Report: JHS teacher took pornographic photo with student

A report from KSN News

C. J. Huff in national magazine: My vision moved Joplin forward

(The following article is reprinted courtesy of Emergency Management magazine and can be found at this link.)

The EF5 tornado that hit Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2011, spent 32 minutes on the ground. In that brief period, the twister managed to inflict immense damage.

The storm, which featured winds exceeding 200 mph, killed 161 people and destroyed more than 25 percent of the city, including 7,000 homes and nearly 2,000 buildings. It was the deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1953.

And the twister didn’t spare Joplin schools. Twenty of the school district’s buildings were damaged or destroyed, causing more than $100 million in damage and leaving more than 4,000 students without a school to attend.

“The tornado seemed to take a direct hit on the schools,” said Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr. “But we were fortunate it happened on a Sunday afternoon and not on a school day.”

As the city battled shock and confusion in the wake of the disaster, Rohr, Joplin Schools Superintendent C.J. Huff and other city leaders concluded that moving ahead with plans to repair the city would be key to the healing process.

“I can’t even begin to describe the sights, sounds and smells of what I experienced,” said Huff. “It was an abysmal feeling. We were in a very bad place as a community. But you can’t just stay in that place. So we started talking about what the future would look like and making plans right away.”

Read about the three priorities that helped rebuild Joplin's schools.

A few days later, Huff announced his intention to the school board: Joplin schools would open again in time for the fall semester, which was just 84 days away.  

“Making that declaration was important for a number of reasons,” he said. “It created a vision and helped us to stop focusing on the despair. Instead, everyone started thinking about how we were going to pull together to get our schools back online in time for the next school year.”

The Search for Space

In all, Joplin lost more than 600,000 square feet of educational space. The process of finding temporary classrooms for 4,000 kids and repairing the damaged schools was at first overwhelming.

“Obviously you don’t have a game plan for something of this magnitude,” Huff said. “But we started by working with the local Chamber of Commerce, real estate agents and the Army Corps of Engineers to find large, open spaces that could be modified to meet our school needs.”

Among the first priorities was creating an interim high school. The devastated Joplin High, which had served 2,200 students just before the disaster, had been the city’s only high school.

“Not only was the high school important because of the number of students that attended, but also because, as high school students, these would be the last memories of their K-12 education,” Huff said. “We wanted to treat our kids right and make sure the facilities were high-quality, even though they were temporary.”

The city secured 100,000 square feet of vacant retail space at the north end of Joplin’s largest mall, once occupied by a Shopko department store. Corner Greer & Associates of Joplin was selected to retrofit the space and transform it into an educational area. Designers and contractors had just 55 business days to complete the job. They not only had to be fast, they also had to be creative in working with limitations. For example, the kitchen and science labs had to be housed in modular trailers outside the building.

Because of limited space at the mall facility, the Joplin School District chose to use the space only for juniors and seniors (approximately 1,100 students). Freshmen and sophomores were sent to Memorial Middle School, which wasn’t hit by the tornado. Other temporary facilities were constructed or retrofitted in various locations to accommodate the rest of Joplin’s students. Huff said the biggest challenge was retrofitting an 80,000-square-foot industrial warehouse that had nothing but a gravel floor — it didn’t even have windows, air conditioning or power.

“We did a lot of juggling to make all the puzzle pieces fit,” Huff said. “It was a full-court press for each of those 84 days.”

In the end, the city successfully found facilities for all its students and the new school year started on time.

New Beginnings

Once students were in their temporary facilities, city officials turned their attention to replacing what had been lost. Rebuilding Joplin schools had one distinct advantage — starting from scratch gave school officials an opportunity to improve both safety and the learning environment. Each of the new schools built or under construction has one or more FEMA-compliant EF5-rated tornado shelters.

“All of our schools will now have safe places for all the children,” Huff said. “That’s important, obviously from a safety perspective, but also from a mental health perspective. Our district has 7,747 kids, and about 40 percent of those kids lived in the direct path of the tornado. Most of them experienced an EF5 tornado up close and personal, and lost everything in the storm. They need that peace of mind, as do the parents. Post-traumatic stress is still very prevalent here.”

