Younger teachers were having a hard time dealing with Principal Jennifer Doshier's somewhat mercurial demands. They talked with a veteran teacher, who agreed they had reason to be concerned. The things she was hearing were serious enough that the veteran teacher called Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer, who suggested that the veteran teacher bring the younger teachers over to the administration building at 32nd and Duquesne to discuss the problems.
After the meeting started, the veteran teacher reassured Dr. Besendorfer that the teachers were not blowing the situation out of proportion.
Dr. Besendorfer offered a sympathetic ear, nodding as the teachers spoke, every once in a while commenting, "This is unbelievable," or "this should not be happening."
As the meeting closed, Dr. Besendorfer told the teachers not to worry. "I will take care of this."
As the veteran teacher and the younger ones left Dr. Besendorfer's office, for the first time in a long time they had a feeling that their jobs might just become a little more bearable.
Dr. Besendorfer, true to her word, took care of the situation. By the time her solution had been implemented, the younger teachers, none of whom had tenure, did not have their contracts renewed, and the veteran teacher, a woman well respected in the community, was escorted out of McKinley Elementary and placed on a paid leave of absence. Later, she was transferred to another job in the district. Probably the only thing that saved her position was that she had tenure and the district was already in the process of being embarrassed as it made efforts to fire another tenured teacher.
By the time, the year ended, nearly every teacher in McKinley Elementary had either been non-renewed or had resigned.
Angie Besendorfer did not forget about Principal Jennifer Doshier. Ms. Doshier was promoted to upper administration, in the recently created post of director of elementary education.
Meanwhile, Ms. Doshier's replacement, the principal who would have to deal with a completely new, highly inexperienced young faculty- is Terri Hart, who was moved from an upper administration ;position as curriculum coordinator...and who, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website, does not have a principal's certificate.
Parents of McKinley Elementary students should not worry about having such an inexperienced principal at the helm- she won't be here for long. She has told some people that her plan is to get a job at Pittsburg State University and others that she hopes to become a superintendent at a small school.
The one thing she makes sure everyone knows- McKinley Elementary is just a steppingstone.
Another example of 21st Century learning, courtesy of C. J. Huff, Angie Besendorfer, and the Joplin R-8 Board of Education.
47 comments:
Our daughter had that wonderful teacher last year. She truly cares about the kids and learning. I'm not impressed this year. Both of our kids lost good teachers last year.
This has got to stop...
The meaner you are in R8 land, the higher you go...Angie, are not afraid these meanies will turn on you...I will offer you a box of kleenex....I saw in that movement when i came to you for help that it was such a practiced , so what get out of my office activity, that I knew then that you didn't give damn ....karma is going to bite you big time..one of the smartest gals I ever knew has spent the last 20 years in prison for the same personality you are exhibiting ...
There is no public institution in this country more corrupt than Joplin Public Schools. And the Board? To tolerate this, they must be as corrupt as the administrators they protect. They have been told for years what these people are like but continue to let the situation not only exist, but expand, rather than do what they should do, which is fire and prosecute Huff and Besendorfer. It is shameful, and the question now is, where are the state officials who should be taking over this mess and ensuring the education of our children? What good is DESE or the MSBA or our elected officials if they're all just going to turn a blind eye? It's past time for lawyers to do what needs done here. Clean out the thieves and bullies. Make them pay restitution to those they've hurt and the patrons of this district. It has to stop.
This is unbelievable. The only people being fired in this district are the ones who should be protected by law from administrators on power trips. Hold the board financially accountable for allowing this hostile environment to go on year after year. Make them pay. God knows they're not doing anything else but voting 7-0 to protect their overpaid bullies.
Every teacher in Joplin should sign on to a class action law suit and sue these people and their board. It's the closest thing to a raise they'll ever get in Joplin. Hostile work environments are against the law. Make them sorry.
What a den of pit vipers. Clean them all out. Not a scrap of honor in those craven cowards.
As long as the parents and patrons are willing to go along with it, this situation will not change. It will take community involvement to rid the district of the vermin.
Like has been stated in previous posts, in order to work at JSAB, you must first sell your soul. No one with any sense of decency would agree to carry out the orders and plans of this bunch of greedy, overpaid, corrupt administrators and their bullies, the "directors". It's time to take a stand against them and run them and their pets right out of town. They should never be allowed to work in any school district again.
