 in 2005 and 20.7 in 2004. She became superintendent on July 1, 2005.] We were below the state and National Average. It is very difficult to raise it even by 1%. We've raised it by 2. Dr. Rizzi and I keep setting the standard higher. [INTERESTING COMMENT: How does a 2% raise in our ACT Scores correlate to her 80% raise in salary over the last 8 years? How will their "setting the standard higher" boost ACT Composite Scores?] Our goal right now is 23%. [CONFUSED: Does Fox plan to raise our ACT Scores by 23%?] 

Our dropout rate as of the first day of school was 1.98. If we had 1.98, we'd still be one of the lowest in the state. This will not remain the same. This is why you won't get a drop out rate this month. It always is high at the beginning of the year and then we get our kids back in September. And, we usually average, what Dr. Rizzi, 1.25 to 1.5? Which is phenomenal for a district of 11,600 without the early childhood kids. [NOT TRUE: Data obtained from DESE's website show's Fox's Dropout rates as follows:  2013 - 2.0%, 2012 - 1.8%, 2011 - 1.2%, 2010 - 1.2%, 2009 - 1.4%, 2008 - 1.6%, 2007 - 2.0%, 2006 - 3.6%, 2005 - 2.9%, 2004 - 3.5%. It appears as if Fox has been losing ground in this area over the last couple of years. Our board should take a look at Clayton, Francis Howell, Kirkwood, Ladue, Lindbergh, Mehlville, Parkway, Rockwood and Webster Groves for districts that have much lower dropout rates than Fox. Our superintendent's claims need to be backed up with data and not just words.] 

Our graduation rate is 93.9%. That does not mean that only 93% of our seniors graduate. They are basing that now on the kids that we get as freshman and if they finish all the way through with the Fox school district. Some of our demographics. K-12 we're 11,695 as of the first day and this may change. If as you noticed in our board materials, we are down about 80 kids. Hopefully that will change. With early childhood we gain anywhere between 200 and 400 children throughout the year. So really, we have over 12,000 students. We have 995 certified, 606 classified. We have 19 schools with 21 buildings. 

This sheet is telling. And, if you've ever read any of the articles I've written, we have shown this probably the last 5 or 6 years. [OOPS: Superintendent Critchlow's slide contains the same mistake that has been there for years. Her slide shows that Fox has 270 Administrators Per Student rather than Students Per Administrator. 270 Administrators Per Student would be a little top heavy administratively! No one has noticed this mistake for the last several years.] These are school districts around our area, probably all the way out to Jeff City that have been Distinction 13 years in a row. If you look at what we spend per pupil and what the rest of them that have been Distinction 13 years in a row spend per pupil, we are the lowest. [EXPENSIVE ADMINS: What Superintendent Critchlow fails to point out is the fact that Fox had the 2nd Highest Average Administrator Salary in the state last year for school districts that had more than one administrator. Fox's Average Administrator Salary was $125,569 for 39.5 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Administrators (2013 DESE data). Total Administrator Salary for 2013 was $4,959,956. Fox's Average Administrator Salary is $14,648 more than Parkway, $23,979 more than Wentzville, $24,117 more than Rockwood and $24,856 more than Mehlville. Fox's Average Administrator Salary is more than twice the median household income in our district. 

Could this be why Fox's administrator salary schedule was left out of the school board packets?]

And as I'm telling the teachers as we go through this, it's not because of myself, the board of education or the principals. It is the teachers in the classroom. Because when that door closes, we hope we've provided them the tools to make our students excel. [QUESTION: Does having enough books for all students in the class count towards having the tools to make our students excel?] And obviously if you look who we're going against and the amounts of money we spend, we do a fantastic job in educating our students.

This is the newest 2013 Annual Performance Report. This is MSIP 5. We used to be graded on 100 points. We are now graded on 140 and this is what I'm explaining to the staff. We ARE very proud of the 92.1%. I was attending and if you read the Post Dispatch earlier this week and they had so many schools highlighted. We were one of them they highlighted. [VERY MISLEADING: All schools in the St. Louis area were listed in the Post Dispatch article and all of the schools listed were highlighted. Superintendent Critchlow's statement was not false. But, it was very misleading. It seemed as if she was implying that the Post Dispatch was depicting Fox as an exception which was not true.] 