The shelters will also be open to the community 24/7. By the time all construction is complete this August, Joplin schools will have enough room to shelter approximately 15,000 people.

In addition to improving safety, Joplin officials took the opportunity to incorporate 21st-century learning environments into the new schools. District leaders engaged high school staff, students, administrators and parents to brainstorm new ideas. A team of administrators toured tech-savvy schools around the country, as well as innovative companies like Apple in Cupertino, Calif., to examine cutting-edge work environments.

“We didn’t take the traditional approach to school construction,” Huff said. “We are creating schools that have a very open environment and collaborative spaces.”

The new schools have moveable walls that allow educators to create flexible spaces where students can collaborate in large and small groups. In addition, small group “think tank” areas are located in all the new buildings.

Technology also plays a key role. Franklin Technology Center will be incorporated into the new Joplin High School, and thanks to a $1 million donation from the United Arab Emirates Embassy, all 2,200 Joplin high school students now have a dual-platform laptop computer. All new buildings are also wired for current and future technology opportunities.

From a curriculum perspective, Huff said they have developed a new Career Pathway framework for course delivery.

“In essence we will be creating interdisciplinary teams that are in the process of delivering rigorous, project-based instruction in the students’ areas of interest,” he said. “We have five broad career pathways kids can choose from.”

Care was also taken to ensure the new school buildings would be efficient. While they won’t be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rated due to the high cost of certification, the buildings were built with sustainability in mind, with everything from the materials used, to rain water collection for irrigation, to natural daylighting, and motion on/off switches in the classrooms. In addition, the new Joplin High School has a conduit in place to incorporate solar power once it becomes cost effective.

Moving Forward

Though the 2011 tornado left a permanent scar on Joplin, Huff and Rohr are thankful something good came out of the wreckage. In January 2014, students moved into two new elementary schools and a new middle school. The permanent high school will be complete in August. The schools will not only be stronger, safer and better equipped to handle another tornado should one occur, but they also have the distinction of being some of the most advanced learning spaces in the U.S.

“We took the design of our new schools very seriously, and we went above and beyond to research best practices from a learning standpoint as well as from a construction standpoint,” Huff said. “When all is said and done, we’ll have some pretty amazing new schools that are efficient, cost effective and innovative.”

This story was originally published by Emergency Management magazine

Video- East Middle School tornado shelter locked when residents arrived

A report from KOAM's Cailey Dougherty KOAM TV 7

Huff to Jet 14 audience: I have no shame whatsoever in how we handled our funds

When you have Jet 14 and endless reruns, you do not even need to accept money from the Joplin Progress Committee.

During the last 10 minutes of the Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting, which ended moments ago and was televised live on taxpayer-supported Jet 14, Superintendent C. J. Huff spent time praising the work done by the Board, including, of course (but not mentioned by name) Board President Jeff Flowers and Randy Steele, who happen to be running for re-election in the April 8 election.

The speech, something Huff said he just had to say, came at the end of the meeting and addressed many of the items that were brought up, and not handled well, by Flowers and Steele at last night's candidate forum.

Huff addressed the 8 to 10 percent fund balance, which has been criticized (and which one board member said a few moments ago may dip down to seven percent) and said the board had done what was necessary to keep school going and that everything was done for the children.

"I have no shame whatsoever in how we handled our funds," Huff said.

The superintendent indicated that you have to be on the inside to understand how school finances work. "It's hard for the community to understand."

The handling of the district's finances under the Huff Administration was a target of board candidates Jeff Koch and Debbie Fort during the candidate forum, even though Huff was never mentioned by name.

While Huff's impassioned defense of the board's handling of money centered around the completion of the new buildings and paying for facilities for the students to attend school while those buildings were under construction, the superintendent never mentioned the main areas of overspending that were attacked by Mrs. Fort and Koch.

