Game of Thrones at 32nd and Duquesne- the countdown to C. J. Huff's departure

Over and over again since things began turning against C. J. Huff over the past several months, the beleaguered Joplin R-8 superintendent assured those close to him in the bunker at 32nd and Duquesne that he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'll be in Joplin for years to come," he repeated on several occasions, including in conversations with the media.

No one believed him.

It was easier to believe when it was just a "disgruntled former employee" writing on a blog no one had ever heard of (but everyone in the school district was reading).

Then it was "that woman" when C. J. Huff's rubber stamp board president Jeff Flowers was beaten, and all of a sudden a new board member, Dr. Debbie Fort, was questioning out-of-control spending that eventually forced the district to borrow $45 million.

Even then, Huff said he wasn't going anywhere.

He fought back against his enemies. In the week before school started, Huff conducted what he called "The Whirlwind Tour." At each stop, he talked about the "disgruntled former employee." At some of the stops, he stopped short of using my name. At others, including at the three middle schools and at least two elementary schools, he talked about how I had provided pornographic material to 150 students. (He was referring, of course, to my book, No Child Left Alive, which during my hearing Huff's lawyer conceded that they had not even found one student who had ever read the book.)

Huff told the teachers and staff members that he did not have the time to deal with me. That was their responsibility. "He is not doing any damage to me," Huff said. "He is hurting you." And they were the ones who needed to take care of me and tell the public the truth about the wonderful things that were going on at Joplin Schools.

They were not buying it.

"More than half of what he told us was about the Turner Report," an elementary teacher told me. "It was creepy. We were expecting a pep talk to get us ready for the school year and instead he spent his time talking about what a horrible person you were.

"It was unprofessional."

Unprofessional would also be an excellent description for the steps he took to bring Debbie Fort under control. He unsuccessfully tried to enact a policy change which would eliminate the Finance Committee that reviews the district's bills before the board votes to approve their payment. It was that committee that had thwarted Huff's original budget plan, which called for teachers to receive an average $3 a week pay increase and no steps on the salary schedule.The teachers received their steps and immediately after, Huff began taking credit for the pay increase.

Huff also tried to prevent Dr. Fort from talking to the media, creating a scene at a recent meeting by having board attorney John Nicholas stop an interview being conducted by KZRG reporter Joe Lancello with an admonition that only the board president, Annie Sharp, could speak with the media.

Even with all of the scrutiny from Dr. Fort, Huff still insisted he was staying. The people he worked with were like a family to him and he had no plans for leaving his family.

The plans to leave, however, have been underway for months.And it has become critical that Huff leave now, before the state auditors have completed their investigation.

Huff Prepares to Leave Joplin

When Huff came to Joplin from Eldon, he told the Joplin Globe, "I hadn't looked for any other positions, although I had been approached. My brother called me and told me about the opening in Joplin, and asked if I was interested. After thinking about it, I thought that would be the only district I'm interested in."

Huff has maintained in conversations with the board, the media, and with his staff the same thing this time around. They have heard the stories about Huff applying for other jobs , but he has insisted that although people have contacted him, he has never sought another position.

And perhaps Huff has convinced himself that this is the case, as he has carefully parsed his words. After all, if someone calls him and asks him to apply for a position, he can talk with that person, he can even turn in paperwork, but if it falls through, he wasn't the one who was looking for another job.

Everybody wants C. J. Huff.

But he had to walk a tightrope for the past few months. It was especially important that he make sure the people who work closest with him had complete faith that he was going nowhere and that he was not worried about the audit.

If those who have followed his every order without question for the past few years had any idea he planned to take the last stage out of town, they might give thought to volunteering information to the auditors.

C. J. Huff had to make absolutely sure he had something lined up before he made it public.

How long the position of Commissioner of Education has been on Huff's radar is not certain. Some state sources have told the Turner Report that Huff's name has been at or near the top of the list since Chris Nicastro announced her retirement a few months back and perhaps even before that since Nicastro had become controversial during her last months on the job.

Huff was seen as a safe bet by Board President Peter Herschend, a friend of Huff's who served as a speaker of one of the Joplin R-8 opening day rallies for all staff..

Others have said that Huff was not Herschend's first selection and that a female superintendent from upstate had been tabbed and was scheduled to be named commissioner on October 27. The board backed away from the idea of hiring a new commissioner without conducting a nationwide search after it received heavy criticism in the media and from education officials across the state.

