Continuing an annual tradition, the Diamond R-4 Board of Education fired me again Tuesday night (April 13).

I received my notification, fittingly, twice today (April 15). Both Superintendent Mark (the Knife) Mayo, an avid reader of Wildcat Central, according to sources close to the superintendent, and R-4 Board President Dr. Wayne Webb made sure to have their names on official-looking letters.

I received a letter signed by Dr. Webb and including Mayo's name, but not signature, in my mailbox. The other letter, containing a statement that was written in exactly the same words, but signed only by Mayo and not containing Dr. Webb's signature, was sent via the more expensive certified mail.

The letter read:

"Dear Mr. Turner,

Last summer the Diamond R-4 School District was forced to place you on an involuntary leave of absence for the 2003-2004 school year. In January of 2004, the district offered you the opportunity to return to work as a social studies teacher for the remainder of the 2003-2004 school year. You did not formally respond to the offer. The leave of absence will end with the 2003-2004 school year. Please be advised that on April 13, 2004, the Board of Education voted to not renew your probationary teaching contract. Good luck as you pursue your career in another district.

Very truly yours,

Mark Mayo, Superintendent of Schools"

This website has been critical of the superintendent, to say the least, but I will not allow untruths to be spread about a man who is responsible for making decisions that affect everyone in the school district.

Despite the rumors, these are the top 10 things that Mayo did not say at Tuesday night's board meeting.

10. We're going to fire Turner every year until we get it right.

9. Not renewing Turner's contract will save this school $245,000.

8. That Spongebob Squarepants is really nifty.

7. Let's fire some more teachers who are already gone. I'll send out the certified letters and you can handle the rest, Dr. Webb.

6. I practiced law for years, but I must have missed practice that day.

5. You know, we could save the district $103,209.52 by eliminating the language arts program. They ain't doing nothing anyway.

4. People with advanced degrees come and go, but you'd better be willing to pay through the nose if you want someone who can cut the grass right.

3. I am so upset with Edison that I am ordering that all lightbulbs be removed from district school buildings.

2. This is the way we did it when I was at Southwest.

1. Sorry, it must have been the chili.

Those things were not said, let me make that clear.

I can't say I am surprised that the board took the action it did, as obviously unnecessary as it was. I also can't say I am surprised that Mayo again took the easy way out and let me find out by mail (twice, at that). It's the same lack of decency the district has become known for since the board elevated this power-crazed personification of the Peter Principle.

(Commentary)

Leaving no stone unturned, Superintendent "Dr." Mark (The Knife) Mayo continued to do the work of three men in his Herculean efforts to provide a cost-effective education for Diamond R-4 students.

Unfortunately, the three men whose work he is doing are named Moe, Larry, and Curly.

Less than a day after the Board of Education decided not to go along with the superintendent's suggestion of eliminating the band program, Mayo continued to tell people that the band program might have to be sacrificed. It would join the vocal music program, which Mayo has already eliminated, in the process eliminating the job of Billie Jo Hardy. That would have left no music program in the school. Mayo has also targeted the drama program, following a one-year experiment of overpaying by around $10,000 for that program.

The band program has been a shining example of success for the Diamond R-4 School District, but that success came under the direction of Rob Lundien, whose resignation was accepted by the board Thursday night. Lundien has accepted a counseling position with the Neosho R-5 School District.

Drama teacher Steve Burnett has also resigned, affording Mayo the opportunity to eliminate nearly the entirety of the school's fine arts program.

The superintendent's mindset continued to be revealed at Thursday night's meeting as he proposed the elimination of the cheerleading program so the money that would be saved could go to football coach Brad Hocker and boys basketball coach Allan Woods to run a summer weights program. That proposal was wisely rejected by the board. Already, the superintendent has authorized the conversion of the new bus barn, which was part of the bond issue package passed in 2000 by district voters, into a field house for the football team.

