Besendorfer: I wasn't the one who sabotaged Larry Masters' job

One of former Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer's affirmative defenses to allegations by former Royal Heights Principal Larry Masters that her lies cost him his administrative position is to point the finger at other people.

In her response to Masters's wrongful discharge lawsuit, filed Feb. 27 in Jasper County Circuit Court, Besendorfer's attorney, Karl Blanchard, lists a number of defenses against Masters' claims including sovereign immunity, the public duty doctrine, and the all-purpose somebody else did it.

To the best knowledge and belief of defendant any decision by the Joplin School Board to rescind its offer to rehire plaintiff as a principal was based upon facts and information gathered and presented by individuals other than the defendant and that said facts and information justified the rescinsion of  his contract.

What exactly was said to the Joplin R-8 Board of Education to cause Masters, a veteran and respected principal, to lose his job, may never be known, thanks to a ruling by Judge David Dally that board member Jim Kimbrough could not talk about anything that occurred in a closed session. That ruling was made at the request of R-8 Attorney John Nicholas, who also received permission from Dally to sit in on depositions even though Masters' lawsuit is against Besendorfer and not the school district.

Masters' attorney appealed Dally's ruling and the Southern District Board of Appeals has set a deadline of March 24 for a response as to why the ruling should not be set aside.

Masters is one of many Joplin R-8 principals who have lost their jobs since the C. J. Huff-Angie Besendorfer regime took over the Joplin Schools. While the two top officials have stayed the same (until Ms. Besendorfer's resignation to become Western Governors University chancellor takes effect at the end of this month) and six of the seven Board of Education members have remained the same since C. J. Huff became superintendent in 2008 and allowed Ms. Besendorfer to handle the principals and teachers, only three principals remain and as noted earlier on the Turner Report, hundreds of teachers have either left or been shown the door, including more than 200 in the past two years.

According to the lawsuit, Masters, who had been Royal Heights principal since 2004, had already been offered a contract for the 2010-2011 school year when Ms. Besendorfer stepped in.

"Defendant intentionally interfered in Plaintiff's expectancy by making false representations about Plaintiff to the Joplin Schools Board of Education. Said representations included, but were not limited to, accusations that Plaintiff had violated the regulations governing administration of the MAP test."

Because of those "misrepresentations," the petition says, "The Board of Education voted on or about April 15, 2010, to rescind its motion to offer the contract of employment to the plaintiff."

The lawsuit lists no defendant other than Ms. Besendorfer. "There was no justification for (her) actions," the petition says.

"As a result of Defendant's actions, Plaintiff has suffered damages, including lost wages, mental and emotional distress."

Besendorfer's actions are referred to as "willful, wanton, and made with the knowledge that they would cause damage to Plaintiff>"

Masters' attorney, Raymond Lampert of Springfield, is asking that Masters receive "lost wages, mental and emotional damage, punitive damages, the costs of this action, and to grant such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper."

Alone in his bunker- the C. J. Huff story

It is  not a problem most of us will ever have to face.

Alone in his bunker at 32nd and Duquesne, C. J. Huff had a serious decision to make- Should he put "hero of the Joplin Tornado" at the top of his resume or should he put it somewhere slightly lower on the first page and show that he has remained a modest man in spite of all of the acclaim that has come his way since May 22, 2011?

People had been telling him for the past two years that he needed to cash in while he was still a hot commodity and they were not just talking about the frequent speeches he has made all across the country.

Other jobs were out there, other school districts, business possibilities, maybe even becoming a full-time motivational speaker. He had enjoyed the interaction with those who attended his presentations and the news clippings, all of which mentioned either that he had been brought to tears or he was at the brink of tears as he related the events of May 22 and the days afterward.

But C. J. Huff stayed in Joplin where he was loved. He had to be loved; his Bright Futures partners told him so.

Little by little, the hero facade that was erected around C. J. Huff after the tornado began fading away as he said things that reminded people of the days before May 22 when he was a mortal just like the rest of us.

-When more than 200 teachers left the district in two years, he said it was because their spouses had found jobs in other communities. That made sense. When the husbands get jobs, the little women have to follow.

-When he spent thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on a thank you tour at a time when district funds were dwindling. The people who helped Joplin would have appreciated phone calls and sincere thank-you letters just as much.

-When he, with the unanimous stamp of approval of the R-8 Board of Education, submitted a five-year strategic plan that called for the district reserves to fall to as low as eight percent, but to miraculously climb back up to 25 percent, even though no efforts were being made to curb spending.

-When he made a call to an employer and suggested it would not be a good idea that if an employee decided to run for Board of Education.