Not once did he mention that staffing at the Central Administration office has tripled since he became superintendent, a fact that Mrs. Fort cited, and one which can be verified by examining Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education records.

 Nor did Huff talk about the increased travel, including nearly $100,000 hopscotching the nation on a thank-you tour. Jeff Flowers told the Joplin Globe last year that all of Huff's travel had been approved by the Board of Education.

Other travel has included trip after trip to one seminar and conference after another with many teachers missing numerous days. Mrs. Fort noted Monday night that one of her teachers was pulled out of class for 40 days, nearly one out of every four-and-a-half days of school, to attend administration-mandated seminars.

Also left unaddressed by Huff was the addition of layer after layer of lower-level administrators or quasi-administrators, such as the teaching/learning coaches, 21st Century coaches, and career pathway directors, none of whom are in the classroom working with children.

During the board forum, David Guilford and Mrs. Fort ripped into the board for its lack of transparency. Huff also addressed that criticism. "We're very transparent," Huff said, though he gave no examples to counter the criticisms leveled by Guilford and Mrs. Fort.

Huff attempted to give answers to questions that left Flowers and Steele stumped the previous evening.

Essentially, with an election that started with a slumber party at the Administration Building, with board members using their own keys to allow themselves and Administration-favored candidates to wait in a warm building, using district wireless technology and other amenities, and which is scheduled to end with a perfectly timed election morning thank-you breakfast at East Middle School for Bright Futures volunteers, C. J Huff has once again shown a willingness to use taxpayer-supported facilities to get what he wants.

Joplin Globe guest columnist: Morale low in Joplin R-8 because teachers know they are failures

In his latest effort to play a key role in the Joplin R-8 Board of Education race, frequent Joplin Globe guest columnist Anson Burlingame blames low morale and high turnover in the school district on incompetent teachers. In a section of his latest blog, Burlingame, directing his attack at board candidates Debbie Fort and Jeff Koch, makes the case that we should elect them since he describes the school district as a "failing organization" and who in the world would want to elect board candidates who have been there for the past eight years or ones who are backing the current administration:

My simple point, one learned over a life time of professional experience is that good performance, great performance, where it counts breeds superior morale. On the other hand, failing organizations have very low morale and people bail out of such organizations all the time, seeking greener grass on the other side of the fence.

I also note from past experience that when people complain about poor morale, they usually mean their own morale. And their morale is driven by a deep sense of failing to measure up to good standards. They are simply afraid of being fired for poor performance and lay that blame on supervisors, certainly not their own obvious shortcomings in a professional venue.

Burlingame appears to be labeling the Joplin R-8 School District as a "failing organization," but lays none of the blame on the administrators.

That goes along with some of the statements made by Superintendent C.J. Huff, who initially said that teachers were leaving the district because their spouses had found jobs elsewhere and when that ridiculous statement did not hold up, he began claiming that some of the teachers could not live up to his high standards. That is an interesting statement since many of those who have left were hired since Huff became superintendent.

Bright Futures schedules Election Day thank-you breakfast for volunteers

Superintendent C. J. Huff appears to be leaving no stone unturned in his effort to put the people he wants in the three open seats on the Joplin R-8 Board of Education.

When the filing period for the April election opened, a slumber party was arranged in the Administration Building at 32nd and Duquesne, circumventing filing rules and enabling Huff's favored candidates, incumbents Jeff Flowers and Randy Steele, Shawn McGrew, who has been heavily involved in Huff's Bright Futures organization, and Lynda Banwart, who spearheaded the successful bond issue drive that resulted in the construction of East Middle School, Irving Elementary School, Soaring Heights Elementary School, and the combined Joplin High School/Franklin Technical Center to receive favored places on the ballot. Studies have shown over and over that people who are uncertain about whom to vote for tend to vote for the first names. Thanks to the board members using their own keys to ensure they would be first in line, the order will read Flowers, McGrew, Steele, Banwart.