Reports from the school also indicate that Mayo is trying to save a few dollars by strongly encouraging veteran teacher and coach Larry Cunningham that it is time for him to let go of his burden and quietly slip into retirement. It is not known whether Mayo will use the same kind of tactics he used last year on former middle school math teacher Larry Augustine. Augustine had not made up his mind about retirement so Mayo continued to tell people in private and at board meetings that he had a really good math teacher prospect, but he couldn't make a move until Augustine "makes up his mind." Mayo also took it upon himself to go to Augustine's room late in the school year and began yelling at a man who had given more than two decades of his life to the children of Diamond because Mayo had heard that Augustine had been saying "bad things" about him. For the record, no one that I have talked to has any recollection of Augustine ever saying anything about Mayo. After that performance, which could be heard all the way to the end of the hall (and was heard by me in the room directly across from Mr. Augustine's) there was no way that Augustine was going to return for a 22nd year at Diamond. Of course, now that Augustine was out of the way as an obstacle to Mayo's plans, the superintendent was happy to present Augustine with the Diamond Gem Award (the awards were resurrected by Mayo because he believed they would improve staff morale and not cost a cent) at the high school graduation ceremony.

Whether Cunningham receives the same treatment as Augustine remains to be seen. Mayo has put the track and cross country programs, both of which are coached by Cunningham, on the list of programs to be cut if the tax levy issue did not pass.Cunningham's resignation would also enable Mayo to use the health teaching position for one of the new coaches he has brought in.or perhaps as a slot for a new coach.

It is not known how the decision by Governor Bob Holden to release $197 million in state funding for education, approximately $100,000 of which will go to the Diamond R-4 School District, will affect the superintendent's master plan. That decision, combined with the apparent resolve of the state legislature to pour more funding into education should be causing the superintendent and the board to be reconsidering the elimination of these fine arts program, as well as the elimination of these teachers. However, it is doubtful that any of those teachers will be retained since Mayo has already let them know he has no use for them

After all, he can still blame the school funding problems on Edison Schools, whose officials apparently picked Diamond as the only school that would lose money using their summer school program. Mayo, in his incomprehensible column in Monday's Joplin Globe, tried to explain how the district lost money. What he didn't tell the readers is that the Diamond R-4 School District is paid for three years based on the amount of students who attended summer school the year Edison ran it...even though the district has not held summer school at all for the past two summers. Diamond, under Mayo's direction, is one of the few schools that has taken full advantage of that loophole in state law.

Diamond voters soundly rejected the tax levy proposal Tuesday. I hope school officials do not allow Mayo to blame this on people not wanting higher taxes or on chicken farmers (Mayo's words, not mine) who cannot understand complicated school financing issues the way he does. Diamond voters will support issues that will benefit their children...but not if the money is going to be handled by people whom they do not trust to spend that money wisely.

They have watched as Mayo has eliminated the gifted program, the vocal music program, the Vo-Tech program, the middle school writing class, the seventh and eighth grade reading classes, left the school with only one full-time counselor (and the other counselor was teaching a full load of classes, so a sub had to be hired if he were needed), paid the golf coach $3,000 (according to the extra duty pay schedule provided by the school) during the 2002-2003 school year, and hired a man at the rate of about $40,000 per year, to oversee building and maintenance, a job normally handled by the superintendent in districts the size of Diamond.

Mayo also bullied the salary and benefits committee of the Diamond teachers until it existed in name only. He misled the board into thinking that Diamond teachers were paid on the same level as teachers at similar-size schools in southwest Missouri. He did this by cherrypicking schools that did have lower salaries than Diamond and then saying that the district naturally could not compete with salaries in Carthage, Joplin, Neosho, and Webb City.