-When he made references to being a conservative and about conservatives having pitchforks and torches.

It has been one thing after another and it has not helped that during the past few months, he has had federal and state officials on his back about nagging paltry little things like proper use of Title I funds and questionable practices that led to higher graduation rates.

How could anyone question the graduation rates? Would the Joplin R-8 School District have spent $3,000 for a party for local businessman to announce an 85 percent graduation rate if it were not so?

C. J. Huff may have missed the best time to leave, but signs that he should be looking have been all around him for the past few months.

Though he was never really that close with Angie Besendorfer, she had been able to take care of the day-to-day management of the school district while Huff busied himself with the herculean tasks of increasing the graduation rates and continuing to build a Bright Futures empire.

When she resigned, all of a sudden Huff found himself surrounded by people whose chief loyalty was to Besendorfer and not to him. Even worse, many of the people were not qualified for the positions they held. Some lacked the proper degrees; most had little, if any experience, and many of the people who were there had not been hired because of any management ability or any outstanding knowledge of education, but because they were willing to do, without question, anything Besendorfer asked them to do. Huff needed a bulldog to do the kinds of things that Besendorfer had done and fortunately, he had one in human resources director Tina Smith. She was not really qualified to be a chief operating officer, but that approach had worked for Besendorfer, and this would enable him to continue to concentrate on graduation rates, Bright Futures and spreading the gospel of the Joplin Tornado across the nation.

Still, despite having someone else to handle the day-to-day operation of the school district, C. J. Huff has been a worried man. There are people running for the board of education who want to change the way he does things, maybe even force him out.
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How can you force out the hero of the Joplin Tornado?

The sunset of C. J. Huff's time with the Joplin R-8 School District seems to be at hand. He sits alone in his bunker, surrounded by people who have never been loyal to him, guiding hundreds of people who have been in fear of Angie Besendorfer, Mike Johnson, or Tina Smith.

The idea that he was a man of the people, who just happened to be surrounded by autocratic administrators who have ruled by keeping the district's employees in fear of losing their jobs, is no longer held. Even those who have been long-time supporters of Huff know that it is he, no one else, who is ultimately responsible for the waves of teachers and staff members who have left the district.

Huff can look out his door and see Bright Futures, but there are no bright futures on his horizon.

The Joplin R-8 Board, C. J. Huff, and the spending spree that has endangered the school district

When I was in newspapers, we had a saying (and they still use it today) that you never want to bury the lead.

My friends at KZRG buried the lead earlier this week when they interviewed Joplin R-8 Board of Education member Randy Steele. Steele, who has been on the board throughout the tenure of Superintendent C. J. Huff, talked about the financial problems facing the school district and admitted, "We have overspent."

How have you overspent?

Why have you overspent?

Just how bad is the school district's financial condition?

How are we going to get out of this dire situation?

Those were questions that probably should have been asked, but there was no follow-up. The district is heading toward what its own strategic plan says will be an eight percent reserve this year, but will somehow (according to the same strategic plan, which is on the district's website) get the reserves up to 25 percent by 2015...less than 10 months from now.

Randy Steele volunteered that the district will seek grants. Steele may not realize it, in fact, it is clear he does not, but grants are a major part of what has put the district in its current financial trouble. Most of the grants are for new programs and call for new hires, almost of whom are not in the classroom. The biggest problem is that the grants run out, but the school district continues with its programs, absorbing them into the general revenue fund.

A grant started the spy network and administrator training ground called learning coaches. The grant long since ran out, but the school district has continued to pay for the positions and even added to them.

The district has added dozens of counselors to help students deal with problems following the tornado. At the Feb. 25 meeting, Huff said the grant for one of those programs would run out soon, and he gave every indication the district would find some way to pay for those.

The same mindset was evident in the R-8 School District's federal Race to the Top application, approved 7-0 by the board, including Steele and Board President Jeff Flowers, who are running for re-election.

Grants are not the way to get the district out of its precarious financial situation. Neither is selling the naming rights to every building and classroom in sight.

I detailed the spending in the November 17 Turner Report and things have not improved since then:

Over the past few months, the spending has remained at all-time high levels. At a time when the taxpayers are already paying nearly $100,000 a month to rent the mall high school and $36,000 a month for the East Middle School warehouse, the following expenditures have been reported.

-The board approved spending at least $30,000 to send 15 administrators to Washington, D. C. for a conference.

-An additional $15,000 was approved so 15 employees could update Facebook pages.

-Huff plunked down $2,783.88 of taxpayers' money to pay for a celebration banquet where he told the city's business leaders the good news about the 86 percent graduation rate- news, it might be added, that he had been aware of for weeks, but kept secret so as not to spoil the banquet.