Where Is the auditor? Where is DESE? I will campaign against anyone currently in office and vote for his opponent, no matter who it is, if they don't get this cleaned up immediately. You're losing votes every day you allow our dollars to be wasted and keep our children from receiving a quality education. All of you elected officials need to quit pretending you don't know what is happening and do your jobs!
The more money you have in the district the more influence you have and the hell with the kids. That's like the stupid bond issue, they lied about that too; my personal property taxes are now almost $600 & my car tax is $200 just for school taxes (but it will only average out to be equivalent to a happy meal a month you tell me when did happy meals get so expensive?)
Nobody has any gripe coming. You all were the ones who elected each and every member of the school board and they are, for good or ill, your elected representatives.
With the Joplin school system, it has been one scandal after another. Anon 5:19 blames the public for electing the board members and perhaps that is correct, but I look at the people who are supposed to be telling us about these problems. Where has the Joplin Globe been. Where have KODE, KSN, KOAM, and KZRg been? These problems did not just begin a couple months ago. Every person who votes in the Joplin district owes a debt to Mr. Turner for the work he is doing and though it may not be much, Mr. Turner, you now have my $10 subscription, which is more than the Joplin Globe will ever get from me again.
We need new people to RUN for the Board so we HAVE NEW PEOPLE TO CONSIDER.
Oh my...had no idea all this was going on...going to recommend this blog to all my non-teacher friends, parents etc...very enlightening. ... We still have to pay those high taxes...we should be more informed...thank you!!!!
Think about that for a minute. Nobody wants to run for either School Board or City Council for some very valid reasons. To begin with, it is financial suicide for the local business people because they are certain to lose customers regardless of how they vote upon various issues. In fact, whoever serves will face critics at every turn and loss of friends and end up with a bunch of people showing up to throw rocks at their houses. And all that for a non paid position with a zero percent chance that the masses are going to erect a statute of them in the cotton fields.
So how many teachers have been escorted out of their buildings over the past few years? Was Tina Smith the "escortee" or was it Besendorfer? I was escorted out for a lie someone told & not even given a chance to defend myself...until an NEA lawyer acted...then I was welcomed back with open arms...do they get a high doing this..bullying teachers! Contracts & tenure mean nothing in R8...
I hate this! I remember that it wasn't that many years ago that McKinley was one of the best schools in Joplin. All of my sons went to school there. Teachers need to do what they do best, teach our kiddos!
This is horrible. They'd be better off under state control.
Hart taught a whopping four years before she brown nosed and back stabbed her way into Modot. Her replacement only taught for two years. Experience and intelligence aren't what counts there. Hart isn't the only one with certificate problems either. Lisa Orem's expired some time ago, according to the DESE records.
What were her demands?? Give actual details if you want to convince me. Innuendo doesn't do it for me.
When so many teachers leave a building and then so many flee a district, something is seriously wrong. Teachers are nurturers and nesters. They are committed to their communities. The numbers say it all--200 in 2 years--and it will be just as bad this year if something doesn't give immediately. I doubt very many will wait until April for possible Board, administrator, or policy changes. At some point teachers must look after their families and themselves, and threatening them only increases the problems and the flight risk.
Don't let Sarah Stevens off the hook,either...her first year in R8 land, she caused so many problems because she knew best about everything from teaching to the cafeteria to the library & back again..then
she moved to another school & did the same thing...then she became a TLC , & now she is in the Admin building as director of curriculum, etc....
No one with a sense of decency would work for those in the AD Building. Including the Bright Futures Laundrymat. Fraud, corruption, intimidation, and coercion are their modus operandi. Even the board appears to be afraid of them.
How does someone with two unsuccessful years of teaching third grade leap to the level of director of curriculum and assessment? That doesn't sound suspicious to others? And if you look at Angie's picture on the district web page, she no longer has the tag "curriculum and instruction" attached. Just Assistant Superintendent. I wish I could just reinvent my job at the expense of everyone else. No matter what she does, Chaos and Disaster follow.
The super and his assistant and their directors are scary people. No conscience. If they pray on a situation they always get the desired response so they believe themselves ordained and infallible. Dangerous combination.
This school district Is a true disgrace! It makes me sick to know what it happening and how they are acting! We are losing a lot of great people within the district due to our Administration. It is not only our teachers though, My husband Quit his job at BGT due to hostile work environment, received unemployment and no lawyer in this town would touch his case even though we have a recording of what happened in an appeal and how they say that one of their upper employees played Bumper cars in company vehicles and so on! This Town needs people to run that want to better our children's education and want a change!