Herschend came to Joplin and met with Huff behind closed doors October 24.

Less than two weeks later, Huff made the surprise announcement that he was seeking the commissioner position, again making absolutely sure that everyone knew that he didn't ask for the position, "someone" nominated him for it and he decided to apply.

Even then, Huff's explanation that the position had come to him and that he was not even entertaining leaving Joplin still seemed plausible to those at 32nd and Duquesne.

And then Kim Vann quit.

The same Kim Vann, who served as C. J. Huff's right hand woman, announced she was leaving to become full-time CEO of Bright Futures USA. Word had already spread that the Missouri School Boards Association was going to provide office space in Columbia for Bright Futures USA. Columbia, of course, is just down the road from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Jefferson City. Melissa Randol, who will become head of MSBA next summer, sits on the board of Bright Futures USA.

With the departure of Kim Vann and a Bright Futures operation that has been explored carefully by state auditors, the word spread through the bunker that the boss was getting ready to make his exit.

Huff has been the only one to announce his candidacy for the commissioner position, which is not surprising, since that is something that most people would not turn in to a big production number. In this case, it was certain that the board and his staff would find about it and, as always, Huff needed to make sure to put his own spin on the candidacy.

While there are no guarantees that Huff will become commissioner, his announcement was the first step in his departure. If the State Board of Education does not select him, he will suddenly decide to accept another offer, from someone who approached him, naturally, since he does not plan on leaving Joplin.

When that happens, the board will accept his resignation.

After all, how can you say no to the hero of the Joplin Tornado?

And that is when the bloodbath will start.

Game of Thrones

One of the criticisms of C. J. Huff during his time at Eldon was that he had a tendency to get rid of older, more experienced staff and replace them with young, often far less competent people.

When Huff came to Joplin, he had three assistant superintendents, all of whom had more experience than he had.

By the end of his second year, the two most veteran administrators, Steve Doerr and Doug Domer, were out the door. While Huff became the face of the district to the media and concentrated on his primary mission of increasing graduation rates and later pushing his Bright Futures initiative, the actual job of running the school district was being done by the third assistant, Angie Besendorfer.

For the most part, Besendorfer hired the administrative staff and hired people who were loyal to her, people who began the system of creating the climate of fear that exists to this day in the Joplin R-8 School District.

Solid principals were replaced if they even questioned a Besendorfer mandate; teachers were run out of the district and reports surfaced of administration officials making calls to prospective employers of the people they had run out of the district and trying to keep those people from being hired.

The message became clear. If you wanted to work here, or anywhere else, you played ball with Angie Besendorfer.

That system worked well for C. J. Huff, who had developed a reputation for ruthlessness in Eldon. It had been difficult for him to be both the smiling face of the district and the boss who destroyed anyone who stood in his path.

Now, he could be the face of Bright Futures and the man who had his photo taken with every kindergarten student so someday they could grow up to be just like him.

C. J. Huff was Dr. Jekyll, while Angie Besendorfer relished playing Mrs Hyde.

Besendorfer installed "coaches' in each school, ostensibly to provide professional development, help, and encouragement for staff, but in actuality, most of them served as spies for Besendorfer and put themselves on the fast track for administrative openings.

Through the use of the spies (not all coaches threw themselves into the spying and those were the ones who were not put on the fast track for principal and assistant principal positions), Besendorfer was able to eliminate principals and teachers who did not "do things the Joplin way."

The climate of fear had been created.

The Joplin Tornado

The legend of the days after the Joplin Tornado, the one that has been spread by C. J. Huff during his "We Will Have School" tour is that he almost immediately determined that school would start on time 87 days after one-third of Joplin was destroyed.

In fact, for a time Huff was publicly talking about the possibility of Joplin students attending Webb City, Carl Junction, or Carthage schools.

And then came the famous speech when the superintendent, wearing his hard hat and his Joplin Eagles shirt declared "We Will Have School."

After that, Angie Besendorfer did all of the heavy lifting, while Huff continued to serve as the face of the school district and made sure, along with Kim Vann, that he completely controlled the message.

Two days after the tornado, Huff sent a recorded message to all employees that they were not to talk to the media or it would be considered insubordination and they could be fired. All media requests had to go through Kim Vann.