In addition, I was at a Jefferson County meeting and I shared this with all of the staff that I met with thus far. Jefferson County students are like building principals. They're like athletic coaches. Everybody is competitive. So, we decided lets go around the table and share our score. We were the highest in Jefferson County. [NOT TRUE: If you don't count Festus as being in Jefferson County then Fox would be the highest. Perhaps Festus wasn't at the meeting. But to tell the board that Fox was The Highest in Jefferson County after reading the article in the Post Dispatch is FALSE and MISLEADING! MO DESE shows Festus was ranked higher than Fox with a score of 96.4% compared to Fox's 92.1%. Her next statement was FALSE as well. None of the other school districts in Jefferson County had a score in the 70's and obviously Jefferson R-7 was NOT the only other district in the 90's. Was she stating this in order to justify the amount of salary the board is paying her? This simply confirms the fact that she is willing to mislead the board and the public. Making False Statements like these destroy her credibility and shows her lack of Integrity and lack of Honesty. It is not very representative of a National District of Character.] Everyone else was in the 70's or 80's. If you wanted to compare county to county, which is really the county we're in. And, the only other school district that was in the 90's was Jefferson R-7, but they have not had a fully accredited high school yet. Every year, you'll notice they keep adding high school. Great for Clint down there. They're doing a fantastic job. 

So, the five things that are really important, go back one Dr. Rizzi please. Um. As, you can see our academic achievement was 96.4. Our kids are getting a great education. The sub achievement is 89.3. We know we have areas we need to improve upon. We have College and Career Readiness and we have Attendance. Now, the state has frozen whatever accreditation you have at this point in 2013. It remains with you until 2015. So, we're accredited with distinction. We'll be accredited with distinction until 2015. In 2015, they start labeling again. It's either high achievement, achievement and I don't even bother to know the bottom two because Fox is never going to get there. And that's what I tell the teachers. And guess what? If we were accredited today, we would be high achievement. So, the two areas I'm going over with the staff are number three and number four. Look at our attendance. We only got 7.5%. College and Career Readiness, we can fix. And the difference with MSIP 5 and the rest of the MSIP is you have to show improvement. We can. We can still have really high scores, but if they don't improve or if our attendance doesn't improve, you don't earn the points. So attendance, we want to improve by 1%. 

College and Career Readiness is gonna be easy for us. There are more AP classes we can add and we can't wait to do that. [QUESTION: Why hadn't Fox done this years ago under her watch? This is related to the same problem that I have been pointing out to them for years regarding and that how low the Percentage of Graduates taking the ACT is in our district. Rockwood pays for each student to take the ACT test one time. You never know when a student may receive a scholarship based upon their ACT scores. Every student should have the opportunity to take the test.] So you add 2 or 4. Then the next year you add 8. Then you add 12. That one we can fix easier than our attendance. 

So, why does attendance matter? And this is what I put together for the staff. This is where I'm asking the staff. We need your help. We currently maintain a little under 95% attendance. When you think about that, that's pretty darn good. However, that 5% loss cost the district $3.8 million dollars a year and, if I tell the teacher, that's supplies we can put in the classroom. That's adding additional teachers. That's your raise. So, one hour of attendance and we're graded by hours is about $6 bucks, $5.75. When 200 students are absent first hour and having two high schools of 4,000 students, that happens. Right there you're losing $1000 dollars, almost $1200. If a student's absent all day in our school district, it costs about $40 bucks. Six hundred students absent all day is very feasible when you have 11,600 students. We're losing $22,000 a day. In two days that's another teacher. We can lower class size. So, what I'm asking the staff and they've had some great ideas. I need you to tell me how we can increase by just 1%. One percent will make us make $760,000 more. Just one percent. And you know when you ask, these teachers can tell you. And, they have some great ideas. I'll share a story. I was at Ridgewood Middle. She had no idea what my talk was gonna be about. And, she took over last January and apparently and I don't know if Ms. Pelster started this. But, the kids love, they love iPod Fridays. Well every week they're going to her saying can they have an iPod Friday, or smartphone. So, Ms. LaVanchy gets on there and she said at the end of August since all of you've been bugging me, if we have 98% attendance, I will allow you to bring in your iPod and your smartphones. We'll use them educationally. She's found what motivates her kids. So, I want to find what motivates all the other kids in all the other buildings. This is how we show the staff attendance matters. 

