Huff authorized the spending of $15,000 to order a six-and-a-half mile ribbon with the message "Mission Accomplished" written on it for the opening ceremony.
Though the ribbon is being purchased with taxpayer money, Huff is sounding out area businesses about sponsoring the message and covering the cost.
The six and a half miles signifies the path that the tornado took when it cut a swath down 20th Street through Joplin and Duquesne at 5:41 p.m. on Sunday, May 22, 2011.
The plan, which is still in its initial stages would be for staff, students, and volunteers to hold the banner down 20th Street, setting up a photo op for the ages.
The gigantic ribbon would also mark an attempt by the Huff Administration to put the Joplin R-8 School District in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Of course, it would also require the cooperation of the City of Joplin and the Joplin Police Department, which would have to make arrangements to divert traffic during the time that it was necessary to set up and then to follow through with the photo op.
The "Mission Accomplished" theme has been used by the Huff Administration throughout the unveiling of the new schools this year, including the opening of East Middle School and Irving and Soaring Heights elementary schools in January.
C. J. Huff and his administrative and public relations team have been working on ways to make the opening of the new high school a media spectacular for months. During one meeting the idea was broached of inviting President Obama, who was here for the memorial service the week after the tornado and then spoke at the 2012 Joplin High School Graduation.
Whether that is still being pursued I have not been able to find out, but during one of the planning meetings regret was expressed that the president would probably not come here and would be more likely to go to Moore, Oklahoma, which was drawing attention away from Joplin by having an elementary school that was also destroyed by a tornado rebuilt and ready to open before Joplin High School.
39 comments:
Didn't we just take out a loan for 8 million dollars because we wre out of operational funds? And aren't we having an audit? Is this fool completely insane? Waste 15,000 dollars on something to clog up the landfill when there are so many more pressing needs?
Please, school board, get this loose cannon under control or send him down the road.
I've heard about that Moore comment before. That because they actually lost students in their building that they will get more attention. It made me sick when I was told about it last spring and it makes me sick now. Calloused people who make comments such as that one do not belong in our schools, or Bright Futures, whichever it was. These are the kind of people CJ wants working close to him. Pathetic and sick.
Outrageous and unacceptable
So who has to hold up this pretentious bit of fluff? Students? Volunteers? Anything for the camera. Everyone keep your tissues handy. CJ is going all out for this production.
You have got to be freaking kidding me. This after he lets go the resource officer and reading teachers.
Surely he won't ask donors to throw away 15 grand on a frivolous expenditure. How does that build good relationships? You can only hit the donors just so many times. There's surely something we need more than this. Fool.
Would this qualify for a hotline call to the auditor? I think I'll point this out. Of course, they'll be here to see it.
I'm guessing he didn't tell the board about this. I hope not, anyway. I'd hate to think they'd approve such disregard for the taxpayers of Joplin.
Here's a really crazy idea for opening day. Why not feature--wait for it--THE KIDS!!! Band, choir, cheerleaders, what have you. You know, the people the school is about as opposed to putting CJ in the limelight in hopes of getting more money or another job.
Is it pitchfork and lantern time yet?
Quite frankly, I am appalled. As a parent, I would rather my kids had books in their hands on the first day of school, not ribbon.
CJ is totally tone deaf. This might be an exciting time for the community, but it is also a somber moment for reflection. Two students were lost from that building. Many were injured, lost homes, and lost family members. Rather than making it a carnival for the cameras, I would think this would be the time to show restraint. A few good commemorative speeches, some music from the students, maybe at most a balloon release, and then cut the ribbon. It's not like we built a new school by choice. We built a new school because of a traumatic incident. And for those few teachers left from the old building, it has to be a time of mixed emotion. This should not be allowed to happen.
Here's a big idea. Open the doors, let the kids in, and go back to work. Good enough.
Please stop exploiting the children for your personal gain, Dr. Huff.
Most people have favorite numbers like 7 or 10. CJ's is 15,000. Fifteen thousand for wifi for buses, 15,000 to update Facebook. 15,000 to buy ribbon. It's a pattern. Add them all together and you have the price of an experienced master teacher, or a receptionist and a resource officer, or half the price of the audit.
