Ignore the record: C. J. Huff strong supporter of raising teacher salaries

Another act of revisionist history has been taking place in the Joplin R-8 School District.

Last summer, Superintendent C. J. Huff initialed a budget submitted by CFO Paul Barr which called for teachers to receive a salary increase amounting to only one to three dollars per week. The plan called for no step increase for teachers. After the Board's Finance Committee got its hands on that plan, the teachers received their step increases and suddenly, since it was on camera, Huff changed his tune about teacher salaries. (He also has made efforts to get rid of the Finance Committee.)

Of course, he noted that he had been distracted over the past three years by the things that had to be done following the tornado.

Huff told the board that a committee was going to be put together, headed by COO Tina Smith, to make sure that district salaries will become more competitive.

Huff failed to mention that before he arrived, they were competitive.

Teachers received word last week that the work on salaries will begin Monday, November 3, during a meeting in the Administration Building. Not many specifics were provided.

During a time when teachers have gone years with either no increase or meager increases, the amount of high-salaried administrators and administrative positions has skyrocketed for the R-8 District.

That situation was addressed in the June 20 Turner Report:

Joplin R-8 teacher pay, which under the stewardship of C. J. Huff's predecessor, Jim Simpson, had moved to second in this area behind Webb City, now trails Webb City, Carl Junction, Neosho, and Carthage, to name a few.

But the darkness that has enveloped the teachers and staff in the Joplin school district is not everywhere. There is a building where people do not have to worry about making ends meet.

In the Administration bunker at 32nd and Duquesne, a state list provided annually by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from information supplied by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, shows 35 people who are listed as working in the central administration building pulling down annual salaries of $50,000 or more.

Six employees, including C. J. Huff, made more than $100,000 during the 2013-2014 school year.

The list does not include at least four other employees who are likely at the top of the pay scale- Chief Operating Officer Tina Smith, who was human relations director last year, CFO Paul Barr, Building Projects Director Mike Johnson and Director of Community Development Kim Vann.

Those administrators are not included because they are not educators so their salaries do not have to be submitted to the state.

The invitation that was sent to R-8 teachers reads as follows:

Joplin Schools Salary Study

AS PROMISED

Joplin Schools is implementing a study of the salary schedules for all employee classifications of the district. Employees interested in hearing an overview and timeline for the process are invited to attend a meeting to be held

Monday, November 3, 2014
4 p.m.
Joplin Schools Administration Building
ABC Conference Room

The message was sent by Tina Smith, chief operations officer.