Joplin R-8 Board President: The only person we hire is the superintendent

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education will vote Tuesday night on whether to give total power over hiring and firing school employees to Superintendent C. J. Huff.

Board President Annie Sharp thinks Huff already has that power.

During an interview last month with Judy Stiles of KGCS' Newsmakers program, Sharp said, "The only person we do hire is the superintendent."

Sharp indicated many people do not know this.

Many people do not know this because it is not true, even though it is certain Huff is happy that she thinks it is.

It is not true according to board policy and not according to the law, but Huff is attempting to make that change tomorrow night, by slipping that and a number of other policy revisions that concentrate more power in his hands into the consent agenda, which has routinely been passed 7-0 by the Board of Education without any discussion of the items.

Those items have included millions of dollars worth of contracts and change orders and major policy revisions. Consent agendas are designed to allow school boards, city councils. and other governmental panels to quickly dispose of routine items.

In the Huff Administration, it has been a way to push through items without bringing them up for public discussion during the televised board meetings and often to slip them past board members.

For the most part, consent agenda items have not been discussed at all until Debbie Fort joined the Board of Education. During the May, June, and July meetings, she has questioned items, including the long-term financing for the $8 million in "might-as-well" spending, which has appeared to irritate some of her fellow board members.

One thing is for sure, if Huff's brazen power grab succeeds, it will not be by a 7-0 vote, thanks to board member Dawn Sticklen's resignation. As noted earlier in the Turner Report, Sticklen resigned after transferring her daughter to the Webb City R-7 School District.

(Note: Annie Sharp's comments about the superintendent are included at the first of the video. She has some choice comments through the rest of it, as well.)