C. J. Huff: I'm ready to concentrate on running the school again

Superintendent C. J. Huff gave Joplin R-8 staff a hint Friday of one of the excuses he and the Board of Education likely gave to state auditors as reasons for the district's shortcomings.

As he provided a stirring speech to a captive audience at the conclusion of a professional development day, complete with a power point presentation on the Jumbotron the district bought for the Joplin High School gymnasium using funds from a federal job training grant, Huff said that nearly all of his time up to the October 3 ribbon cutting at the new JHS had been spent dealing with tornado recovery issues.

Now, Huff said, he is able to devote his time to normal school activities.

The superintendent did not mention  that his tornado recovery work took him many places during 2014 including the following:

Thursday, Jan. 23- keynote speaker for Wisconsin Association of School Boards

Thursday, Feb. 20- Columbia- An Evening With C. J. Huff- Council of PTAs

Tuesday, June 3- Bright Futures USA training session for Hazelwood Bright Futures

Monday,July 14, -Wednesday, July 16- National School Public Relations Association, Baltimore, Maryland. (panel discussion)

Thursday, July 17- Bright Futures USA presentation in Beaufort County, North Carolina

Tuesday, July 22 Tenth Annual Arkansas Safe Schools Conference, North Little Rock

Monday, August 11- Bright Futures USA morning speech in Pea Ridge, Arkansas

Friday, September 5- Mid-morning speech at Kansas City Rotary Convention

Thursday, September 25, Friday, September 26- Speeches in Chicago, Illinois

Friday, October 10- Keynote speaker at professional development for Elk Island Public School District, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada.

Friday, October 17- speaker at Poplar Bluff Bright Futures kickoff breakfast

Wednesday, November 5- keynote speaker for Independent Insurance Agents of Dallas

Tuesday,November 18- Saskatchewan School Boards Association

That's a lot of tornado recovery.
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It is easy to see why he had no time for normal school business.

Huff also claimed credit for teachers getting to wear bluejeans on Fridays, a similar statement to the one he has been making claiming credit for the wage and step increases R-8 teachers received thanks to the work of the Board's Finance Committee after Huff had submitted a budget which offered an extra $3 a week to teachers and no step increases.

During his speech, Huff shared the information that a survey taken of district employees by an outside company shows that an overwhelming majority of them are happy with their jobs, with their schools and with administration.

Of course, the surveys were taken by computer, and though teachers and staff were assured that their answers would be confidential, that assurance came from the same administration that paid Ronny Justin Myers $67,000 a year to handle the high school laptops and then hid the fact that he had spied on students through those very laptops and had pornographic photos of 10 Joplin High School girls.

The teachers also remembered other times when they were administered "confidential" surveys, then had principals approach them because they had not turned in those surveys yet.

The survey results indicate that the favorable rating  for C. J. Huff is just barely below that of Kim Jong-un during a recent confidential survey taken in North Korea and slightly above that of Vladimir Putin from a recent confidential survey taken in Russia.

Reportedly, eighty-three percent of those who gave high marks to the atmosphere at the school, would also have said that ice cream grows on trees if they thought that was what C. J. Huff wanted to hear.

The meeting Friday also included the spectacle of Joplin R-8 Board of Education President Anne Sharp enthusiastically leading the wave.

There is a possibility that soon Sharp, who has been on the board since miners frequented Joplin saloons, will lead the wave goodbye.