-$334,000 for IPads for all district eighth graders, with plans to add sixth and seventh graders soon at a cost of another $650,000 to $700,000

-Nearly $2.2 million over the next four years for more 21st Century learning coaches, who primarily serve as the eyes and ears of upper administration in each of their schools, and at the present time are reportedly participating in all-day meetings one day a week at the administration building at 32nd and Duquesne. A lot of coaching gets done that way.

-Approximately $1.7 million over the next four years for the new career pathway directors. The district is now shuttling high school students into one of five career pathways. Each of the pathways has its own director, and the administration also added a sixth director to direct the directors. In the old days, these duties were taken care of by people called principals. Not under Dr. Besendorfer's 21st Century learning plan.

-The last three items were all part of the district's 2012 federal Race to the Top application, which was roundly rejected by the U. S. Department of Education, yet district taxpayers were handed the bill when the federal government refused to pass it along to all American taxpayers. Another item on that Race to the Top list was a request for money to pay all high school and middle school teachers to spend an extra non-contract hour at school every day for mentoring and meetings (under this administration, everything is about meetings). Movement is already being made in that direction. The district's estimated cost to pay the teachers to work an hour longer- $3.5 million over four years. That was the one district officials told the federal government they would not be able to cover with their regular budgeted money and would have to go to the Joplin R-8 taxpayers for a levy increase. That statement was made less than six months after voters, by a 46-vote margin, approved the largest bond issue, $62 million, in the district's history.

-$2,000 to motivational speaker Terri Tucker for a retreat in which she encouraged board members to ignore the day-to-day concerns of the public and listen only to their administrators. Ms. Tucker was a school board member at Reeds Spring who was voted out because she supported Dr. Besendorfer as superintendent and then she later wrote a letter to the Joplin Globe praising Besendorfer shortly after Besendorfer was hired six years ago.

-At least 10 district employees attended the National Career Pathways Network Conference at the Grant Hyatt Hotel in San Antonio where the overriding topic was "Linking Education and Economic Prosperity." Topics discussed at the conference included the following: "Building a Talent Pipeline That Connects Business with Future Employees," "Testing and Common Core Statements vs. the Classroom Environment," and "Using the Internet and Social Media to Collect Data." The district's representatives reportedly made a presentation on career pathways. The cost for registration for the conference (expenses not included) was $5,690.

-Six district officials presented at the National Career Academy Coalition Conference Oct. 24-27 in Phoenix on the subject of "Designing School As Unusual," which reportedly featured another explanation of how the district, to use a phrase that has been used often by Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer, has found a "silver lining in a funnel cloud" and built the kind of schools that it had always dreamed of creating. At this point, the records on the cost of that trip do not appear to be in the board documentation.

-A $20,000 device to allow administrators to make sure teachers are using enough technology in their lessons.

-$15,000 to put Wi-Fi on school buses

Perhaps I have been a bit too hard on the Board of Education. After all, they did approve a contingency plan to take care of servicing every need that C. J. Huff or Angie Besendorfer might have.

Joplin Schools will raise $1 million annually for the next 5 years to ensure the sustainability of district programs and initiatives for our kids. 

And their strategic plan promised to keep a balanced budget, unless, of course, they don't.

The annual budget proposal will be for an overall balanced budget unless reductions in reserves are planned due to capital projects in process or other board approved purposes.

That, of course, falls under the accounting principal of we will spend taxpayers' money wisely, unless there is something expensive we can buy and slap the tag 21 Century on it.

Financial accountability will be demonstrated through increased financial transparency by 
providing timely, meaningful and reliable information to the public.

Now that one is true. The board probably just never dreamed when it approved that part of the strategic plan that it would be the Turner Report that would have to provide that information.

Meanwhile, our board of education, with its never-ending string of 7-0 votes, has spent millions of dollars in taxpayers' money for today's version of $24 worth of trinkets.

C. J. Huff in his own words- From tornado to bond issue, obsessed with his image

E-mails sent from Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff to his staff in the days following the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado through the passage of the bond issue in April of the following year show an obsession with image and control of the message, whether it be about the tornado, the bond issue, travel expenditures, or a lawsuit filed by an Atlanta company against the school district.

The e-mails also raise questions once again about the need for the destruction of the original East Middle School building and blame design changes made solely for appearance as a reason for increasing costs for the new East.

The concern for appearances is also spelled out by two e-mails sent by officials other than Huff that begin this post. The first, from his former Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer five weeks before the tornado, lets faculty know that even though students would not have to make up three snow days, the faculty would be required to attend three days of professional development so the taxpayers could get their money's worth. In the final paragraph of the e-mail, Besendorfer is clearly excited by the idea that the media would provide heavy coverage since Joplin was the only school district that was having its teachers make up the days.

