The Joplin R-8 Board, C. J. Huff, and the spending spree that has endangered the school district

When I was in newspapers, we had a saying (and they still use it today) that you never want to bury the lead.

My friends at KZRG buried the lead earlier this week when they interviewed Joplin R-8 Board of Education member Randy Steele. Steele, who has been on the board throughout the tenure of Superintendent C. J. Huff, talked about the financial problems facing the school district and admitted, "We have overspent."

How have you overspent?

Why have you overspent?

Just how bad is the school district's financial condition?

How are we going to get out of this dire situation?

Those were questions that probably should have been asked, but there was no follow-up. The district is heading toward what its own strategic plan says will be an eight percent reserve this year, but will somehow (according to the same strategic plan, which is on the district's website) get the reserves up to 25 percent by 2015...less than 10 months from now.

Randy Steele volunteered that the district will seek grants. Steele may not realize it, in fact, it is clear he does not, but grants are a major part of what has put the district in its current financial trouble. Most of the grants are for new programs and call for new hires, almost of whom are not in the classroom. The biggest problem is that the grants run out, but the school district continues with its programs, absorbing them into the general revenue fund.

A grant started the spy network and administrator training ground called learning coaches. The grant long since ran out, but the school district has continued to pay for the positions and even added to them.

The district has added dozens of counselors to help students deal with problems following the tornado. At the Feb. 25 meeting, Huff said the grant for one of those programs would run out soon, and he gave every indication the district would find some way to pay for those.

The same mindset was evident in the R-8 School District's federal Race to the Top application, approved 7-0 by the board, including Steele and Board President Jeff Flowers, who are running for re-election.

Grants are not the way to get the district out of its precarious financial situation. Neither is selling the naming rights to every building and classroom in sight.

I detailed the spending in the November 17 Turner Report and things have not improved since then:

Over the past few months, the spending has remained at all-time high levels. At a time when the taxpayers are already paying nearly $100,000 a month to rent the mall high school and $36,000 a month for the East Middle School warehouse, the following expenditures have been reported.

-The board approved spending at least $30,000 to send 15 administrators to Washington, D. C. for a conference.

-An additional $15,000 was approved so 15 employees could update Facebook pages.

-Huff plunked down $2,783.88 of taxpayers' money to pay for a celebration banquet where he told the city's business leaders the good news about the 86 percent graduation rate- news, it might be added, that he had been aware of for weeks, but kept secret so as not to spoil the banquet.

-$334,000 for IPads for all district eighth graders, with plans to add sixth and seventh graders soon at a cost of another $650,000 to $700,000

-Nearly $2.2 million over the next four years for more 21st Century learning coaches, who primarily serve as the eyes and ears of upper administration in each of their schools, and at the present time are reportedly participating in all-day meetings one day a week at the administration building at 32nd and Duquesne. A lot of coaching gets done that way.

-Approximately $1.7 million over the next four years for the new career pathway directors. The district is now shuttling high school students into one of five career pathways. Each of the pathways has its own director, and the administration also added a sixth director to direct the directors. In the old days, these duties were taken care of by people called principals. Not under Dr. Besendorfer's 21st Century learning plan.

-The last three items were all part of the district's 2012 federal Race to the Top application, which was roundly rejected by the U. S. Department of Education, yet district taxpayers were handed the bill when the federal government refused to pass it along to all American taxpayers. Another item on that Race to the Top list was a request for money to pay all high school and middle school teachers to spend an extra non-contract hour at school every day for mentoring and meetings (under this administration, everything is about meetings). Movement is already being made in that direction. The district's estimated cost to pay the teachers to work an hour longer- $3.5 million over four years. That was the one district officials told the federal government they would not be able to cover with their regular budgeted money and would have to go to the Joplin R-8 taxpayers for a levy increase. That statement was made less than six months after voters, by a 46-vote margin, approved the largest bond issue, $62 million, in the district's history.

-$2,000 to motivational speaker Terri Tucker for a retreat in which she encouraged board members to ignore the day-to-day concerns of the public and listen only to their administrators. Ms. Tucker was a school board member at Reeds Spring who was voted out because she supported Dr. Besendorfer as superintendent and then she later wrote a letter to the Joplin Globe praising Besendorfer shortly after Besendorfer was hired six years ago.

-At least 10 district employees attended the National Career Pathways Network Conference at the Grant Hyatt Hotel in San Antonio where the overriding topic was "Linking Education and Economic Prosperity." Topics discussed at the conference included the following: "Building a Talent Pipeline That Connects Business with Future Employees," "Testing and Common Core Statements vs. the Classroom Environment," and "Using the Internet and Social Media to Collect Data." The district's representatives reportedly made a presentation on career pathways. The cost for registration for the conference (expenses not included) was $5,690.

-Six district officials presented at the National Career Academy Coalition Conference Oct. 24-27 in Phoenix on the subject of "Designing School As Unusual," which reportedly featured another explanation of how the district, to use a phrase that has been used often by Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer, has found a "silver lining in a funnel cloud" and built the kind of schools that it had always dreamed of creating. At this point, the records on the cost of that trip do not appear to be in the board documentation.

-A $20,000 device to allow administrators to make sure teachers are using enough technology in their lessons.

-$15,000 to put Wi-Fi on school buses

Perhaps I have been a bit too hard on the Board of Education. After all, they did approve a contingency plan to take care of servicing every need that C. J. Huff or Angie Besendorfer might have.

Joplin Schools will raise $1 million annually for the next 5 years to ensure the sustainability of district programs and initiatives for our kids. 

And their strategic plan promised to keep a balanced budget, unless, of course, they don't.

The annual budget proposal will be for an overall balanced budget unless reductions in reserves are planned due to capital projects in process or other board approved purposes.

That, of course, falls under the accounting principal of we will spend taxpayers' money wisely, unless there is something expensive we can buy and slap the tag 21 Century on it.

Financial accountability will be demonstrated through increased financial transparency by 
providing timely, meaningful and reliable information to the public.

Now that one is true. The board probably just never dreamed when it approved that part of the strategic plan that it would be the Turner Report that would have to provide that information.

Meanwhile, our board of education, with its never-ending string of 7-0 votes, has spent millions of dollars in taxpayers' money for today's version of $24 worth of trinkets.