Globe Editorial: We support all of C. J. Huff and Mark Rohr's decisions

At some point during the past few years, the men and women who make up the Joplin Globe's Editorial Board decided to shed their coats, ties, and pantsuits, and exchanged them for cheerleader uniforms and pom-pons.

Whatever the chief administrators for the city of Joplin and the Joplin R-8 School District decide to do is the approach that is right, no matter what the consequences.

The Globe has every right to express that opinion on its editorial pages; that is what the First Amendment is all about.

But when you use your news pages to back up your editorial page views, you are doing a disservice to your readers and to the truth.

Things I'm Thinking About- December 31

Return of the Locksmith- Last week, I wrote about the curious incident in the Price Cutter parking lot when I stopped the man from getting into my car. Of course, the man turned out to be a locksmith, something I kept from the reader until the end. Today, the locksmith was getting into my car at my invitation. For the first time since I bought my car in 2007, I locked my keys in the car while I was leaving copies of Let Teachers Teach at Always Buying Books.

My First Pension Check- I don't know whether this is the step that actually signals my retirement, but my first pension check was direct-deposited today. I can think of a few other people associated with Joplin education who should have been forced into early retirement, but then I have been writing about that for the last several months.

Former Joplin Globe Reporter at Denver Post- As I was reading an article on yesterday's Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department news conference on the recent school shooting, I noticed the byline belonged to Sadie Gurman, who if memory serves correctly, worked for the Joplin Globe covering statehouse news while she was a student and then worked for the newspaper for a short whlie after that. A link to her reporting can be found on the Room 210 Education site.

Working On Solving Pop-Up Ad Problem- I wasn't aware until this afternoon that some readers, especially ones who are visiting my blogs on their IPads, have been getting popup ads. I made some adjustments and hopefully, that problem is solved. The advertising is needed to help make the websites pay (I am not naive enough to think that there are going to be a large number of people paying for the voluntary subscriptions I have available), but it is the growing traffic to the websites that makes them pay and if these pop-up ads, which I did not know about it until today, are running away readers, then they are not going to be on the site. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the Turner Report, Inside Joplin, or any other other sites.

 Obamacare Coverage Starts Tomorrow- In less than four hours, I switch from having to pay $407 a month to the Joplin School District to be retained on its health insurance plan to being covered under the Affordable Care Act. While I am confident my insurance is going to work well for me, anything has to be better than what I was getting. I refilled two prescriptions at the 15th Street Wal-Mart yesterday and discovered that my $407, which was supposed to be providing me with the same coverage I had as a teacher, did not pay a cent because of some kind of problem. It wasn't  a great amount, so I simply covered it, and just filed it away as another bad experience caused by Joplin R-8 Administration.

2013 in Review- Federal report: East Middle School received only "minor damage" in tornado

(From November 2013)

For the past two and a half years, students and staff at East Middle School have made the best of education in a glorified warehouse, often arriving at the building only to be greeted by the aroma from the neighboring dog food factory.

Their concerts, plays, and athletic contests are held at other buildings and for their assemblies they meet in the commons area and sit on the floor.

 In less than seven weeks, the warehouse will no longer serve as a home away from home for East students, some of whom have been there since the day it first opened in August 2011. (Note: The accompanying FEMA photo was taken at ceremonies opening the warehouse East Middle School.)

2013 in Review- IPads for all 6th, 7th graders, more highly paid administrators on Joplin Race to the Top request

(From October 26, 2013)

IPads for all sixth and seventh graders; an extra hour's work every day for classroom teachers, and more $50,000+ administrators are on the nearly $10 million wish list Joplin R-8 Administration compiled for its Race to the Top application.

The administrators indicate that they will seek a tax levy increase to continue to pay the teachers for the extra non-contract work time, which would be used for mentoring and meetings, after the Race to the Top grant period expires.

