He can hardly rest his weary head on his pillow at night because of state auditors and their incessant demands.
The only thing that makes his job bearable is his unflagging knowledge that he and the Board of Education are right and everyone else is wrong.
For the second straight year at the board meeting closest to election time, Huff commandeered a large segment of a televised board meeting to praise the Board of Education (whose president he would like to see elected for another three-year term April 7), and in so doing, take some credit for himself.
"The fund balance issue has been a non-issue since day one," Huff said, raising his voice. "There are school districts who would love to have the financial balance we have. We have done exactly the right thing for our kids.
"We've got to stop talking about this fund balance as a negative thing."
If the board had not spent the fund balance down to nearly nothing, Huff said, the public would have grown angry and there would be "a new superintendent and seven new board members."
Huff, who considers himself a fiscal conservative, added, "We've been reining in costs hard for the eight years I have been here."
That's the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard of. What reining in? All those extra employees? The turf and the mega-sized score board? Thinking stairs to nowhere? His ignorance and arrogance know no bounds. Of course he's tired of talking about it, because it puts him in a bad light that he can't adequately defend, and it's nowhere near as much fun as planning the cutting up of an $11,000 ribbon.
ReplyDeleteWell hell. If we'd known that spending the budget to nothing would get this jackass and his herd out of town, we'd have quit complaining and let them spend their hearts out.
ReplyDeleteIf it isn't a project or a program that will get Huff's picture on the news he is not interested. The idiot knows nothing about education. He likes to do projects so it looks like he's getting somewhere, and he has a pack of fools that are dumb enough to fall for it.
ReplyDeleteOh, we can stop talking about it, for sure, but that doesn't make the problem go away. You can dream big about what all you want, Idiot Man, but sooner or later that cash cow goes dry. She's dry as a bone now, and the BS has hit the fan. No more projects and new things until the money is restored and the current buildings in use are repaired.
ReplyDeleteHe has been "reining in cost. " Fewer teachers, fewer support staff, no pay increase, replace with less expensive new teachers, cut benefits, shoddy facility construction with inadequate maintenance funding, no textbooks, etc...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for him, we don't neef Paul Harvey to tell us the rest of the story.... bloated administration staff and pay, luxuries for the top, junkets, boondoggles, lawsuits, errors, extras, and fiscal mismanagement compounded by absence of fiscal constraint.
It appeared to me that CJ Huff had a televised temper tantrum. It was disturbing. Thank you Dr. Fort for once again asking the questions that must be asked. Even Mrs. Banwart was brave enough to ask a few questions. We have to get back to distinguishing between needs and wants. We didn't "need" to spend money to scrape Joplin R8 School District off the busses and replace it with Joplin Schools. Whatever it cost, that money should have gone to educational needs. I would also like to know what is happening with the Columbia safe room. We were told construction would begin and so far nothing. Is this another lie?
ReplyDeleteIf the fund balances are irrelevant, then give teachers the raises they deserve and make the salaries competitive with other districts of similar size. It is an absolute shame that so much money has been thrown around, yet Joplin pays thousands less per year to the teachers of whom they are supposedly so proud than many much smaller districts do in this area and throughout the state. Perhaps that nearly $200,000 a year Huff brings in blinds him to this fact. All of the expensive buildings and technology mean nothing without highly skilled and dedicated teachers.
ReplyDeleteI think that Puffy Huff made a good deal financially. It appears that he believes that $12,000 worth of mugs as a incentive for teachers and staff easily replaces salary increases and at least no insurance increases. There are teachers who (because of insurance increases) actually LOST money from a already inadequate pay scale. I also know that some teachers have taken on second jobs just to keep teaching and feed their families. Does Puffy Huff or any of the hoity-toity board members suffer from under payment? Not likely! Why is there no data to show if millions of dollars in technology is a benefit to students? Is none of the overpaid, under-educated and inexperienced admin. staff capable of collecting data? Oh of course it isn't necessary The test scores have been dropping for years. FOR SHAME---IT'S FOR THE KIDS
ReplyDeleteExactly, Dr. Huff, exactly. We are all concerned that the fund balance will become a negative thing. It's our money you are wasting, and we have no more to give. Listen to the voters and do as they say. You work for them, a fact that you have largely forgotten as you have propelled yourself to glory at our expense.
ReplyDeleteUm, Dr. Huff? I read that there audit many a time, and it appears to me that them there fund balances have gone mighty low. You might have predicted that there drop in funds, but that still don't make it right, now do it?
ReplyDeleteWe are not stupid, Dr. Huff, and we can look at balances and decide for ourselves whether or not they are appropriate and acceptable. They are neither. So please, resist the urge to raise your voice at the public's representative who has been asked to protect our interest. The best alternative for you at this moment is to go elsewhere. You are finished working...
For our kids
How can I watch the board meeting that took place? Is it on the web somewhere?
ReplyDeleteYou can watch the board meeting at this link: http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2015/03/watch-joplin-r-8-board-of-education.html
ReplyDeleteWill Rogers has something to say to and about CJ Huff:
ReplyDelete“A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people. ”
― Will Rogers
“If stupidity got us in this mess, how come it can't get us out.”
― Will Rogers
“All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.”
― Will Rogers
“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”
― Will Rogers
“Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
― Will Rogers