Two others quit to force the selection of three board members to go to the Jasper County Commission. (Though one of them claimed he had been threatened, but has yet to produce any evidence of those threats.)
One only served six months.
Another one was tossed out by the voters, who preferred someone who said he would not be able to serve because he had taken another position of head of the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
Joplin R-8 taxpayers paid $114 to the Trophy House for plaques honoring former Superintendent C. J. Huff and former board members Mike Landis, Randy Steele, Shawn McGrew, Annie Sharp, and Jim Kimbrough. The bill is among those scheduled to be approved by the R-8 Board of Education when it meets 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Memorial Administration Building.
The plaques were presented June 25 at a reception.
No other bills for the reception are included on this month's list, so in all likelihood, more costs for the reception will be featured on next month's list.
Some other interesting bills this month:
-$206.20 to Bothwell-The Saxton Group for a meal for the Board of Education meeting
-$443,742.87 to P1 Group, which is suing the district for $7 million to cover costs incurred due to the push to get Joplin High School open in time for the 2014-2015 school year.
-$41,666.66 and $11,187.50 for rent to KIR Joplin LP and Northpark Mall for rent for the mall high school building while it is being restored to its former condition.
-$19,716.42 to Palmer Mediation for attempting to work out an agreement between the school district and P1 Group
-$46,674.42 to Polsinelli PC, which is representing the district in the P1 lawsuit.
-$4,915.47 to Missouri Southern State University for the rental of the Leggett & Platt Center Center for the Joplin High School Graduation.
-$499,040.80 to Apple Computers to lease MAC laptops for Joplin High School students.
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12 comments:
What happens if the money isn't approved?
$114 !! Are you kidding me...$114 !!! This has got to stop!
The problem I have is you add up all the items the district is paying for, over a million dollars, and you realize those payments are for items that don't make R8 students better. 50thou + for the mall, when do these payments stop? Lawsuits for electrical, seriously? Does every kid need a computer at school? I've heard Facebook is the most used site in the school, maybe a fun site but won't help on the ACT. These difficult issues are why we have a new board and Superintendent. i wish them well in their new positions make the best of it and we all celebrate with you!
No one can win. When the were on the board you wanted them gone. When the resign then they are "quitters" when that's exactly what you prefer.
I find "quitters" distasteful in this context, but it's literally accurate, and I can't think of a better pejorative word or short phrase to describe the guys who quit either because they were asked to actually do their job and were unable to defend their prior actions, and/or in an explicit scheme to invalidate the voters' will.
Neither motivation reflects well on them, and Huff's golden parachute is nothing short of obscene, he deserves this sort of opprobrium.
Remember....Jeff Koch voted for, endorsed and wrote a letter of recommendation in regards to Huff's golden parachute.
And the only reason Huff was able to negotiate it and know exactly what the District was going to do was because of Landis and Banwart keeping him informed of the supposed confidential negotiations between an employer and the employee - Huff knew all along and had Landis and Banwart there to make sure he got what he wanted. Good riddance, write it off as a bad experience that will take years to recover from, but he is gone...finally!
The payoff for Huff is bad but the letter of recommendation is worse.
Remember....Jeff Koch voted for, endorsed and wrote a letter of recommendation in regards to Huff's golden parachute.
The letter was a very small price to pay, and anyone who believes it, without checking with Google, or realizing what it means when someone "retires" with less than 30 days notice and not even an interim successor, deserves what they get if they hire Huff.
The golden parachute, obscene as I said above, but necessary, especially with the contract extension before the audit and election, cheap at the price to stop the bleeding, easily recovered if enough dead weight is let go at HQ, plus hopefully the spies in the schools. If it costs Koch reelection in two and a half years, it's still a small price to pay, and I'll bet he'll feel that way.
The real crime was the contract extension the soon to be lame duck board gave him.
The golden parachute is the result of a mediation, I guarantee it. And we will never hear the insides of it.
The golden parachute is the result of a mediation, I guarantee it. And we will never hear the insides of it.
Very possibly. While the details are no doubt delicious, for example Huff complaining about a lack of gratitude he was getting for saving us, I don't think we really need to know them when the bottom line is that Huff is out and no longer doing damage to the school district, at a price we can afford.
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