Even though you could argue that point, since the district was in danger of losing quality teachers to those four districts, his thesis was cloaked in lies. It only took an hour of research two years ago for me to determine that of out 25 school districts in the Seventh Congressional District of Missouri that had between 600 and 1,000 students (Diamond had about 800 at that time), only six paid their teachers less than Diamond. And nearly all of those were smaller schools. In other words, he had no problem with misleading the board with selectively chosen facts, while showing his contempt for the teachers, the people who provide the backbone of any good school district.

A good school district, that is what Diamond once was. Now the Diamond R-4 School District is known as the district that hired the clown prince of superintendents.

Band director Rob Lundien and high school counselor Anne Bryan have submitted their resignations, and resignations of several more veteran teachers in the Diamond R-4 School District are expected in the next few weeks.

Lundien and Mrs. Bryan have reportedly accepting counseling positions in the Neosho R-5 School District.

Lundien is in his fifth year as instrumental music teacher for the Diamond schools. When he came to Diamond, the high school band had less than 20 students. Through his efforts, the band has more than quadrupled in size and has also improved in quality. It has consistently won awards marching in various area parades and has brought home top honors from district and state music contests.

The crowning achievement of the DHS band came when it qualified to march in the Liberty Bowl Parade and at the Liberty Bowl football halftime show in Memphis, TN. The band won the honor on the strength of its performance, but was only able to go after a sustained fund-raising effort which earned more than $30,000.

Ms. Bryan has served as the only full-time counselor in the R-4 School District for the past year. During the 2002-2003 school year, Diamond had three counselors, with two of them, Mrs. Bryan and Mrs. Cleary, serving full-time. The other was Lundien, who had two hours per day devoted to counseling in the middle school.

This year, Ms. Bryan was the only counselor with regularly scheduled time for that duty. Ms. Cleary was put on an unpaid leave of absence last summer, which she found out about, not in person from the superintendent, but in a certified letter she received while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery. Because of other cuts made my the superintendent, Lundien no longer had two hours for counseling duty, leaving Ms. Bryan to effectively serve as counselor for grades K-12.

The resignations of Lundien and Ms. Bryan will likely be just the beginning. Other teachers, some of whom have been in the district for a long time, have already been interviewing for positions in area school districts.

Teachers have said they do not trust the superintendent, that he has not been honest with them or treated them fairly, and they do not see any change happening soon.

May 22 Board Meeting- "I look at Vo-Tech and I'm paying $50,000 a year." (This probably comes as a surprise to the taxpayers who thought they were the ones paying for it.)

May 22 Board Meeting- Mayo asked the board to promote Harold Bridges to head of maintenance and the custodial staff, saying there would be "no raises, just additional duties." (A few months later, Bridges requested a $5,000 pay increase and reportedly was given $3,000.)

May 22 Board Meeting- "I have tried to maintain a sense of stability regarding budget issues." (Every board meeting needs a little humor.)

Feb. 20, 2003, interview with Joplin Globe. "Any changes next year will be due to attrition and not to layoffs."

Dec. 7, 2003, interview with Joplin Globe. "There are lots of frills that I can't begin to think about, and I have to be frugal to provide the basics."

Introductory letter to faculty, dated July 11, 2001- "I will be 40 something in August. I am married (to my first wife) and I have three children."

Feb. 12, 2003 meeting with faculty- "I'm odd in a lot of ways."

Same meeting- "I'm not firing anyone and I'm not laying anyone off."

June 19, 2003 board meeting- (explaining why spending more money than you bring in is not really deficit spending) It's not really deficit spending. A true deficit budget is when you don't have the money."

May 8, 2003 board meeting- "The board can vote to raise the levy from $2.75 to $3.13 without putting it on the ballot. That will raise $150,000."

At the next board meeting, on the same topic- I've talked to a lawyer, who told us we can't do that."

At meeting of the new faculty leaders for the district on the topic of teachers whose jobs were posted on a state Internet site before they even knew they were losing their jobs- "Tiny must have done that."

Same meeting, same subject- "MSSC put it out. I didn't know that was their policy. (It isn't and MSSC didn't put it out.)

