Top 10 reasons for the Joplin School Board Fiasco
1) CJ Huff - for turning into a self-indulgent, delusional small-time tyrant who became so brazen that he openly undermined the credibility of a school board candidate and sitting board member. Gosh CJ, what if she wins? Can you work with a school board that isn't a rubber stamp for everything you want? Guess not.
2) Jeff Koch, Debbie Fort, Jennifer Martucci - who, after winning legitimate seats on the board through a fair election, inappropriately and publicly campaigned for the appointment of Jim Kimbrough (after he had independently decided he was finished). You managed to offend some folks you could have worked with, and now look what happened.
3) Jim Kimbrough - the namby-pamby former board member who decided not to run for re-election only to change his mind after his buds got elected. If you'd had the balls to run in the first place, none of this would have happened.
4) Randy Steele - for being the poster boy for clueless public service. Steele is just "proud to be there, anywhere". Aw, shucks! When it was time to fill the vacant seat, he folded up like a cheap lawn chair and then resigned because somebody tried to influence his position. Imagine. This guy has been lost in the funhouse for years and is unlikely to ever figured out who has been manipulating him the entire time.
5) Mike Landis - for being a mean-spirited, pompous ass who knows nothing about education and doesn't care to learn. The board was just an opportunity to pad his paltry resume and do that civic thing, or whatever. His best decision while serving was to quit.
6) Linda Banwart - easily offended opportunist who felt that she was being mistreated but was somehow elected VP of the board by the very people she accused of mistreating her. How does that work? Also, major negative points for exercising her new-found accidental veto power over anything the BOE must do to function. Me, compromise in order to have a functioning school board? I'm an independent woman who is quite capable of choosing who I will allow to bully me, by God! Banwart may actually win the bad guy point total for pushing the county commission solution, which she no doubt came up with all by herself.
7) County Commission - for over-stepping their boundaries and establishing an appointment process that isn't a process and is at best extra-legal in this case. If somebody doesn't get an injunction to halt this nonsense, I'll be surprised.
8) Missouri School Board Association - whose crack legal team has provided, uh, nothing of any help. Your school board association dues dollars asleep at the wheel.
9) DESE - too wrapped up in their own mess to notice anything that far away.
10) The Joplin Globe - for taking nice young reporters and editing their stories in order to agree with the newspapers motto: "Revenue trumps honesty"
I wholeheartedly age with every point made!
ReplyDeleteWell THAT sums it up quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree with #2:
ReplyDeleteJeff Koch, Debbie Fort, Jennifer Martucci - who, after winning legitimate seats on the board through a fair election, inappropriately and publicly campaigned for the appointment of Jim Kimbrough
I'm simply not aware of any campaigning they did that was inappropriate; any specifics?
(after he had independently decided he was finished).
Deciding not to run for another 3 year term on the board is not the same as Kimbrough being drafted to come back for an 1 year term to fill in a vacancy no one including himself expected to exist when he made the first decision.
You managed to offend some folks you could have worked with, and now look what happened.
They offended some folks they "could" have worked with when they outmaneuvered Huff and company's attempt to prevent Koch from being seated. I'm hard pressed to think of anyone they could have worked with that they offended into not working with them.
Impressive summary of the cast of characters involved: detailed, organized and grammatically correct explanation. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteJim Kimbrough publicly endorsed and encouraged people to vote for Lane Roberts, knowing that he wouldn't fill the seat. He knew what he was doing all along.
ReplyDelete8:19 - Valid points on who they "could" have worked with, but there's the planned swearing-in that should have been requested before (or at least at the same time as) Koch's explanation of the thought process. Public is looking for more Sunshine and less polarization. Hope that's still possible; Joplin deserves better.
ReplyDeleteYou are fools if you believe these points. This Board is the only hope you whine bags have! SO to the person who wrote this.. Comment back to this if you have any guts! I will set you straight!
ReplyDeleteGo home Huff, you're drunk.
DeleteThe commenter must feel pretty lonely sitting way up there on his lofty pedestal. One question...where was he/she when the three remaining Board members were signing their names and putting their funds and time on the line to run for an unpaid office? If you are so knowledgeable, why aren't you running the show? I totally agree with the majority of what you wrote...it's the smug all-knowing tenor I find offensive. Why not let the Board members do the work they were elected to do, and where they had made a strong beginning toward accomplishing? Huff is gone..check! Finances are being questioned...check! My goodness, it has only been a couple of months, and in the midst of the drama caused by Steele, Landis and Banwart.
ReplyDelete8:19 if you can't see that this new board is at fault for this fiasco then you're blind.
ReplyDelete5:30 PM: At fault only in the sense that they didn't roll over and continue to rubber stamp whatever the Huff regime wanted, violating the pledges they made in campaigning for their board seats.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with the results: Huff is out, and those who supported him have further exposed themselves for what they are, which should make the next election go well.