The only reason Missouri’s St. Joseph School District didn’t have the worst year of any district in the U.S. is because 11 educators in Atlanta were convicted of cheating on standardized tests to boost scores.
Despite dramatic actions over the last several months to address serious issues in the St. Joseph district, its problems are nowhere close to being resolved.
Many teachers, some board members and, most importantly, many taxpayers say the state's 11th-largest school district is no better off than it was a year ago.
“I think they got a long way to go yet. I don’t think they’re going to have the public’s confidence back for a long time,” says Jon Carr, whose three children all graduated from St. Joseph public schools.
Since August, the district has fired superintendent Fred Czerwonka and chief operating officer Rick Hartigan. It’s demoted human resources manager Doug Flowers and forced Dan Colgan off the school board.
All of this followed a scathing state audit that uncovered up to $40 million in unapproved stipends, nepotism, no-bid contracts and a pattern of Missouri Sunshine Act violations.
The FBI and a federal grand jury continue to investigate the district amid fresh allegations of misconduct.
Carr and his wife Andrea were in Bartlett Park on Memorial Day, having a picnic with their six-year-old granddaughter. Like so many people, the Carrs are connected to some the main players in the scandal-plagued district. They say they’ve known Hartigan, Colgan and Flowers for years.
Andrea Carr says she and Jon were the first to knock on doors when bond issues were on the ballot. “When they’d have their bonds come up or when they’d need money, we’d go out door-to-door (saying), 'Please vote. Please vote.' And then all that money. It just makes me mad. We lost some friends.”
Carr retired a number of years ago and is now a part time janitor in the district.
Across the park, Joanna Kernes was with her husband and five-year-old son. Even though he goes to private school, Kernes says, she still wants St. Joseph schools to excel.
“I don’t want the St. Joe education system to be a laughingstock. I don’t want us to be the one that people look at and say, don’t be like them.”
She, too, believes that despite all the turmoil, all the investigations and all the pain, not much has changed. “Getting better? I think it’s too soon to say. I think they needed to do some clean-up. I think they turned a blind eye for way too long.”
Now that Czerwonka is gone, the district is in the middle of searching for an interim superintendent.
“We have to get people in here who are here for the good of it, not just for the money. They have to want to do it. They have to do it for the right reason,” Kernes says.
There's a widespread belief that, for decades, administrators worried more about their own pay than the kids they were educating. Above the cash register in the Hi Ho Bar and Grill, just a few minutes from district's downtown headquarters, is a sign that reads “No checks. No stipends.”
That's a reference to the now infamous $5,000 stipends handed out by Czerwonka to 54 administrators. It was those stipends that opened the district to the FBI probe and the state audit.
Even though community members are unimpressed with how the district has reacted to its scandals, the Missouri State Auditor says St. Joseph is making progress.
The audit released in February listed 17 deficiencies that had to be fixed.
“The St. Joseph School District has been cooperative and receptive to the recommendations made in the audit,” says Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway. “I’m optimistic that the school district is implementing all of the recommendations or at least is making steps towards that progress.”
Galloway says her team will spend two days on the ground and issue a follow-up report in six to eight weeks.
St. Joseph Board of Education President Brad Haggard says the district has tackled its many issues head on. “I feel the district has made significant progress on many issues, from personnel changes at the highest level to organizational re-structuring,” he said in an emailed statement.
Haggard says fixing the many problems will take time in an organization with 1,700 employees and a $120 million budget.
But time is not on the district’s side. It’s facing serious financial issues. The school board has decided not to place the renewal of a 63 cent property tax levy on the ballot this year. That will cost the district $6.5 million. Add to that a $4 million deficit this year and $4.5 million in pay raises for teachers and administrators next year, and the district starts the new fiscal year on July 1 $14 million in the hole.
“It’s crazy,” says Todd Brockett, president of the local National Education Association. He says most of the school board still refuses to see just how bad things are. That includes not just the finances but employee morale and relations with patrons.
“You can drive your four-wheeler into a mud puddle if there’s dry ground on the other side. We have no dry ground to drive on to,” Brockett says.
The district has enough money in the bank to cover the deficit this year and next. But that will take its reserves down to just $20 million by the end of next year, below what a district the size of St. Joseph should have in the bank.
The district is taking steps to save some money.
Brockett confirms that at least 14 teaching positions will be eliminated next year, all through attrition. There’s also talk of trimming the district’s maintenance department. That would save, district officials estimate, about $1 million.
While the school board has yet to decide when it will place the 63 cent levy on the ballot, it appears it won’t be until next year. Board members hope the worst will have passed by then.
But voters are dubious.
“As long as it looks to the public like some of the people that got us into the mess are still down there and still have some influence, I think people will keep bringing it up,” says Jon Carr.