Same meeting, asked why he didn't follow board policy about advertising jobs within the district first- "I don't know. I'll check it out."

Same meeting- "You get bigger savings by cutting out personnel."

Same meeting- "Our food services are way over budget. The food services budget for the year is $90,000 and as of Dec. 31, we had already spent $70,000."

Same meeting, same topic, asked how that could happen- "I don't know."

The Grandview School District signed on with Newton Learning (formerly Edison) for summer school services this year, according to an article in the March 13 Kansas City Star.

"Newton promises growth with incentives and recruiting efforts that already have brought more students into summer school programs in recent years in Raytown, Hickman Mills, and Independence," the article said.

Newton Learning is providing summer school for more than 70 school districts in Missouri, the article said.

Grandview is not the only school district to add Newton Learning this year. The Crystal City District, near St. Louis, also has opted to go with Newton, according to the Jan. 31 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Crystal City Superintendent Ron Swafford said that during a period of economic instability caused by state cuts in education funding, district officials "are looking at different ways to generate revenue.

"Newton Learning has a proven track record of making money for the company and the school districts it works with," Swafford said.

""We're doing this for an economic reason," he said in the Post-Dispatch article. "We can get more money. They have a good curriculum, so it will be good for the students. But this is an economic decision."

The Post-Dispatch article pointed out that Newton Learning makes its money by "increasing summer school enrollment and sharing the money the state pays school districts to provide summer school education classes with the host district."

Both articles noted that Newton attracts students through various incentives, including gifts and prizes. The company uses the districts' teachers, paying them at a much higher level than they would be pay if the host district was operating its own summer school.

The curriculum of Newton's schools in Missouri is geared toward the MAP tests, the standard by which state schools are judged.

One school that swears by Newton Learning is Independence, where the superintendent is former East Newton superintendent, and Carthage Columbian Elementary Principal Jim Hinson. Last year was the first year the Independence School District contracted with Newton. Summer school attendance increased from 3,000 students in 2002 to more than 5,500 in 2003.

Newton Learning has been used for the last several summers in the Sarcoxie R-2 School District and in McDonald County and has earned money for those districts.

The only place where anyone claims it has cost them money has been Diamond.

It has been two years since Newton Learning (then known as Edison) had control of summer school in Diamond. By all accounts, attendance was up, the district benefited from a large number of supplies donated by the company, the company handled nearly all of the costs for the session and all R-4 school officials had to do was sit back and count the money.

And that's exactly what Superintendent Mark Mayo has done ever since. In the Jan. 29, 2003 edition of The Joplin Globe, the superintendent said that the summer school program cost Diamond $285,000.

In the July 27, 2003, Joplin Globe, Mayo again took shots at Edison."Mark Mayo, superintendent of schools, said the budget includes a $285,000 bill from Edison Schools for handling the summer-school session. That bill was paid out of the district's reserve fund.

" 'If you take out the Edison bill, the budget is balanced and shows a positive balance of $50,889,' Mayo said."

Nowhere did Mayo explain why the Edison bill was paid for out of reserve funds. The company receives its pay from the state funding the school receives for summer school. That pay was approximately $415,000, of which Edison received $295,000, according to a letter to the editor from Newton Learning President Larrie Reynolds in the March 10 Joplin Globe.

That leaves the district with a net gain of more than $100,000 from that summer school session. However, if the Edison bill was paid for out of reserve funds, what happened to the $295,000? The state appropriated the money to pay for the summer school session. There should have been no need to dip into reserves to pay for it.