I hope Mr. Turner continues to share the truth with us. We need to know what's going on. My taxes are higher than I expected. My kids are learning less than expected. I hear rumors that East and JHS will NOT be finished on time and that the district will not have the money to finish them. Some of our favorite teachers left and I hear others are right behind them. We have to get those admin people out of there, along with their junior league spies, and cut wasteful spending immediately. There is no time left. Keep telling the truth and we'll keep spreading the news. Pretty obvious the Globe and tv stations won't. Olliges had one story--on HALLOWEEN when parents like me were busy. Didn't help much that she interviewed BoE spouse, either. Hardly credible. .
So, an elementary principal fires or runs off all but maybe two of her teachers and she is allowed to be promoted and now makes $99,000 a year at taxpayer expense for a job that was not existent before? What fund is being illegally plundered for that new position? Maybe if Angie needs three full-time helpers, she should stay home and take care of honest business instead of running around the country all the time. I'm angry to the core about all of this but don't know what to do. Any suggestions as to how we stop this? April is too far away.
Bessie is too busy zooming around Joplin in her Mezrcedes, shopping for Coach purses, spangly clothes, hairdressers, handing out tissue to teachers who sincerely ask for help all the while she is looking at her cell phone, traveling the USA with her entourage telling how great they are, traveling overseas.....omg, what a money grubbing fake she is!
Mr. Turner, I used your subscribe button and I wish I could afford to send you more than $10. I am sorry you lost your job, but maybe that needed to happen so someone could expose Angie Besendorfer and CJ Huff for what they are, low-level thugs who would be right at home in the Mafia. Keep up the good work.
I am tired of seeing all of the criticism being leveled at CJ Huff and Angie Besendorfer. They're the hired guns. It is the board of education that needs to be held accountable. How those people can hold their heads up when they have allowed CJ and Angie to run off more than 200 teachers in two years is beyond me. We shouldn't forget that everything they have done is by a 7-0 vote.They will get their names on all the new buildings, but when Joplin's history is written,they will be exposed for the damage they have done to this community.
Since July, I've been following what is going on in my home school. I say "home school" because I am from Joplin, went to Joplin for all twelve grades, and even stayed in town to become part of this community. However, from all of the stories I'm hearing from ALL levels of the school, I don't think I would feel "at home" at any of the schools anymore. I have close friends that live to teach. You heard me- live to teach- not anything less. These high quality teachers, no, citizens of the city, don't know how they can continue reporting to work day after day with such hostile work environments. School is supposed to reflect a safe, caring environment, especially these days when so many of our kids do not have a safe environment at home. But from what I hear and even what I have seen, certain parents run the show and the kids are untouchable-- not usually due to their skills and contributions to the school but because the administration humors the parents so lawsuits aren't threatened or the graduation rate doesn't suffer. Oh and Huff and Besendorfer have the ultimate say on anything and everything, removing power from individual schools, and doing what they see fit (really, what they consider will help them make a big story here at Joplin, even if not tried and tested anywhere else).
What happens in the meantime? Those other kids pay the price. Are they getting a top notch education that would cause any parent to cross state lines to bring their child here? Well, according to a close friend that teaches at the school, she had a student tell her that they think teachers are lazy and rely too much on technology. Did the teacher defend the fact that textbooks and other class resources have been limited or eliminated all together? Nope, she sat there and took it. That's the least of her insults in a day really. Kids can cuss at her and show up whenever they want. From talking to her, and asking her why she doesn't get support from her principals, she is quick to defend and say that she truly feels this goes all the way to the top. Everyone has a boss until you get to those two. And, she was quick to point out, "If you don't agree with Besendorfer and Huff, you are next to go." A principal doesn't have tenure per say- yearly contract. Not that tenure means anything for teachers either. Everyone that isn't one of the B-FFs (catch that- Bessie mixed with huff and shortened and so very fitting) is in survival mode- do what you can with what you can - and take your pride and stomp all over it- and take something you love and watch it get so distorted that it really doesn't resemble school, and don't dare complain about any of it, and when asked, follow the talking points given saying that R8land is such a dream to work in and you'd never consider going anywhere else... Unless your spouse of course gets a job somewhere else and drags you away (as implied by Huff earlier this summer when asked about the turnover rate).
Continued:
Joplin- please stand up for your teachers. Please stand up for your kids. If you don't have kids in the district, think about your education. Stand up for education. Stand up for allowing teachers to truly help shape the future members of the community-- educated and we'll-rounded members. Stand up to the upper administration "dream team" and ask them the tough, needed questions-- "how are you paying for these things?" "How do you explain the turnover rate?" "How do you justify what you're doing to the school system of thousands of students?" "How do you justify the lack of consideration you are showing for what this community needs?"