Going on with that and letting them know how important we think attendance is and APR. I just want to talk about where we're headed in education in the future and what our challenges are. Our challenges are right now, this year, are we did deficit spend in order to give raises this year. Everyone's aware of that. In addition to that these teachers are being thrown the Common Core, MSIP 5, End Of Course, MAP, and Teacher Evaluation. Here's one thing I tell the teachers. I grew up at Rockport. They put a hundred of us in the cafeteria and we took the Iowa Basic Skills Test. Then when I became a teacher, we took the MMAT. Then, after I became a principal there was the MAP. Now there's the End Of Course, there's Common Core. But you know what, that doesn't worry me. Fox teachers, Fox staff has always found a way to make our students do well on less money and this is what I'm out there telling the teachers. Now, the Principals may cringe a little with me because, I'm saying guys don't worry, I know you're going to perform. 

But, we have two key areas that we need to focus on as a staff, attendance with the students, attendance with the staff and our health insurance. We probably have one of the best health insurances going. We pay full board pay. But as you know, we all made the decision to deficit spend. I tell them the story. I have a son that has epilepsy. I go to get his medicine. It's like a $1.23 and I tell this every time to every staff. It's shocking to me. That can't be right. I don't take the best insurance. I take the second one because I think it's the better one. And so what I'm telling them is we're going to put a health insurance committee together. We're going to look at insurance. We're going to want their input. But, you know if I had to pay $10 or $20 for Jimmy's medicine, I'm OK with that. [COMMENT: With a 2012-2013 salary of $246,824, I'm sure that raising her son's medicine cost to $10 or $20 per refill is probably OK with her. The school board has raised her salary so much over the last 8 years that everyone in the community is in disbelief when they learn how much she is making. The difference between her salary and 99.9% of the rest of the citizens in the Fox C-6 district shows how out of touch our school board is with the community. Yes. SHE is probably OK with having to pay a little more.] We need to come up with ways that if everybody pays a little and it affects no one greatly. They're on board with that. That's we're trying, that's the message we're trying to send. 

So, we're asking for them. What are incentives that will make you come to school? What are ideas that you have? And I can tell you, but I've only been through half the schools right now. One school had a great idea. But, their idea was, if you, if we have 100% attendance, and one thing I want to do is, spend a little money to make a little money. So, show the next slide if you would Dr. Rizzi. And I'm sorry if I had my back to you. Um. Last year, we spent $1.6 Million dollars on substitutes. Yes. We grant teachers and aides and all those so many days, for their benefits. But, I said how many of you really, on the day that you needed a mental health day, or went shopping, or went deer hunting, could you really have been there? 

And the other thing that we talked about is let's give an incentive to the teachers. What if we gave them a $100 bucks for perfect attendance. Um. So, we're throwing ideas around but I want the teachers to tell me, what motivates you to come to school? So, I've been to most of the middle schools and they raised their hand and the principal said at Antonia Middle , I'll take five because they have hours. If they have perfect attendance, I'll take 5 hours of their classes. Um. So then I, I took that to Fox Middle after Antonia said it and he upped it to 6 and by the time I got to Seckman Middle it was 7. It would be great to give teachers a day off free. But, it kind of circumvents the whole process. But, one teacher came up with what I thought was really clever, but she wanted to allow us them not to have to come in on a PDC day if they had perfect attendance. (laughter heard) Which it really would save for subs and I thought wow, that's thinking out of the box. However, we value PDC, so. 

But one had a great idea too, uh, let us go to lunch. Teachers can never go to lunch. They get 30 minutes. Let the principal or whoever cover their class and go to lunch with a co-worker, to wherever it may be. So, we're look at those ideas to save money. One thing we are doing. We know you have to replace teachers. You have to replace bus drivers. I mean there's just no way out of that. But, there are some things out there that cannot be replaced if it's a one time day sub and we can save about $600,000 or $700,000. If you have four custodians at night and one's out, your buildings gonna  have three. And, the trash will get emptied and the bathrooms will get cleaned unless it's long term. So, we are looking at every way not to deficit spend. This is what I'm sharing with the staff. Um. The next slide is the year before that which is $1.5 Million, which is pretty close to the slide before it. 

