Dear Editor:
On Oct. 13 School Board Vice President Doug Whitehead presided over the monthly meeting and heard from 20 citizens taking the board and administration to task. In attendance was the largest crowd seen in many years.
Just 12 hours later, there was Whitehead presiding at a different kind of meeting at a table in the back of Panera's with Chamber President Randy Allen. Wednesday morning's News Tribune reported that the Chamber of Commerce is still looking at using school district land purchased for a new high school and the reason Special Olympics is not interested in partnering with Lincoln University (and use of Lincoln's free land) is that they need room to expand. Wow! I can only assume that members of the school board sub-committee looking at the Special Olympics proposal (Whitehead, Allen, Ken Theroff and Superintendent Brian Mitchell) are hard at work figuring out how to use school land to build a Special Olympics facility.
When the time finally comes to begin building much needed school facilities, will the district have any assets left to use?
Also on Monday night the school board unanimously voted to have Whitehead's group, the Missouri School Boards Association, again head up the search for a new school superintendent. How much is that going to cost the district? (8 percent plus search incurred fees.) Will the new superintendent be paid well over $220,000 like the current one? To whom will they be answerable?
The school board, who thanked the public for their interest Monday night, doesn't seem to be getting the message. Parents and teachers are telling them more resources need to be devoted to educating all our children. Yet, out of the public eye they are figuring out how to broker sweetheart deals that are good for some but, more importantly, are using public tax dollars collected for the purpose of public education and only public education.
What we really need is a citizens' oversight committee. They might suggest the school board adopt policies in play by successful organizations like Special Olympics - getting other entities to compete for business. Special Olympics has gotten a Boone County commissioner to craft incentives for their Columbia location at the same time Jefferson City entities are falling over themselves crafting incentive packages. Wouldn't it be nice if the school district tried a request for proposal when they need outside services?