The second e-mail, from Traci House five days after the tornado follows up on the warning C. J. Huff sent by a recorded message to teachers three days earlier- if you talk to the media, you are guilty of insubordination and you will be fired.

Besendorfer on new job: Now I can create better futures for families

In her introductory blog as the new chancellor of Western Governors University Missouri, former Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer talks about what she accomplished in Joplin and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.

This opportunity to serve as your chancellor has represented the closing of a chapter in my life: I’ve left the realm of K-12 education and leapt into higher education leadership. I bring with me many fond memories, and I leave many great friends. I must say that my heart is filled with great memories and the faces of students, families and educators who made my journey richer. 

That said, I am embracing this new chapter in my life leading the WGU Missouri community. I know I will be learning every day, which excites me because I still love learning. I know I will have many new experiences and I’ll make more friends (I’m keeping the old ones too). One thing that won’t change is my quest to use high-quality education to create better life opportunities for people in my home state of Missouri.

Joplin Progress Committee gives $4,000 to Slumber Party Four

The desperate push to continue the Joplin R-8 School District down its present path began with a slumber party at the administration building at 32nd and Duquesne and is now being continued with a generous helping of campaign cash from some of the city's business interests (and a surprising number from outside the city).

As noted earlier today, the Joplin Progress Committee has contributed $4,000 to the school board race, with the promise of more coming as we approach the April election.

Those who received the contributions were Board President Jeff Flowers, incumbent board member Randy Steele, Shawn McGrew, who has been closely associated with the Bright Futures program, and Lynda Banwart, who headed the committee that pushed successfully for the passage of the bond issue following the tornado.

It took half a year, but McKinley Elementary finally has certified principal

When the 2013-2014 school year started, McKinley Elementary School faced numerous challenges.

The school had an almost entirely new faculty, many of them younger, inexperienced teachers, in need of a veteran guiding hand.

What Joplin R-8 Administration provided was Terri Hart...a principal who was not even certified to be a principal.

With all of the certified principals available, many of whom would love an opportunity to work in one of the largest school districts in southwest Missouri, no one ever explained why Ms. Hart, who had been working in Administration office at 32nd and Duquesne, was the best choice.

The fall semester was a rocky one at McKinley Elementary, but one thing changed when students returned for classes in January.

For the first time since last May, they had a certified principal. Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) records indicate that Terri Hart was certified as a principal on December 18, 2013, four months after the school year began and a half year after she was named to the position.

The story of how Ms. Hart became McKinley principal was told in a Turner Report post from November 18,  a full month before Mrs. Hart was certified:

Things were not going well at Joplin's McKinley Elementary School during the 2012-2013 school year.

 Younger teachers were having a hard time dealing with Principal Jennifer Doshier's somewhat mercurial demands. They talked with a veteran teacher, who agreed they had reason to be concerned. The things she was hearing were serious enough that the veteran teacher called Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer, who suggested that the veteran teacher bring the younger teachers over to the administration building at 32nd and Duquesne to discuss the problems.

After the meeting started, the veteran teacher reassured Dr. Besendorfer that the teachers were not blowing the situation out of proportion.

Dr. Besendorfer offered a sympathetic ear, nodding as the teachers spoke, every once in a while commenting, "This is unbelievable," or "this should not be happening."

As the meeting closed, Dr. Besendorfer told the teachers not to worry. "I will take care of this."

As the veteran teacher and the younger ones left Dr. Besendorfer's office, for the first time in a long time they had a feeling that their jobs might just become a little more bearable.

Dr. Besendorfer, true to her word, took care of the situation. By the time her solution had been implemented, the younger teachers, none of whom had tenure, did not have their contracts renewed, and the veteran teacher, a woman well respected in the community, was escorted out of McKinley Elementary and placed on a paid leave of absence. Later, she was transferred to another job in the district. Probably the only thing that saved her position was that she had tenure and the district was already in the process of being embarrassed as it made efforts to fire another tenured teacher.

By the time, the year ended, nearly every teacher in McKinley Elementary had either been non-renewed or had resigned.

Angie Besendorfer did not forget about Principal Jennifer Doshier. Ms. Doshier was promoted to upper administration, in the recently created post of director of elementary education.

Meanwhile, Ms. Doshier's replacement, the principal who would have to deal with a completely new, highly inexperienced young faculty- is Terri Hart, who was moved from an upper administration ;position as curriculum coordinator...and who, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website, does not have a principal's certificate.