And then I kind of um, switched focus because I wanted to talk to them about where are we headed in education as a school district, as a state, you know in the nation. And these are just some things that I found really interesting. Not in our school district, but in the United States. If you have an entering freshman, all our freshman, they're the most racially and ethnically diverse group in the United States. They grew up without Romper Room and I think we've probably had some teachers grow up without Romper Room and I tell them that and they all laugh. They've never seen an actual airline ticket. If you have kids. I think, my kids think my ticket is a boarding pass. Pretty much it is right now. Most of them never had a pencil library card. They see no use for encyclopedias, library terms such as the dewey decimal system, micro fiche are likely greek to them. The advent of smartphones and tablets has further facilitated their appetite for instant gratification. It's facilitated everyone's appetite, including mine. Having the website out there and yes we were new in starting it and we might not have everything perfect. But, honestly I can agree with you. That's the society that we're in. We want that information and we want it right now. Well think about our kids and who are better than us at it. Um. 

The next slide, they've always. They think there have been blue M&M's. They do not think of Amazon as a river. History's always had a channel. There's no need for TV, rooms. TV's can be watched anywhere. I didn't realize this until on of my sons went away to college called. Wanted the DirecTV number and password. I'm like what are you talking about? Apparently right now if you belong to DirecTV or anything else and you have an iPhone or an iPad, it can be watched anywhere at anytime. I had no clue. 

But, the most intriguing thing I think and most people are never going to be able to say this. Their lives have spanned 3 decades, two centuries, two millenniums. Few people in industry have been able to claim such a feat. So, with that being said and what we know about our students. This requires a strategic transformation, I had the opportunity to hear the Assistant U.S. Department, Secretary of the U.S. Department of ED. And, she had, she just had a compelling thing, "Prepare the students of today for a world that is yet to be created, for jobs yet to be invented and for technologies yet undreamed." And I know that we have a lot of people in this audience that work in this technology and educators are the worst and she agrees. We need to prepare the kids for the future that are in 9th grade to walk out of here and college and by our state testing and the tests we have to give we're truly just preparing them for the present. We're preparing them for a test they have to take in 6 or 8 months. Also, I challenge and I'm challenging the staff to ponder these questions. How can schools meet our kids in their world? How can we redefine learning so that it's not limited to the classroom, bell schedules, pre-determined acceptance tests, etc? How can we keep them tuned in and on? And, how can we give credit for learning outside the classroom? 

I had the chance to hear a superintendent speak from North Carolina. 75,000 kids in his school district. [INFO: He is from the Wake County Public School System. Last year the Wake County superintendent's salary was $250,000 compared to Superintendent Critchlow's salary of $246,824. The Wake County superintendent was responsible for a $1.3 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET compared to Fox's $135 MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET. Wake County has 170 schools and 75,000 students compared to Fox's 19 schools and less than 12,000 students. Critchlow's salary appears to be incredibly out of line when comparing responsibilities between the two superintendents. 

Is the lack of transparency in the Fox C-6 District allowing our school board to overpay Critchlow?

Compare the openness and transparency of Wake County to that of Fox C-6 by reviewing Wake County Finance webpage. Wake County's website has School Budgets and Finance Reports dating back to 2007 as well as their 2013-2014 proposed budget.
Their 2012-2013 Adopted Budget is 338 pages.

Can you find any of those documents on Fox's website? Fox C-6 taxpayers should be requesting the same information. It seems to be keeping Wake County Public Schools in check. Transparency is everything!] Five of their high schools partnered with a Junior College and those kids are graduating with an Associates Degree and their High School Diploma at the same time. I know we have students that can do that. We send our students to Jeffco for the vo-tech. Why are we not sending our students for that associates degree? So, I called Jeffco. What are you going to offer our students so that they can compete in that world that everybody knows is out there? I mean, my kids think that the Internet has always existed and there are so many things that have changed. And, like I've said, I know that we have so many kids that can do this. So right now, we are going to try to partner with Jeffco to see if we can have kids not only graduate with an associates, but graduate with their high school diploma. 

So, relevance makes rigor. I like this quote, I wanted to share it with the staff, "Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve." And then we threw a little fun in here and this is truly what we think. When I think about educators, they're super heros. And, depending on what building I'm in, I call the principals Superman or the principals Wonder Woman. I'm also telling them we are all frustrated in education. We're being asked to do huge transformations. But, it's also an opportunity for our teachers to be super heros for our kids. And then this one I just love. And, and, we typed on all these things. But, you know what? On any given day, I'm pretty sure that's how we feel in our office. I'm pretty sure that's how the teachers feel. You're going to throw something else at us. But guess what? They are super heros when they keep up with the demands. So, this is what I leave them with. My wish for them as we continue our important work. Be extraordinary. Our kids deserve our best, to be their best. So, this is what I've been presenting to the staff to let them know the challenges we're facing and hopefully they're forward thinking."