Crap like this is why we need the audit. Crap like this is why CJ Huff should be fired tomorrow. He should not be allowed to participate in the opening of the school now. He should be gone by then.
The words "mission accomplished" have such a negative connotation now. This idea is not only a horrific waste of money and materials, it's tacky and trite.
The leadership team continues to embarrass the town.
Maybe the cost of this could be taken out of CJ's speaking fees garnered on the 14th and the 21st. That would be very kind of him to give back to the community from which he has taken so much.
I think this is an embarrassment for Joplin. It is ostentatious and inappropriate. This is another example of how out of touch Huff is. Every time I see another example of his selfishness and his obsession with his image and personal advancement, I think of his hypocritical "for the kids" nonsense he uses in his emails. He cares about himself first, himself second, and his admin and Bright Futures buddies third. I wish I could add the students and teachers to the list, but I have a hard time believing they enter his thoughts when making decisions about the district.
Well said!
Scene 1: In the Board Room of the Joplin Schools late one night.
There is a haze and a certain stench in the air; an empty plate of cookies and doughnuts sits on the table. Several members are rummaging through cabinets looking for more snacks.
And.... Action;
"Ok, how about this? What if, (giggles from around the table) we get this really long rope, or ribbon and stretch it out from one end of Joplin to the other? ( More giggles) We can say it signifies the length of the tornado on the ground. Kids and staff can hold on to the rope, and I bet we can get the news stations to cover the whole event. We'll look like stars for such a brilliant marketing ploy, and maybe the rest of the country will chip in dollars to make our kids feel special.(More giggles) OK? That's the plan. Now, who's up for some Waffle House?"
6:21
In addition to too many speeches, opening day usually features sound dimension, cheerleaders and the band. The band is usually the best part.
I can see wanting something special for first day, but the kids just need to start school. It's a big deal to have the schools open. Given the atmosphere right now, it might be better to work in a more subtle manner.
As a former employee of Joplin R-8 and a parent of a former and a current student, I've watched this school district slide down a slippery slope of destruction, and CJ Huff is the land mine lying in wait at the bottom! The man is a time bomb about to explode, and the fallout is going to irradiate every living being within 100 mile radius. He is toxic and the sooner the board figures this out and sends him packing, the better off we'll all be. The only "Mission Accomplished" is that he looks as stupid as George W. Bush!
It took 6.5 miles of ribbon for him to do it, but CJ has finally hung himself with his idiotic priorities.
This is just a stupid idea. I wonder which of the members of the R8 brain trust thought of it, and even more, why it wasn't shot down as soon as it was uttered. This type of bravado is why other districts have begun to look down on Joplin. The whole world donated to us in our time of need, and what wast the result? Corruption, waste, greed, and failed academics.
It's time to get the right priorities back, and that cannot be done as long as the fool in charge prefers ribbon to reading teachers. Enough already, school board. Do your job.
Are you kidding me? This is the most silly thing
I do not have the courage to say how I really feel. Because kids may read this blog. I will say that I am soooooooo ashamed to be associated with this town and it's school district reputation.
It's well past time to keep invoking the tornado for PR points. It's incredibly tone-deaf to use the phrase "Mission Accomplished" as others have pointed out. Why not "Dewey Defeats Truman?"
All of you who have foolishly assumed that you know what's going on with the ribbon should be ashamed. This ribbon was the idea of a group of high school kids who have done the whole thing - including raise the money to purchase it. THEY wanted to beat the standing record in the Guinness Book of World Records and have done everything to make it happen. It never ceases to amaze me how the ASSumptions of people and this blog DIVIDE our community. You all really ought to repent for this childish behavior and move away. If you're so miserable, I'm quite sure there are plenty of other towns full of angry little people who would love to commiserate with you.
8:02
Was there no responsible adult to tell these enthusiastic students that such an act is environmentally wasteful, not a good use of donations, and not very tasteful? Just becuase they thought of it doesn't mean they should be indulged. And if that is the case, how about providing some documentation--receipts?
Perhaps the responsible adults thought these kids have been to hell and back, so let them have their moment of fame and to make this an event that they will remember for a lifetime! Perhaps they didn't care what all the naysayers would think and thought it best to honor the kids who deserve to make this event their own. Sometimes it isn't about what people think, it REALLY IS about kids.