Parents of McKinley Elementary students should not worry about having such an inexperienced principal at the helm- she won't be here for long. She has told some people that her plan is to get a job at Pittsburg State University and others that she hopes to become a superintendent at a small school.

The one thing she makes sure everyone knows- McKinley Elementary is just a steppingstone.

Bye, bye, Buddy? R-8 Board to vote this month on removing East Middle School principal

When the Joplin R-8 Board of Education meets a week from Tuesday, it will vote on either firing East Middle School Principal Bud Sexson or accepting his resignation.

The choice was offered to Sexson, who has been principal at East, following a closed-door 5-2 vote last month when the board decided whether to retain principals, sources close to the board told the Turner Report. Sexson reportedly initially indicated he would fight to keep his job, but has not found much support in the system.

The move followed a couple of years of steady complaints concerning Sexson's lax discipline, heavy-handed implementation of standards-based grading, and his brusque manner of dealing with parents, the sources said.

Sexson reportedly came to the Joplin school system after being encouraged to apply for the East Middle School post by former Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer after Besendorfer forced veteran principal Ron Mitchell to resign following the 2009-2010 school year. Mitchell had been the principal at East during its first year, after serving seven years as South Middle School principal.

Sources: Two Joplin R-8 principals asked to resign

The Angie Besendorfer era in the Joplin R-8 School District has come to an end.

Though Superintendent C. J. Huff, because of his delegation of all things that resemble education, is still surrounded by Besendorfer loyalists, the R-8 Board of Education has reportedly taken steps to remove a couple of her lower-level hires.

Sources tell the Turner Report that two principals, both handpicked by the former assistant superintendent, and both of whom have been lightning rods for controversy, have been, or will soon be, asked to resign. If they do not resign, a vote to fire the principals will be taken at this month's board meeting.

The principals are both at the helm of schools that have been overwhelmed by discipline problems and have been under fire from parents, because of the discipline problems and because of poorly implemented, unwanted grading systems.

One source said that board members have had concerns about one of the principals for quite some time, particularly after the principal told them things about the school and about the teachers that turned out not to be true.

Questions have also been raised about the qualifications of the other principal.
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Weapons, abuse, student rampages: Are things really this bad at McKinley Elementary School?

Are things really this bad?

 When I wrote my novel No Child Left Alive, part of the reason was the concern that the lack of discipline in the schools, particularly at the high school and middle school levels, could have schools, in Joplin and across the nation headed for horrible consequences, as well as hurting the quality of the education we can provide.

In the Turner Report post from last night about the promotion of Joplin R-8 HR Director Tina Smith to the newly-created position of chief operations officer, I noted that several people had been promoted beyond their qualifications.

One of those was first-year McKinley Elementary Principal Terri Hart, whose ascension to the position was described in my post Angie Besendorfer and the Massacre at McKinley Elementary.

A reader wrote the following comment:

Here's a prime example of how promoting within helps the schools.

McKinley Elementary is a a very dangerous place this year. No one from admin. ever comes to help since they promoted one of their own to principal. Teachers are told to just reward the bad behavior and when that doesn't work, reward some more.

 Students are bringing guns, threats to kill /hurt teachers and students are made on a daily basis, teachers and staff are verbally abused everyday, students are afraid to go to class and yet they still have to go, classrooms are being destroyed, students aren't learning except how to escape the room when someone wants to go on a rampage.

 They tear smart-boards off the walls and hang from the projectors in the ceiling. They jump on tables, scream, cuss, and spit on teachers. And these are just a few things that are happening.

 The principal is Terri Hart, who is one of Besendorfer's buddies and worked in the admin building prior to being a principal. If you were to ask her and the admin building they would tell you there is no problem at McKinley. So let's keep on promoting everyone to every position they are not qualified for in the R-8 system.

I would be interested in hearing your comments.

Huff promotes Besendorfer's attack dog to top administrative post

The woman who has played a key role in the departure of hundreds of teachers from the Joplin R-8 School District in the past two years is moving up the administrative ladder.

With Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer leaving the district, instead of searching for someone who might be qualified to take over the duties, it appears that Superintendent C. J. Huff has instead promoted Besendorfer's attack dog, human resources director Tina Smith to the newly created post of chief operations officer.

The move comes at approximately the same time that the Turner Report published information from Division of Employment Security documents that indicate that Huff and Ms. Smith buried allegations of insurance fraud and violations of other laws against Mike Johnson, the former district director of buildings, grounds, and transportation and current head of building projects.

The documents also included an allegation that Ms. Smith hired a district employee to paint her house.