That was how the race for board of education began- with the Jeff Flowers/C. J. Huff group putting its thumbs on the scale of the election process.

It looks like the race will end in the same fashion.

The taxpayer-supported Bright Futures has scheduled a volunteer thank-you breakfast for 7:30 to 9 a.m. on election day, Tuesday, April 8.

The event not only will be funded by Bright Futures, but will be held in a facility that was also financed by the taxpayers, the new East Middle School.

It certainly has the appearance of a get-out-the-vote rally in everything except name.

Do these people have no shame?

C. J. Huff passed over for Springfield superintendent job

When former Monett Superintendent John Jungmann was selected to be the new superintendent for the Springfield School District, the candidate pool from which he was selected included at least one other superintendent well known in this area...and a former Missouri Superintendent of the Year, at that.

The Turner Report has confirmed that the Springfield School District gave serious consideration to Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff for the position.

Huff has been Joplin's superintendent since 2008, when he was hired to replace Dr. Jim Simpson, who took a position as superintendent in the Lindbergh School District in the St. Louis area. Before Huff was hired in Joplin, he was superintendent of the Eldon School District for four years and at one point early in his career was a principal in the Springfield School District.

Huff's path to the Superintendent of the Year honors started with his actions following the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, when he famously declared that school would open on time, despite the loss of six buildings in the tornado. In this video, he famously declares it again in front of a packed audience at the Wisconsin State Education Conference.

Jungmann, who worked his way through high school and college as a sports reporter, first at the Lamar Democrat, then working for me as sports eidtor of the short-lived Lamar Press newspaper. He began his teaching career at Lamar High School, became a principal and later superintendent at Monett and currently is in his first year as superintendent of the Liberty School District.

C. J. Huff to Wisconsin educators: I didn't ask my school board for permission; I just did it

The 2009 death of an 11-year-old Joplin boy during a "drinking contest" started by his aunt and uncle was featured prominently during a speech at the January 24 Wisconsin State Education Conference in Madison.

Though the speaker did not mention the child by name, he told the story of a child who was saddled with problems the moment he was born. 

"There are some kids," he said, introducing the story, "we must get away from their mothers at birth and dads."

The speaker, C. J. Huff, said during his first year as superintendent of the Joplin R-8 School District, "I had a third grade boy, great kid. His mom and dad were absent. I think His dad was in jail; his mom was always out partying. He was left in the care of his 'in quotes' aunt and uncle. That night, the aunt challenged him to a drinking contest. Jack Daniels."

Breaking into tears, Huff said, "He died in his sleep that night. It made headline in the paper, front page stuff. The aunt and uncle were convicted. Good kid, he was raising his brother and sister. He made a mistake, a fatal mistake."

Huff indicated that the story of the boy's death and the drinking game did not make much of a splash in Joplin. It was not even on the front page of the newspaper, he said. "Our community, even though it was in the paper one time did not know that story."

Huff said he felt he had to tell these kinds of stories to let people know what he and the people in the Joplin school district have to deal with every day.

If the boy had survived the drinking contest, Huff said, "if he had not died in his sleep, he would have been taking the state assessment test with a hangover."

Huff told the Wisconsin educators they had to tell the politicians the truth about what is happening with children.

During his one hour speech, Huff told the story of the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, and how he was proud of "the team I have and my school board. I will take credit for hiring some great people," he added.

Huff also recounted the story of his promise, made two days after the tornado, that school would start on time in the Joplin R-8 School District. "I didn't ask my school board for permission," he said. "I just did it."

He then talked about the work that was done to arrange temporary schools for those whose buildings were destroyed by the tornado.

After opening his presentation with stories about the tornado, Huff talked about the difference Bright Futures has made in the Joplin Schools and how much the graduation rate has gone up since he arrived in 2008.

He ended the speech, saying that though he had once considered the first day of the 2011-2012 school year to be his greatest day as an educator, it had been replaced by one he had just lived through one week earlier- the opening of the new East Middle School, Irving Elementary School, and Soaring Heights Elementary School.