If you want documentation, march on down to the finance department and submit your sunshine law request. Be clear, though, that they have nothing to prove to this angry mob. Perhaps an investigative reporter and his following should ASK QUESTIONS prior to making assumptions and smearing the district. If you love this town and this district as so many of you say you do (ie. the reason you say all this horrible stuff is to call the people to rise up and do something), then perhaps you would work to be part of the solution, rather than just DIVIDING our community. It's downright shameful.
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Isaac Asimov
8:02/8:07/8:38/8:46 appears to be the same person. Always coming in here with faulty logic and premises, emotionally-charged scattershot statements meant to intimidate people. Your belief in intimidation as a tool is compensatory for shortcomings in critical thinking; it's like you're trying to perform surgery with a shotgun instead of a scalpel, and your self-importance keeps you from seeing that.
The article linked hardly establishes legal precedent, and the alleged defamation in that case is of a very different quality. Here at this blog we are talking about a public figure in a position of government and the criticisms and speculations are very much related to those issues. Given the greater precedent in the U.S. for freedom of the press, satire, etc., it would be very unusual for that to result in successful prosecution for defamation; what I learned is that where there is doubt that doubt is usually given. In Missouri I think you also need to be able to prove that damage was caused, which means that Huff would have to both show the damage and be able to unambiguously show that it was caused by the writings on this blog. That's not as easy as your bias would lead you to believe.
Question, where did you go to school? Just curious. Western Governors?
One could march down to the finance department and search for documentation all day long, but since the ribbon wasn't in the budget, evidence will not be found there. Would you mind specifying which student group took this on? Because there were no students at the planning meeting when this was suggested. It was suggested by adults from central office or Bright Futures, if there's a difference between those two entities.
Some of us did our homework.
It has been two days since Mr. Turner posted this. If kids came up with this idea, I am quite sure they would have already contacted him and let him know that he was wrong. This is just the latest in a long series of missteps by CJ Huff. It looks like he needs to start signing his messages, "Blame the kids," instead of "For the Kids." CJ Huff is an embarrassment to Joplin.
I think that if what 8:02 says is true, then a new post should be run apologizing for jumping to conclusions. I don't like feeling like I am mislead. If this was Huff's idea, then I think it is inappropriate and an unnecessary attention grab, but it changes things entirely if this was truly a student lead idea. There are plenty of problems with the district, but I think it is important to report only facts and let people decide how to interpret them.
@ 8:07, Interesting case you cited. As it turns out, the three people suing were critical of a corrupt and ineffective school administration on a blog. In retaliation those three people became victims of defamation and it turns out the people defaming them were the very school administrators who were being criticized.
Regarding the ribbon; whether the idea came from a group of high school students or CJ Huff is irrelevant. It's a bad idea on so many levels. If the students came up with the idea, CJ had to approve it and he should have known better.
What is amazing is how the banner plan does not show up on internet searches I just made today.
Can anyone post a link to this other than Turner Report related blog posts? From google or sites not indexed by google.
Does this banner plan really exist and if it does and if it was proposed and funded by school kids then why is it an apparent internet secret?
Obviously, this story must have had more negative repercussions for C.J. Huff than some of my others, considering the fact that everyone just decided two days after it was written to start attacking it. The plan exists and students have nothing whatsoever to do with it, according to my sources. As the earlier commenter said, if students were involved, I would have either known about it before I wrote it or one of them would have contacted me in the last two days since thousands of people have read the post.
Assuming this is true, and after having done my homework I am certain it is, will the Board not be culpable if they do not address this somehow? What will the auditor think coming in here if this is allowed to go on as planned, but that the Board is also a part of the problem? It seems like now would be the time to change direction.
"Perhaps the people of Joplin who have used this blog to post libelous statements against REAL PEOPLE should be forewarned about the legal precedent that has been set in our State. All of the people whom you have defamed have EVERY RIGHT to pursue legal action against you. I hope I get to sit back and watch when it happens."
Google Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis.
Google Streisand Effect.
This would probably establish a special example of the Streisand Effect in action due to the history associated with the well known Bush quote "Mission Accomplished."
(Insert Inspector Harry Callahan quote here).
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