Ms. Smith has also worked hand-in-hand with Besendorfer to remove principals and teachers who either dared to oppose Besendorfer or who stood in the way of someone Besendorfer wanted promoted to certain positions, often making sure that they are escorted out of the building, sometimes by police officers, not only to humiliate them, but also to send a message to other employees.

The one thing Ms. Smith is not is a chief operations officer.

But then again, perhaps I am being a bit too harsh. Promoting someone who is not qualified has been a hallmark of the Huff Administration, always backed by 7-0 votes from the Board of Education.

Consider this segment from a post I wrote November 25.

Anyone who thought the Joplin R-8 School District saved money when two of its four superintendent positions were eliminated has not been looking into the growing number of $50,000 plus employees who work out of the Administration Building at 32nd and Duquesne.

During Jim Simpson's last year as superintendent, he had three assistants, Besendorfer, Doerr, and Domer. Paul Barr was CFO, a position he still holds, Angela Neria was in charge of technology, a position now held by Klista Rader, and Janet Earl ran special education.

Since that time, the following positions have been created:

-Director of Community Development- held by Kim Vann, who also serves as head of Bright Futures. Ms. Vann's background is not in education. She previously worked with the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce.

-Human Relations- Tina Smith, with no education background, handles the job that was previously done by Steve Doerr, a veteran educator.

-Director of Curriculum and Instruction- Sarah Stevens was brought up from Besendorfer's personal training ground of junior administrators, the teaching coaches, this year to take this position.

-Director of Elementary Education- Jennifer Doshier was rewarded for her part in the elimination of nearly every teacher during her final year as McKinley Elementary principal by being moved into the central office.

-Director of High School Instruction- Jason Cravens handles this position.

-Assistant Director of Special Services- Mark Barlass had to be hired for this position since his immediate superior, Director of Special Services Lisa Orem, is not certified in special education. In fact, she is not even certified as an administrator any more. DESE records indicate Orem's principal certificate expired more than two years ago, on Sept. 1, 2011, and she is only certified as an elementary teacher.

Director of Buildings- Michael Johnson handles this position.

Teaching/Learning Coaches and 21st Century Learning Coaches- In addition to having principals and assistant principals at each school, Besendorfer has added teaching/learning coaches, ostensibly to help teachers, but with the understanding that they are to serve as the eyes and ears of upper administration (Besendorfer) at each school. The coaches have weekly all-day sessions in which they report to upper administration about what is going on in their buildings. After the addition of laptops for all high school students in the fall of 2011, the district added four 21st Century coaches, and then requested money for seven more in its 2012 federal Race to the Top application. Despite the U. S. Department of Education's rejection of the request, the seven coaches were hired.

Career Pathways Directors- Many of us can remember a time when principals ran a school, and if the school was big enough, there might be an assistant principal or two. Joplin has a principal, three assistants, and six Career Pathways directors. The district, under the Besendorfer plan of moving every high school student into one of five Career Pathways, has one director in charge of each pathway, and then a director in charge of the directors. Again, all of this was included in the Race to the Top application, which was rejected by the federal government. And again, despite the large amount of money, the cost was absorbed by the local budget. Of the six Career Pathways directors, only two are educators. Like so many of the other positions that have been added, they have been given to either people who have no educational background or who are woefully underqualified for the positions they hold.

In this kind of atmosphere, it would be a surprise if Tina Smith didn't rise to the top.

Angie Besendorfer may be headed for Western Governors University, but her legacy will live on.

Jay Nixon: Angie Besendorfer is wonderful

Jay Nixon is lucky he is not running for anything this year.

Things I'm Thinking About, January 29

A few things that have been on my mind:

Say It Ain't So- I am hearing that the Joplin R-8 Board of Education, despite letting Angie Besendorfer out of her contract before the end of the year, has okayed paying her full salary, citing vacation days and unused sick leave. Surely, that cannot be the case and I am certain that those vacation days did not include the ones she used during the notorious fact finding furniture fiasco in Germany. I find it hard to believe that they would let someone out of a contract to take a better job. It certainly wouldn't happen if the person who wanted to break the contract was a classroom teacher.

Four Days Before the Super Bowl- I am so tired of people who won't say Super Bowl because they are scared to death of being sued by the NFL. Today, on KSN's 4 p.m. Living Well program they were doing a news story and called it the Big Game. It is the Super Bowl. So NFL, if you want to sue me, my address is in the book.

Lance Berkman retires- This new is probably coming two years too late, but Lance Berkman, who played for the Texas Rangers last year, has announced his retirement. St. Louis Cardinals fans will always remember him for the single that tied the sixth game of the 2011 World Series and set the stage for David Freeze's game-winning home run in the 11th inning.

