State investigators examining discrepancies, lack of transparency in Neosho Junior High building project

Investigators with the Missouri State Auditor's office are examining financial documents and communications connected to the construction of the Neosho Junior High School building project.

While the state auditor has made no decision on whether to launch a full-scale audit of the R-5 School District, the documents and events that have taken place over the life of the building project reveal a disturbing pattern of district officials and elected board members trying to prevent the public from learning that they failed to keep a promise to bring the project in within the $24 million bond issue.

Documents obtained from the R-5 District through Sunshine Law requests made by area citizens and provided to and verified by the Turner Report indicate the following:

-Though the project included numerous change orders, none of them appear to have been brought before the R-5 Board of Education.


-Major decisions concerning the project were made by Board President Steven Douglas (pictured below) and former president Brett Day without consulting with their fellow board members.

-At a time when district officials were being told that the project was coming in $1 million to $1.5 million under budget and that there was a possibility that they could use bond money to pay it off, Associate Superintendent Trish Wilson and district accountant Rob Singh, discovered that former Assistant Superintendent Tim Crawley and Project Manager Eric McCune of the Sapp Design Associates architectural firm had made mistakes in their calculations, leaving the project more than a half million dollars in the hole.

-Singh and three other employees in the finance office are no longer working for the district, while the fifth member of that department, Wilson, is reportedly on administrative leave. The five had a combined total of 47 years of service to the district.

In an e-mail to Superintendent Dan Decker dated October 6, 2015, Crawley wrote about how the project was coming in under budget. "Hopefully, any savings can be applied to possible optional plans for added space. I think we owe it to the voters to make sure we stay within that budget and get the final product with all furnishings for the amount we specified."

'This is awesome," Decker replied.

And the picture looked even brighter when the R-5 Board of Education was told at its January 17, 2017 meeting that the project was $1 million to $1.5 million under budget.


Based on those figures, the furniture allowance was increased from $700,000 to $1 million, graphics from $30,000 to $100,000 without board approval and a STEM workshop okayed for $100,000.

Less than two months later, the bottom fell out.

Wilson and Singh's calculations showed the junior high project was $552,367.68 over budget.

Crawley panicked. In a March 9, 2017 e-mail, he wrote, "There is simply no way this can happen as it is money we do not have."

The mistake was attributed to the failure by Crawley and project manager McCune to not include the $1.6 million in alternate options that had been approved.

An e-mail shows a meeting was held March 13, 2017 in which Day, Douglas, Decker, McCune, Crawley and Wilson discussed the situation. Other board members were reportedly never told about the meeting or the shortfall.

McCune was scheduled to update the board March 20 and e-mailed Decker that day, "I think I am on the board agenda tonight and I wanted to discuss with you and see how we wanted (to) approach the discussion with the board and in public."

Decker's answer, if any, was apparently not made by e-mail and was not included in the documentation. McCune did not attend the board meeting and the board, with the exception of Day and Douglas, reportedly remained unaware of the situation.

An exchange of e-mails between Decker and Michael Sapp of Sapp Design Associates shows that Sapp replaced McCune as project manager with John McNabb, though McCune remained as an assistant since he had guided the project for its entire existence.


Another crisis situation occurred when Carver Elementary librarian Tamie Williams, who was in charge of putting together the junior high library, e-mailed Wilson with information about the money that would be needed, including $162,000 for a book collection, including e-books, $5,000 for supplies and $5,000 for two databases. Williams' information also showed ways in which she had saved the district money by managing to work out deals to be able to share other databases with the high school and by going through a painstaking bidding process.

Wilson passed along the e-mail to Decker, whose response made it clear that Day and Douglas were calling the shots.

"We need to have a discussion with Brett and Steven if he is there after the construction meeting. We need to pin them down on what they desire us to do."

In May 2017, Day (pictured left) and Douglas ordered Decker to remove Crawley from any budgeting work after they asked him questions that he was unable to answer.

Wilson was ordered to begin attending the project meetings

In the following months, documents indicate the new project manager from Sapp, McNabb, continued to produce change orders, which were paid, but none of which was board approved, and with no money left in the bond fund contingency account, the changes had to be funded with money from other district accounts.

For instance, fiber wiring that had been installed improperly was replaced at a cost of $25,000 taken from the technology budget.

An e-mail was sent July 28, 2017 saying that all further change orders would come from the district and not from the designated junior high account since it had been closed at the end of June.

During August other items that had been inadvertently left out of the project continued to pop up, including the landscaping on the courtyard, a piano for the music room, and athletic equipment. All had to be paid out of other district accounts.

In an October 10, 2017 e-mail Decker told Douglas the alternates that he had not been told about by Crawley and McCune had put the budget over. The alternates totaled $1,656,000.

At a November 2 R-5 Board work session Douglas claimed the project had come in under budget. Though the bond issue was for $24 million, Douglas said $28 million had been budgeted and the project had come in at $27 million.

That amount was what was paid to Sapp Design Architects and Branco, which handled the construction.

It did not include other costs. Those were spread into other district accounts, enabling board members and district officials to claim they had kept their promise and brought in the junior high project under budget.

(Next: District auditors, the removal of the finance department and what a $150,000 donation will get you.)