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."

How Jeff Flowers and the Joplin R-8 Board of Education shield themselves from the people

(The following post originally ran on the August 22, 2013, Inside Joplin website. It came shortly after the Joplin Globe ran an article rubber stamping the hoops that the C. J. Huff Administration and the Joplin R-8 Board of Education make people go through in order to address problems.)

The Joplin Globe uncovered one of the biggest stories going on in Missouri education in its Sunday edition, but apparently never realized the importance of what it found.

In a story buried toward the back end of section A, the Globe proved that the people’s access to school boards all over this area (and it is also true across the state) is extremely limited and often non-existent.

Of course, that evidence came up in what appeared to be a Globe effort to show that the barriers the Joplin R-8 Board of Education and administration place in front of those who want to address the board are not unusual (everyone does it), so there is no problem.

Brent Ghan of the Missouri School Boards Association, which provides help to districts in forming policy, said that is the way things should be done.

That is the problem. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Joplin Globe to do any more stories on this astounding discovery. It is not going to happen. Now that the Globe is satisfied that the R-8 Board of Education is right in the hoops it requires citizens to jump through to talk to the board, it will likely not be mentioned again, or only mentioned in passing.

To review, this is what you have to do to talk to the board:

1. You have to register in advance.

2. You can only talk about items that are already on the agenda and are up for a vote.

3. Even if you meet those criteria, You still have to be approved by the president of the board of education and Superintendent C. J. Huff.

4. If you do manage to get on the agenda, you are limited to three minutes, which can be a daunting chore if you have an opposing point of view to something being pushed by an administrator who just took 20 minutes explaining a subject. And you will be cut off if you reach the three minutes.

Consequently, you do not hear many citizens addressing the board unless they have been invited to talk about something that will impress the audience that catches the meeting on Jet 14 or YouTube.

Does it make for faster, more organized meetings? Certainly. Those with problems and those who have dissenting views from those held by the board and administration could easily throw a monkey wrench in the way of perfect planning.

But contrary to the impression the board gives and one that is pushed by the Missouri School Boards Association, the Joplin R-8 Board of Education is not the board of directors of a Fortune 500 business. Its time belongs to the people.

In the Globe article, Board President Jeff Flowers noted that all of the board members’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses are listed and they are all accessible to the people. This is the same Jeff Flowers who told the district’s principals last spring that they were not to bring any problems to him. If they had problems, Flowers said, the principals were to take them to “that man,” referring to C. J. Huff. Statements were also made following the board’s recent retreat that that it had emerged determined not to get involved in day-to-day problems of parents and just stick to policy making.

It was noted in the Globe story that people with problems should take them through channels. That is the proper approach in most cases, but if you have talked with a teacher, a principal, and C. J. Huff and you are still not satisfied, you should have access to the Board of Education. And what if your problem is with C. J. Huff?

Undeniably, being on a board of education is a thankless job and those who volunteer their time and run for a seat should be commended. That being said, somewhere along the line, in an effort to remove the possibility of board members who meddle in everything and those who are pushing their own agendas, Missouri school boards, most especially the one in Joplin, have created clubs that meet once a month to rubber stamp whatever their administrators put before them.

The story that should have been in Sunday’s Joplin Globe was the start of a movement to take back the people’s agenda, something that should be taking place not only in Joplin, but across this state. The Globe noted that the movement was started by high school students, but what it failed to note, surprisingly, since the reporter interviewed some of the parents who attended last Friday night’s meeting, was the parental involvement.

Of course, if the involvement of parents had been mentioned, the Globe might have had to concede that there truly is a problem in the Joplin R-8 School District, and as we have seen in other recent articles, including the one on the large number of teachers who are leaving the district, the Globe wants to make sure that everyone knows things are running smoothly at 32nd and Duquesne.

Perhaps the Joplin R-8 Board of Education is not the only entity that needs to have its agenda examined.

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.

