MSBA's chief attorney, soon-to-be director sits on Bright Futures USA Board

The organization is not part of any government, it is not answerable to the people, yet the Missouri School Boards Association wields a great deal of power in the state by developing model policies for school boards and advising school boards and administrators.

School boards adopt policies having to do with conflicts of interest and certainly it is hard to imagine that the MSBA would ever advise a school board to allow a superintendent and one of his top employees to operate a not-for-profit organization out of the district's administration building.

While C. J. Huff and Kim Vann were running Bright Futures USA (with Vann reporting that she was working 20 hours per week and Huff three hours), there is no record of anyone from MSBA saying this is not a good idea.

Huff and Vann did not have to go far to ask for an opinion.

According to the biennial report filed September 25 with the Missouri Secretary of State's office, the Bright Futures USA Board of Directors includes Melissa Randol, (pictured) currently the general counsel for the Missouri School Boards Association. Randol, as of June 1, 2015, will be the MSBA's executive director.

The involvement of one of the MSBA's top officials, soon to be the top official with Bright Futures USA could be probelmatic for the organization, especially since Huff and Vann's operation of the not-for-profit and its impact on the school district and the supposedly completely separate Joplin Bright Futures has come under the scrutiny of the state auditors.

The following was reported in the September 10 Turner Report:

Whistle blowers have provided state auditors with troubling information about the operation of Bright Futures, Superintendent C. J. Huff's signature accomplishment during his time in the Joplin R-8 School District.

The Turner Report has confirmed that people both currently and previously connected with Bright Futures have turned over both documented and anecdotal information that raises questions about the handling of money by the organization, which was created to provide for the needs of poor students and to help increase the district graduation rate, and the lack of separation between the operations of Bright Futures Joplin, which is connected with the district, and Bright Futures USA, which is purportedly a separate entity,

Questions have been raised about the amount of time Huff and Bright Futures USA Executive Director Kim Vann are devoting to the non-profit national organization, which is supposedly not connected with the district, though it is headquartered in the Administration Building. Those questions include trips that Huff and Vann have made to promote Bright Futures USA during time when both are supposedly being paid by Joplin R-8 taxpayers.

Auditors have been told that Vann keeps two calendars for C. J. Huff, one, which is available to the media and citizens and is considered a public document, and another, which includes Huff's frequent speaking engagements, plus trips that are made to further the interests of Bright Futures USA, which is not available to the media or to the public.

Copies of 990 forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service by Bright Futures USA the past three years indicate that Huff says he spends three hours a week working for the non- profit, but ample evidence has been provided to auditors that would indicate that Huff's outside interests, including Bright Futures USA, are taking up far more of his time than that. The auditors have access to those forms.

The same 990 forms also indicate that Vann, who has a full-time job as the district's executive director of communications and community development, devotes 20 hours per week to Bright Futures USA.

The auditors have also heard troubling information about the handling of donations that poured into Bright Futures and into the school district following the May 22, 2011 Joplin Tornado.

Kim Vann's last day with the Joplin R-8 School District was Friday. She resigned to become full-time CEO of Bright Futures USA.

Reportedly, she will be operating out of office space arranged for her in Columbia by the Missouri School Boards Association.
***
For sale on Amazon- A collection of my writings on education and a rallying cry for teachers in an era in which it has become sport to tear them down.