Vocal music in the Diamond R-4 School District is on the chopping block. So is the speech and drama department. The district already eliminated the Vo-Tech program and middle school reading skills classes.
One program appears to be headed in the other direction. The high school football program has escaped the budget cleaver of Mark the Knife.
Sources close to the R-4 Athletic Department confirmed that when the high school football team takes the field next year, it will be in brand spanking-new uniforms.
When the Wildcats are at home, the players will put on those new uniforms in their new field house, the site which voters approved as a bus barn in the April 2000 bond issue election.
The rest of the athletic department has not been spared the knife. According to information released by the superintendent, if the 50-cent tax levy proposal fails in April, baseball, softball, golf, cross country, and wrestling will be headed for extinction.
Well, maybe not wrestling. Mayo told a group of parents at a recent PTSA meeting that if they raised enough money and filtered it through the Booster Club, the wrestling program might be able to continue.
He did not say if such an approach could be used for the middle school reading skills classes, the Vo-Tech program, the vocal music program, speech and drama, and other academic-related programs that have been or are on the chopping block

JANUARY 28

There also appears to be an effort to make it look as though I am negative toward interim high school principal Danny DeWitt. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have always had a great deal of respect for Mr. DeWitt, especially now that he has been placed in such a difficult position. A position, I might add, that he is handling well. When I spoke of the best method of passing a tax levy increase being the guarantee that the administrators resign, I was not including Mr. DeWitt in that group. In fact, people at Diamond High School have evidence to the contrary. Thia Wiggins recently contacted me for comments for an article she was doing for the school website about the alleged job offer that was made to me. My response was four paragraphs long. In the first three paragraphs, I explained briefly how I came to lose my job in the first place and the legal requirement that I be offered any job that comes up for which I am qualified. The superintendent lived up to his legal responsibility, even though I understand he was offering me a job he had already given to someone else.

In the fourth paragraph, I made it clear that I would have enjoyed working for Mr. DeWitt. I also commented on how much I missed the students at Diamond. I asked Thia that my comments not be used unless they were used in their entirety.

I was e-mailed the next day by Alicia Bradley, who said Mr. Burnett only wanted to use the fourth paragraph and not the others. I had expected this and this is no criticism of Mr. Burnett or the student reporters.The reporters were only doing their jobs and doing them well. As for Mr. Burnett, I have no problem with his stance. When I was editor at The Carthage Press and The Lamar Democrat, I would have had a problem with someone who wanted to direct how his quotes were used. So, as far as I can tell, the story has never run. But I definitely have no problem with Mr. DeWitt, as that e-mail message, which Thia, Alicia, and Mr. Burnett (and possibly others) have read, shows.

***

The latest news coming out of the Diamond schools is that the school district is again looking at cutting teaching positions. The fine arts appears to be one area that is being considered. Mr. Mayo recently told one teacher in the fine arts area that the teacher's program "sucked" (exact wording). Reportedly, the administration is considering putting the vocal and instrumental music departments under the direction of one person. Some other teachers have reportedly also been targeted for elimination, including one who went against Mayo at a board meeting last winter. The superintendent, exhibiting pachydermial tendencies, never forgets.

***

As a public service, I would like to present my proposal for cuts that should be made in the school budget in order to let the public know that its money is being well spent. I was able to come up with more than $100,000 in cuts that would not hurt the school district and would not have any negative effect on the children.

1. Eliminate the non-education position that the board and Mr. Mayo created and hired Harold Bridges for last year. I have nothing against Mr. Bridges, but the idea of paying someone over $40,000 a year for doing the type of supervising that in most school districts Diamond's size is done by the superintendent, in conjunction with the janitorial staff, is ridiculous. It is even more ridiculous when you consider that the position was added at a time when it was already obvious that a serious budget problem was on the horizon.
2. How in the world can the board and administration justify paying more than $35,000 to the superintendent's secretary, another non-educational position? This is not a knock at the quality of the work Mrs. Bridges does, but the person who holds this job should be receiving about $10,000 less. There are a number of larger school districts in which the superintendent's secretary receives far less than what is paid for that position in Diamond. The secretary, and forget that administrative assistant title. That's just a fancy description for secretary. To give you an idea of how ridiculous the salary is, consider that teachers who have earned advanced college degrees, do not receive anywhere near that much in the Diamond R-4 School District, including some who have been here for far longer than the superintendent's secretary.
3. Leave an administrative position open for at least one year. Have the same principal run both the high school and the middle school, or perhaps have the high school and elementary principals share the middle school duties. Maybe even have the superintendent lend a hand every once in a while. This would save approximately $50,000 and would work at least on a temporary basis. It is a far better idea than eliminating teachers and increasing class size.
4. As a measure of good will, the superintendent should give back the $5,000 pay increase he received last year. He had already received a considerable increase when he was promoted from middle school principal to superintendent. At a time when teachers were lucky to receive any extra money at all, it was a slap in the face to hear the superintendent had received a $5,000 pay increase.