I truly believe that the BFF squad has got to go or they will continue running things with the "mean girls" attitude-- at all costs. Figuratively and unfortunately, realistically.
Audit. Audit. Audit. Fight this fight. If we don't stand up for these members of our community and these future members of our community, we might as we'll stop construction on all the schools and just send the students home.
Wake up Joplin!
Wake up school board!
Wake up DESE!
Wake up representatives!
These people have got to go--- or education will.
What's it going to take?
A. Graduates who really don't know even the basics
B. All of the "good" teachers and staff leaving either the district or the field altogether
C. A bankrupt school system
D. All of the above
Unfortunately, I feel I already see which way we are headed, Joplin, and that makes me not want to be here.
If I had a special education child or a struggling student, I would sue that district for every penny it's got (sounds like not too many left). It is not equitable to provide books and resources for the top flight kids and let the rest struggle on with limited resources. It doesn't even stand as separate but equal. It's a two-class school of haves and have nots. And it is not fair at all. Joplin lawyers need to get with it.
Face a fact people. The only critical comments concerning the Joplin School District appear to be limited to this website. For good or ill, the average Citizen of your District only know what they are told on the local Media outlets and all, repeat all, of those are heaping never ending praise upon Huff and the District. As long as there is a widespread perception that all is well within said District, the same people will continue doing exactly the same things over the next decade or so. If you want change, then you had best get your voices to the street.
Why isn't anyone posting their names? If you believe what you are writing ...USE YOUR NAME...
Anonymous means nothing.
Herb Kozak
Herb, the one word answer is retribution.
Even tho I am no longer in any way connected with R8 for several years, I am still very afraid of those people ...I don't even live in the district, but I know what is happening to tenured, 60 year old wonderful teachers...just nonprofessional actions in getting rid of "old" teachers...
What they don't want you to know is the JD a couple of years ago DID NOT HAVE A CAR. Yes, that is right, an administrator making $80,000 a year. She had to have other Admin come and pick her up to go to other meetings. Came into the building daily in the spring at 8:15-8:30. Then the TLC SS, last year dropped her kid off at 8:00 daily, and that was the first time she reported to school. Um, is contract time different for Admin and TLC?
Then one of the teachers that was let go was a first year teacher who was bullied by her 2 co teachers, gave the worst kids in the building, never got help from the TLC and was told that she should go be a paraprofessional rather then a teacher, by the principal. Then the teacher who was escorted out the building was set up by on of JD "spies" in the building because she "caused trouble" for JD. So the "spy" filled out a harassment form to get her out the rest of the year, so sad. Then the HR Henchman came over and quizzed each staff member about the building, many mentioned the same names who were causing trouble, JD, SS and other spies. However, they STILL promoted JD, who used school district time to go and have GASTRO BYPASS SURGERY. Nice 4-5 weeks off. Sweet deal for her!
Feel so much better about myself now to realize that I was not the only one escorted out of a school building ....I would like to see Tina what's her name escorted out of Joplin...she is a vicious, mean woman..all you have to do is look at her snarky, smug photo...now, she won't have Bessie to back her up & control her....her days are numbered ....
Is what the HR personnel did actually legal? Questioning co-workers behind her/his back ...omg....there seems to be a lawsuit lurking somewhere in the background for those treated as such...harrassment, intimidation, false accusations, etc. ....
You can't post your name. They will destroy you.
Typical of Turner to escalate simply firing teachers who don't want to do their jobs with allegedly some maniac off his meds killing twenty or so kids or teachers.
You whiners who don't want to fit in or work with your bosses in administration or the school board can find employment elsewhere where they are weaker in what they expect -- like you shutting up and doing your jobs as told. There isn't anywhere where some employer will let you do whatever you want as opposed to what he wants.
Wonder why Turner isn't a legitimate source of news or information?
3:56...you are a drone...what are you even talking about...you know nothing of what goes on behind closed doors or maybe you do ....there seems to be an extreme religious faction that wants to control Joplin schools & if you don't join in you are ostracized or fired...I saw this my first week in R8 ...I am very religious but when
Duenweg students .. All of them...joined hands under the principals direction. & prayed on world prayer day & we were all supposed to say a prayer, i passed,...I thought omg, I am in some fanatic religious group..
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