Besendorfer quickly arranged temporary schools to replace those that had been lost in the tornado and also began the push to create 21st Century Schools, or as she began saying shortly after 161 people lost their lives. "We can find a silver lining in a funnel cloud."

That was the beginning of a process that ended up with the school district incurring millions and millions of dollars worth of debt.

Besendorfer Leaves

When Angie Besendorfer left her job as superintendent of the Reeds Spring School District, she had just been offered a $112,000 a year contract for the next school year.

Besendorfer knew that the 2007-2008 school year might be her last at Reeds Spring if she stayed. Three board members had been elected with the express purpose of getting rid of her and it was foreseeable that the opponents would gain the majority at the next election.

So she took a $16,000 a year pay cut and became assistant superintendent at Joplin.

The following year, her salary was increased to $112,000.

Besendorfer prided herself on knowing the right time to leave. She could sense the unrest developing in the district. She had seen it before. She also was careful enough to keep enough documentation to ensure that she would have help in securing a new position and no problems for leaving during her contract.

She was offered the post of chancellor of Western Governors University of Missouri,thanks to the intervention of a WGU board member- C. J. Huff.

With Besendorfer gone, C. J. Huff no longer had anyone with any real administrative experience left.

C. J. Huff was on his own.

Alone Again, Naturally

With Besendorfer gone, C. J. Huff found himself surrounded by people whose loyalty was to the former assistant superintendent. A couple of them left for other jobs.

A leadership vacuum existed at 32nd and Duquesne and everyone vied to become the new power behind the throne.

Human resources director Tina Smith, with no educational background, put herself at the top of the list by taking care of Huff's enemies and by reworking policies to give Huff more power and to make the Board of Education more of a rubber stamp. She was rewarded with a promotion to chief operations officer and a corresponding pay increase.

Kim Vann continued to run the public relations part of Huff's job and also served as a shield to allow him to continue with his Bright Futures USA and with the ever-growing number of speeches he was making around the country.

Mike Johnson ran the building projects, making sure that C. J. Huff got whatever he wanted for his new showcase buildings.

The executive directors of elementary and secondary education, Jennifer Doshier, promoted after a disastrous year as principal at McKinley Elementary School, which ended with nearly the entire staff leaving, and Jason Cravens, continued to implement one new program after another, their primary jobs at times seeming to be presenting cheerful power points to the board at each meeting to show what wonderful things were going on in R-8 schools.

A new power player, who had arrived near the end of Besendorfer's time in Joplin, was Mark Barlass, director of special services. Barlass was brought in at $102,000 a year because the woman who had formerly done those duties, Lisa Orem, was not certified to handle special education (in fact, she was not even certified as an administrator). She remained with a different title and continued to make $101,000 year.

Barlass quickly developed a reputation for ruthlessness and began making some important friends, both in the district and in the community.

Huff quickly convinced himself that these people were capable of running a school district, which they have had to do without him as he hopscotches the country telling people how he declared, "We will have school."

Administration sources have told the Turner Report that Huff has been somewhat mercurial the past several months, changing almost on a dime from smiling and cheerful to angry and shouting.

The Turner Report has five confirmations of people who met with Huff in his office and in the space of an hour were subjected to both shouting and tears.

Top administration officials have learned to recognize the signals and have stayed clear of Huff at certain times. Others, who are working lower paying jobs at 32nd and Duquesne, have had to deal with a number of uncomfortable situations.

C. J. Huff's Departure

With the C. J. Huff era apparently down to its last few weeks or months, the atmosphere at 32nd and Duquesne is tense, sources have told the Turner Report.

The presence of the auditors has been unsettling, with people who have no responsibility for making decisions thinking carefully back over their time in the district trying to determine if they have been drawn in to doing something that was illegal, or if like C. J. Huff has said time after time, the audit will show nothing.

Some think it will be a relief when Huff is gone and the drama ends. Others think that may be just the beginning as those who are left scramble to improve their positions or begin hunting for new jobs.

The primary concern of many employees is that the C. J. Huff era will end with the school district in a deep hole that it could take years, perhaps decades, to escape.

Others are bitter that he could leave the Joplin R-8 School District millions of dollars in debt and become the most powerful educator in the state of Missouri.
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