Joplin NEA endorses Debbie Fort, Jeff Koch, Randy Steele

After interviewing candidates last week, the Joplin chapter of the National Education Association (JNEA) endorsed incumbent Randy Steele and challengers Debbie Fort and Jeff Koch.

The endorsement of Steele comes as a surprise since JNEA members have had serious problems with the C. J. Huff Administration and every action recommended by Huff has been approved by a 7-0 vote, obviously including Steele.

Whether the JNEA or the state chapter (MNEA) will put any money into the race is unknown, Koch has already said he will not accept money from any group.

The other group that has endorsed, the Joplin Progress Committee endorsed Steele, Koch, Board President Jeff Flowers, Shawn McGrew, and Lynda Banwart. The committee contributed $1,000 to the campaigns of Steele, Flowers, McGrew, and Banwart.

Globe fails to run Burlingame's latest attack on council

Whether the editors at the Joplin Globe rejected his blast against the five City Council members or just had not published it yet and he became impatient is not clear, but Anson Burlingame's latest post debuted on his blog and not in the pages of the area's newspaper of record.

Burlingame addressed the issue at the beginning of his post:

Note: This blog was originally submitted for publication as a guest column in the Globe. Lacking such publication in the newspaper I now post it as a blog to reflect my continuing concerns about how Joplin city government is being grossly mismanaged by the Bloc of Five, council members Scearce, Rosenberg, Golden, Raney and Colbert-King.

The rest of the post features Burlingame's strongest commentary to date on the five City Council members who fired City Manager Mark Rohr:

This city is being mismanaged, grievously, by the City Council, meaning members Scearce, Rosenberg, Golden, Raney and Colbert-Kean. They are using their majority power to terminate a great leader and city employee, implication of gross misdeeds by one member of council and all sorts of other underhanded attempts to stall and even thwart the rebuilding effort ongoing in Joplin for almost now 3 years and previously approved by council.

Burlingame offers his remedy for the city's problems:

All five of those members need to be DISMISSED, run out of office, condemned by the public and all other legal forms expression of outrage for their actions. This is not democracy in action as Americans expect it. It is tyranny of the majority, a majority of good ole boys (and girls) that think they can just ride roughshod over a very angry city.

If the Joplin Globe truly vetoed Burlingame's guest column offering, it is a step in the right direction for a newspaper that has taken a hit with its coverage of city and Joplin R-8 issues.

The Globe also had to use considerable space today to counter a rumor that Burlingame helped promote that City Councilwoman Trisha Raney, one of Burlingame's Bloc of Five, is not a city resident. Though the Globe reporting totally put it to rest, I have a feeling the issue is not going to go away.

Burlingame appears to be easily swayed by those who project themselves as strong leaders. He has been wooed by master developer David Wallace (he has written about Wallace guiding him through the process) and he appears to have his views on local education spoon fed to him by C. J. Huff. 

While I would disagree with Burlingame's apparent stamp of approval of Wallace and Huff as strong leaders Rohr, from all appearances was a strong leader, particularly in the days immediately after the Joplin Tornado, but I still have a hard time believing that any group of "good ole boys" as Burlingame and others have characterized the five City Council members would have been naive enough to think that there would not be serious repercussions to firing a man widely viewed as a hero. Whatever was in the pages of the Loraine report that were not revealed to the public was enough in their view to merit his immediate dismissal. If the decision had been based on political considerations, Rohr would still be city manager because it was obvious that Rohr supporters were going to use the firing to attempt to keep council members Trisha Raney and Jack Golden from being re-elected.

When the content of those missing pages is finally revealed, we should find out more about why Tom Loraine's bill went over the $45,000 limit by so much. This has been the part of the story that has bothered me the most. An educated guess would be that once the Rohr information comes to light, whether we agree with it or not, we will have a better understanding of why the report cost so much.

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.

Long delayed, first signing for Scars from the Tornado set for March 29

The long-delayed first signing for my book Scars from the Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School, will be held 12 noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 29, at Vintage Stock on the Mall.

