State auditors' exit meeting with R-8 Board set for next Tuesday

Barring a change in plans, Joplin R-8 Board members are scheduled to evaluate Superintendent C. J. Huff during a special closed meeting this afternoon...only six days before they have a closed door meeting with state auditors to go over a report which will undoubtedly contain much information about the way Huff has managed the school district since the May 22, 2011, tornado.

The exit interview allows the board to respond to any of the state auditors' findings. After that, the auditors return to Jefferson City and write the final report, which will include those responses.

While there is no law or even board policy that says the superintendent's evaluation cannot be delayed for a few days, at this point the evaluation, which is traditionally held in January, is still on tap for today.

Also scheduled is a discussion, to be held in open session, over the plan to move R-8 Administration into the former Memorial Middle School building. Sources have indicated to the Turner Report that the process of preparing the building had already begun and money spent toward that purpose before the board was told of the plan.