C. J. Huff makes secretive move to take administrative pay out of school board's hands

With no work session scheduled for the Tuesday meeting of the Joplin R-8 Board of Education, Superintendent C. J. Huff and his Chief Operations Officer, Tina Smith, are making a secretive power move that could cut the school board out of the loop when it comes to making decisions about them and their salaries and fringe benefits.

The move would also take control of the hiring of all support personnel out of the hands of the elected school board and put it in the hands of C. J. Huff.

The changes are buried in items in the board's consent agenda- which is supposed to be minor items that do not need any discussion. It has become a place where Huff buries items that he does not want to be discussed during the televised board meeting.

One such item was the approval of $8 million in long-term financing to cover the district's "might-as-well" spending spree that included artificial turf, press boxes, lights for all fields, four extra tennis courts, and a track. If the item had not been questioned by board member Debbie Fort, the public might have been deprived of most or all of the information about the financing.

The updating of the policies, board members were told during the July 22 meeting, is a necessity that had been put off since the May 22, 2011 tornado.

It appears to be more of an effort by C. J. Huff to put all of the power in his own hands.

In the board policy governing "School Board Powers and Duties," the following change is recommended:

A passage reading "The board is responsible for employing the professional and support staff necessary for carrying out the district's instructional program was changed to eliminate the words "and support staff." That would effectively cut the board out of the loop as far as having a say in the employment of bus drivers, secretaries, cafeteria workers, and others who do not have teaching certificates.

While the board would continue to maintain control over the faculty salary schedule, it would be hands off as far as Huff's administrative team is concerned under changes proposed by Huff and Smith.

A paragraph in the "Professional Staff Salary Schedule" that reads "The board will annually determine the salaries for the administrative staff," has been totally eliminated.

Huff's power grab extends to decisions involving teachers' extra duty pay and it will not be to the benefit of the teachers. Eliminated from the "Professional Staff Extra Duty" policy is the following paragraph:

"Extra duty assignments which make major demands on a teacher's time shall be compensated in accordance with an extra duty allowance salary schedule established annually by the Board." Another part which says the superintendent will make a list of such teachers and submit to the board for its approval is also stricken from the policy.

In the policy for "Support Staff Recruiting and Hiring," Huff takes the people's representatives, the Board of Education, completely out of the equation by eliminating the following passage:

"The superintendent will make recommendations for employment of support staff members for Board's approval. The board will employ personnel in accordance with law."

Now the board will not have to worry about that. The only law will be C. J. Huff.

(Later today- The reason for C. J. Huff's move to remove hiring and firing of support workers from the R-8 Board of Education)