The money that would be needed to continue paying the 21st Century learning coaches and career path coordinators administrators are seeking would be absorbed into the district's budget when the federal money is spent, according to the application.

2013 in Review: C. J. Huff $175,000 in 2012-2013, child porn criminal gets $67K

(From October 15, 2013)

The salaries for Joplin R-8 Central Administration shows 34 people who made $50,000 or more during the 2012-2013 school year led by Superintendent C. J. Huff’s $175,000. The 10th highest salary at 32nd and Duquesne belonged to technology employee Ronny Justin Myers who was paid $67,069 for duties that included monitoring high school students’ laptops and resulted in pornographic photos of 10 Joplin students winding up on his laptop.

Myers pleaded guilty earlier this year to child pornography charges and is awaiting sentencing.

Joplin R-8 Central Administration Salaries for 2012-2013

(taken from the central database set up by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

2013 in Review- Besendorfer to Joplin teaching/learning coaches: You are not administrators or spies

(From October 2013)

With the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in possession of information that indicates the Joplin R-8 School District may be misusing Title I and IDEA funds to pay teaching/learning coaches, Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer decided to make sure that the coaches knew what their jobs were and what to say to anyone who just happens to ask them about those jobs.

A Sept. 18 Turner Report post, DESE investigating the Joplin R-8 School District, included the following passage:

While the specifics of the investigation are still being kept hush-hush, people who have taken their concerns to the state department say state officials have examined documents that raise questions about the administration's use of Title I and IDEA funds, both federal programs, but both of which also operate under strict state guidelines.

2013 in Review: Huff, Besendorfer recommend German company receive single bidder contract for East Middle School furniture

(From September 26, 2013)

When Joplin R-8 administrators, seeking to furnish new buildings, allowed furniture companies to foot the bill for trips to their headquarters last year, it seemed to be a breach of ethics, to say the least.

The most controversial of those trips was one to the parent headquarters in Germany of V/S, a company which has its American headquarters in Charlotte, N. C.

Things I'm Thinking About, Monday, December 30

A few brief items and thoughts-

-No More Fox Sports Radio in Joplin- When 1450 AM suddenly junked its programming and began playing Christmas music 24 hours a day a few weeks back, I figured the days of the station being a Fox Sports affiliate were numbered. When I tuned in to the station today it was something called "The Dove" and was playing all gospel music. I enjoyed the Fox Sports programming on occasion, though I never did understand why anyone would think that the Texas Rangers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and University of Oklahoma would draw huge audiences. Those interested in Fox Sports Radio can catch it on KSEK-AM, 1340 from Pittsburg.

-Problems With East Middle School and Soaring Heights- The story I am hearing from the Joplin R-8 School District is that there are already problems with the new East Middle School and Soaring Heights Elementary School. Teachers did not receive keys to get into the building when they were supposed to (and they are scheduled to move in next week), construction is not done, and leaks have developed.

-Ronny Justin Myers in Illinois Prison- The man at the center of what should have been the scandal story of the year (except the Joplin Globe and other area media ignored it) will be spending the next 17 years at a Pekin, Illinois, prison. Ronny Justin Myers, who was pulling down $67,000 a year from the Joplin R-8 School District for his job in the technology department, has settled into the medium security prison. Myers, if you remember, is the one who was arrested when he showed up at Northpark Mall to have sex with an underage girl was was greeted by the police. He later admitted that he had pornographic photos on his laptop of 10 Joplin High School students, information that was never told to parents, students, or the Board of Education, leaving questions unanswered about whether anyone should still be concerned about student and teacher privacy.

First Copies of Let Teachers Teach Arrive- The UPS truck arrived Friday with the first shipment of copies of my book of education essays Let Teachers Teach. I am not planning on having any official signing for the book until February or March and I only ordered a few copies, but I am planning on leaving some at Always Buying Books and Changing Hands Book  Shoppe in Joplin.