Jennifer Penate- I don't know if Jennifer Penate, formerly a KSN reporter, lately anchoring the news on KODE, is going to continue in that position, or if the station is still looking for a permanent replacement for Tiffany Alaniz, but she has done well the last few weeks.

C. J. Huff on board approval of new JHS courses: This is a historic moment

By a unanimous vote, the Joplin R-8 Board of Education a few moments ago approved 138 new courses for Joplin High School.

"This is a historic moment for Joplin and for our nation," Superintendent C. J. Huff said.

Huff said he will present a copy of the new JHS course catalog to Gov. Jay Nixon Wednesday. "I will be handing the governor of Missouri our course handbook."

Nixon will be in Joplin for the ribbon-cutting at the new Soaring Heights Elementary School.

Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer said the new courses and the ideas, including students designing their own classes with the help of teachers, had enthusiastic backing from DESE (the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education).

"Nobody in the country is doing this," Besendorfer said. "This is groundbreaking."

All of the extra courses will not affect the district budget, Besendorfer said. "We're not going to break the bank."

Board member Annie Sharp asked, "Are we hiring more teachers?"

High School Principal Kerry Sachetta said there would be no need to hire any new teachers in the core areas, which would indicate that since the number of core classes are going to be increased, including diferent sections of all four years of English for students, depending on which of the five career pathways they chose, that Joplin High School teachers may be asked to triple or even quadruple their workload, or perhaps even more, since individual students are being encouraged to work with faculty members to create new classes.

The new Joplin High School: Students can design their own classes

If Joplin High School students have a course they really want to take and it is not offered, they can get together with a teacher and create it.

This new frontier in education is being explained to the Joplin R-8 Board of Education by High School Principal Kerry Sachetta as this is being written.

"Students can design courses with their teachers," Sachetta said, during a presentation in which he described the increasing number of classes that will be offered beginning this fall.

The new student-designed classes will also start at that time, Sachetta said.

"The students will have a personalized learning expeirence."

This kind of cafeteria-style class selection was also featured in a list of new or redesigned classes that was presented to the board this evening for its approval. Those courses were noted in a couple of Turner Report posts earlier today.

This new and different high school was a product of the Dream Sessions started by departing R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer shortly after the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, a time in which Besendorfer guided those who participated as they searched for "a silver lining in a funnel cloud."

Introducing Sachetta, Besendorfer talked about those dream sessions and compared them to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

"We had a dream, too," she said, noting that this new 21st Century high school would offer "the right thing for every student."

Besendorfer: My heart will always be in Joplin

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education said goodbye a few moments ago to Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer, who was attending her last meeting.

Dr. Besendorfer's resignation to become the new chancellor of Western Governors University Missouri will take effect at the end of this week.

""This has been a fabulous journey," Besendorfer said. "My heart will always be in Joplin."

The statement came a few moments after Board President Jeff Flowers and Superintendent C. J. Huff praised Besendorfer.

Flowers started by listing some recent honors the assistant superintendent had received, turned to Besendorfer and said, "We will miss you."

Flowers noted that only hours after the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, Besendorfer was on the phones making sure that displaced Joplin students would have buildings for school when August arrived.

Flowers and Huff hugged Besendorfer, after which Huff said, "She has played a huge role in the design of the new schools.

"Her legacy will live on these new buildings."

Nightmare in the making: Joplin R-8 to tailor freshman English classes to career paths

The full extent of what Joplin R-8 Administration plans to do with its career pathways will be unveiled tonight when the Board of Education meets at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building at 32nd and Duquesne.

The program sounded bad enough when it was first brought to the public's attention because of the idea that students would be steered into career pathways when they are in middle school, a time when hardly anyone is ready to determine a clear path for the future.

When Angie Besendorfer promoted career pathways, she talked about how students would have no problems if they elected to change their pathway and that seemed feasible. After all, college students change majors, many of them several times, but there are basic courses that everyone has to take. That makes it much easier to change majors as long as you have your core classes out of the way.

That concept is nothing like the cafeteria-style plan the Board of Education is expected to approve tonight.

Since I was an English teacher, allow me to use that area of study as an example.

Under the plan being submitted to the board, it is not a case of high school students taking English I, then English II, then perhaps moving into some more specialized classes during their junior and senior years.The curriculum experts (and I use the term loosely) at 32nd and Duquesne have decided to even gear the beginning English classes toward these career pathways.

The idea that there are basic literature and writing  instruction that all high school students should have has been tossed aside. In the past, it has been a basic choice of whether students are placed in an advanced class at the freshman level or basic, now even English will be designed for these career pathways.