The book, which tells the story of Joplin East Middle School students' experiences with the May 22, 2011, tornado, and their first year in a warehouse school in a far corner of the school district, was published last March, but the first signing was never scheduled when Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff and other upper-level administrators claimed first that I had not received permission from the parents of students who contributed to the book and then after I proved that I had, that I had not received permission from administration. (East Middle School Principal Bud Sexson was fully aware of the project and kept informed from the first, even praising the project during a meeting with PTO officers in May 2012. Both PTO officers testified during my hearing about Sexson's praise and comments, while Sexson testified he had never heard of the book until March 2013. I testified about a number of occasions when I had updated Sexson on the book, none of which he seemed to recall.)

A first signing for Scars was finally scheduled for December 1, but was postponed due to inclement weather.

The plan is to have many of the students who contributed to the book, most of whom are now Joplin High School students, attend and sign copies of the book. More information will be provided later.

Court documents: R-8 official made gay slurs, said he wanted to bend principal over her desk

Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff is nothing if not a man of action.

When his custodial supervisor told him that he was being sexually harassed by Building, Grounds, and Transportation Director Mike Johnson, Huff said he was deeply concerned.

"Has he said anything about the principals?" Huff asked.

George Morris was concerned. This meeting, which took place September 9, 2008, was not Morris' idea. He felt uncomfortable talking about his immediate supervisor.

After a pause, Morris said, "Yes. "I heard Mike Johnson say that he would like to bend Marilyn Alley (former Stapleton Elementary principal) over his desk" That was one of many times Johnson had talked about Mrs. Alley, he added.

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.

Report from Columbia: Tears flow freely during "A Night With C. J. Huff"

The quick decisive actions that R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff took in the days after the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado, were the focus of his presentation at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia last week during the eagerly-awaited "Night with C. J. Huff."

The first thing Huff did after the tornado was strip all his employees of their job titles. He analyzed their strengths and weaknesses and created new job descriptions based on the overall strength of each team member. With Huff at the lead, the team moved forward as a cohesive unit instead of as individual faculty and administration.

The presentation was filled with emotion.

The 2013 Superintendent of the Year made the audience laugh, cry and evaluate the priorities their school currently maintains. He presented a slideshow that included pictures and videos of the devastation that the tornado left behind. He moved from topic to topic within the tragedy, talking calmly about the challenges that he and his community had to overcome.

Then he stopped and took a deep breath.

He tried not to, but eventually Huff began crying as he talked about the children who were injured during the storm. 

Huff also talked to the Columbians about the opening of three new schools last month:

Joplin opened three new schools this year on Jan. 9. A second-grade boy was walking down the halls on the first day of his brand new school when a teacher asked him a question.

“What do you think of the new building” she said, “Does it feel like school?”

He looked at her point blank and said, “No, it feels like happiness.”

On the road again- C. J. Huff to speak at National School PR luncheon in Baltimore

Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff will tell a group of his peers how to get what they want in their school districts when he speaks at a "superintendents-only" luncheon during the National School Public Relations Association Conference Monday, July 14, at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace in Baltimore, Md.

According to the advertising for the event, Huff is scheduled to speak at a "Special Superintendents' Luncheon," though there is no mention of what the difference is between a "special superintendent" and a regular one.

The Joplin superintendent will "share some of his advocacy experiences and ideas that superintendents may be able to adapt and adopt in their districts. Huff will lead a superintendent-only discussion on what advocacy tactics are working at the local level and what is still needed to build more support for local education programs and educators."

The cost to hear Huff and two other speakers is $249.

The seminar lasts from July 13-16 and those who sign up for the entire package will pay $715, if they pay in advance, $765 if they do not take advantage of the early bird special. If Huff is there for the entire seminar and takes along the district's public relations specialist, the cost is just $1,030 for the two of them. The district can send three for just $1,500 and will only have to pay $175 for each additional person above three.

And as we all have all learned in the six years since C. J. Huff became Joplin R-8 superintendent, you can never have enough PR.