2013 in Review- Joplin School District to pay $15,000 for people to update Facebook pages

(From July 2013)
The public relations push of the Joplin R-8 School District has taken a new turn with the creation of 15 Eagle Communicator positions.

Teachers are being encouraged to apply for the jobs, which will come with $1,000 stipends. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, July 24.

For that money, the teachers will manage the Facebook pages for their buildings.

2013 in Review: He shot a man in Reno just to watch him die

(From May 3, 2013, this is me having some fun with my job situation, which was not very much fun. In this post, I imagined what would happen if the Joplin R-8 Administration found out about my band, Natural Disaster.)

When I stopped at Sonic about an hour ago (my social life these days), a former student of mine brought my drink and told me the story was going around Joplin High School that I was being fired because I give nickels to my students. (I do have a Cup O'Nickels that I use to reward students and at the moment it is in the floor in the front of my car until I get around to picking up the nickels that spilled out of it.)

I was happy to let her know there was no truth to that rumor, but it suddenly occurred to me, just a few hours after having a district employee deliver the latest set of charges (now up to 31 pages) against me, that I may have to repeat this process many times before my 9 a.m. Thursday, May 23, meeting at the district administration building.

And a terrifying thought occurred to me- What will happen they find about my band, Natural Disaster? After all, it performed at the December 1 benefit at East Middle School to raise money for the Joplin Fire Department's Christmas for Kids program.

2013 in Review: The Joplin School District's Charges Against Me

(From April 25, 2013, this post reveals the first set of charges the Joplin R-8 School District leveled at me. Of course, after I pretty much refuted all of those charges, they hit me with some more.) As most Turner Report readers are aware, I was removed from my classroom at Joplin East Middle School April 8, placed on paid administrative leave.

Last night, as I read over the 28-page list of charges against me, I grew both angry and depressed.

Finally, I began detailing the charges on my Facebook page.

I am going to take a different approach for this blog and simply repeat the way I reported it on Facebook last night and early this morning:

DESE accepts more federal strings-attached grants for K.C., St. Louis schools

It's all about the money.

This news release from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), makes it sound as if receiving $7.5 million in federal grants for failing schools is a good thing, but read through the kinds of ideas that DESE and the federal government think are good for education and you can see why our educational system in the United States is heading in the wrong direction.

It appears the federal government is more interested in new programs, career pathways, and all kinds of professional development, with probably none of it anything that will ever translate into the classroom. No wonder the Joplin School District keeps thinking it has a shot at the Race to the Top grant:

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $7.5 million in grant money to Missouri’s lowest- achieving schools. This is the fifth consecutive year the grants have been awarded to Missouri, one of seven states receiving a total of more than $43 million in 2013.

The funds from this continuation award will go to schools identified by the Department as priority schools:

In the St. Louis Public School District –

• Dunbar and Branch
• Laclede Elementary
• Roosevelt High School
• Meramec Elementary
• Earl Nance, St. Elementary
• Yeatman-Liddell Middle School
• Oak Hill Elementary
• Sumner High School

In Riverview Gardens School District –

• Lewis and Clark Elementary
• Lemasters Elementary
• Meadows Elementary
• Moline Elementary

Grants were also awarded to Martin Luther King Elementary in Kansas City 33 and Frederick Douglass High School in Columbia Public Schools.

The U.S. Department of Education expects the grant money to be used for the implementation of one of four rigorous school intervention models: turnaround, restart, school closure or transformation in each identified school. Missouri schools that have received grants have typically used the money for additional staff such as instructional coaches or college and career readiness counselors; technology; implementation of reading and math programs; extended learning opportunities such as Saturday school, extended days, or classes during spring and winter break; improving graduation rates; and professional development for teachers and staff.

Preparing, developing and supporting effective educators is one of the key goals of Missouri's Top 10 by 20 campaign, which aims to place Missouri's student achievement among the top 10 academically performing states in the U.S. by 2020.