One class that will be offered is English 1 HS&B, which is described in this fashion:

Human Services/Business will cover all Missouri Learning Standards for 9th Grade English with literature and writing selections that appeal to students with interests in human services and business-related areas.

And then you have English I STEM:

STEM will cover all Missouri Learning Standards for 9th Grade English with literature and writing selections that appeal to students with interests in science, technology, engineering, and math related areas.

There will also be English classes for arts and communication students and for pre-AP (advanced placement)

Naturally, the same divisions are included in new classes for sophomores.

Also on the list of classes that will be submitted to the board are some fascinating electives in the English area:

Students can enroll in such courses as Fantasy in Literature, Literature of War, Literature Through Film, Mystery Literature, and Mythology and Folklore.

Some non-English classes on the list for tonight include the following:

Sports Math: Probability and Statistics, Repertory Musical Theatre Class, Introduction to Yoga and Pilates, and Reputation Management.

The list of classes is long and can be found at this link.

The most worrisome thing is that no fiscal note was provided for all of these new classes. In other words, taxpayers have no idea how much they will cost. One thing for certain, high school teachers are going to be asked to do far more work than they have ever had to do before. This long, long laundry list of classes has to be taught by someone and odds are you are going to have teachers who have to prepare four or five different lesson plans each day and most of them for classes that have not existed before and do not have any real curriculum guidelines at the moment.

Of course, that is no problem for the highly paid curriculum specialists who came up with the ideas. They are not the ones who have to teach the classes.

The whistleblower letter I wrote three weeks before I was removed from the classroom

• 
  
• On the day before spring break in March 2013, following months of being leaned on by R-8 Administration about the contents of the Turner Report and shortly after East Middle School Principal Bud Sexson had begun asking questions about my book Scars from the Tornado, Sexson came into my classroom and said HR (Tina Smith) wanted my computer. He gave me no reason. I not only gave him the computer, but about 10 minutes after that, I took him another computer that I had used for school work. I had nothing to hide.
• I had heard enough horror stories about the way the Joplin R-8 School District Administration to know that this was not going to turn out well for me.Since it made no sense to go to Sexson, Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer or Superintendent C. J. Huff with the information I had, I decided, after careful deliberation to send the information I had to a member of the Joplin R-8 Board of Education.
• In this message, dated and sent March 16, 2013, a full 23 days before I was removed from the classroom and escorted out of the building in full view of my students and my fellow teachers. I told my story.

Anonymous commenter: Joplin R-8 employees whine too much; their bosses aren't any worse than anyone else's

I thought I would share this one with you. It is a response I just posted to the article earlier this week in which I relayed Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer's husband's phone message to me. 

You haven't hurt anyone with your blog. Only you have lost your job and your reputation.

 Everything you post comes off like sour grapes EXCEPT to those who have worked for and/or are currently employed by the current admin, those who wanted to work and weren't chosen or those who feel picked on by the admin.

 If you could come out of the bubble you would find the majority of all employees feel like they are unappreciated and treated unfairly by their bosses and/or the corp they work for. Most employees feel exactly like those in the R-8 system. Walmart employees? 

I work for one of the largest employers in Joplin and 95% of the employees have major gripes about many of the policies and pay scales in this company. The R-8 employees are no different than anyone else. They just seem to whine more. Probably from the amount of time they spend with children or teenagers. 

While I will acknowledge that most people have problems with their employers at one time or another, it is a gross exaggeration to say that most employees feel that way. I know many people who have great satisfaction with their jobs.

On the other hand, what this writer fails to point out is the difference between this job and most others. The private companies are not wasting millions of dollars in taxpayers' money nor are their bosses creating the type of atmosphere that is already becoming a negative factor in Joplin children's education.

And, as usual, I again have to note that while I have been writing about the different problems the Joplin R-8 Administration has caused or is causing for the past eight months or so, no one has been able to refute anything I have written.

Besendorfer to Turner: You're harassing my family, buddy

A few moments ago, my phone rang and when I picked it up, no one was there.

The phone rang again, moments later. I checked the Caller ID and it read "Ron Besendorfer."

After I said, "Hello," the person who I assume was Ron Besendorfer and sounded like him said, "You're harassing my family, buddy."

Besendorfer, of course, is the husband, at the moment, of Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer.

He only said a couple of more sentences, which I did not quite understand, but it was something in the nature of "came close to you today."

As I was about to respond, he hung up.

The calls (and the first one may have been from someone else, I did not have time to check the caller ID) came moments after I had been running some errands and buying groceries and supplies at different Joplin locations. I did not remember any particular close calls and I may have misunderstood  what he said at the end of the conversation.

I understood the message.