5. If Mr. Mayo has not convinced Mr. Burnett to remain at Diamond by offering him more money (and I hear he is still trying to convince him to stay), he should show a little restraint this time in hiring a replacement. A school district with financial troubles does not need to pay $37,000 for a drama teacher. A good teacher can be hired for more than $10,000 less, even if it means hiring someone with less experience than Mr. Burnett's three years.
6. Eliminate the ISS position for the time being and have it filled by teachers who are already on staff. This year, after it was initially supposed to be filled by a full-time substitute, the administration elected to fill the position with yet another coach, an assistant at that. That is not sending a good message at a time when fiscal responsibility is a must. The elimination of this position would save at least $23,000.

7. Drop the golf program. I feel bad for the students who do well in this program, but if you ever want to pass a levy increase, this has to go. Diamond does not have a golf course so students have to be driven to another town to use its golf course. The district has to foot the bill for a coach, transportation and greens fees. The savings would be in the neighborhood of $3,000. The sport could be considered both a boys and girls sport, which would mean that there would be no Title IX requirement to drop another sport. Plus, Diamond boys have the option to run track or play baseball in the spring. Having three sports is a luxury that a small school district cannot afford in this day and age.

I don't expect to see any of these changes implemented, but they would save the district approximately $140,000.

TEACHER'S BROTHER DIES AT AGE 51

   The family of Diamond Middle School social studies teacher Grant Reed suffered a loss last week with the death of his older brother, John Reed. The following obituary information was provided by The Pittsburg Morning Sun.

John Joseph Reed, 51, of Pittsburg, died suddenly Monday, Oct. 27, 2003, at his home.

He was born July 7, 1952, at Kansas City, Mo., to Joseph and Nona Jean Reed. He was a 1970 graduate of Liberal High School. He served in the Army Engineering Battalion from 1972 to 1974, where he was a bulldozer-heavy equipment operator.

Mr. Reed was in construction for many years. He was a supervisor at Able Body Design for five years and at Vinylplex for about 10 years. At the time of his death, he worked at Pillsbury at Joplin, Mo.

Survivors include two daughters, Lacy Jean Reed of Pittsburg and Gretchen Smith of Riverside, Calif.; his mother of Frontenac; one brother, Grant Reed of Mulberry; and two sisters, Becky Fornelli of Pittsburg and Shirley D. Giacometti of Frontenac.

He was preceded in death by his father.

Graveside services were held Thursday, Oct. 30, at Barton City Cemetery with the Rev. Verl Strong officiating. A flag -folding presentation was provided by the Benjamin Fuller American Legion Post No. 64. Arrangements were under the direction of Friskel Funeral Home, 230 E. McKay, Frontenac.

HONOR ROLL TRIP SET FOR NOV. 6

 The first quarter Diamond Middle School honor roll trip will be held Thursday, Nov. 6. The top fifth through eighth graders at the school will leave after third hour, eat at Northpark Mall in Joplin, then spend the afternoon bowling or playing games at Carl Richard Bowl in Joplin.

Students qualifying for the trip were:

   Seventh Grade- Josh Bentley, Sheena Chung, Garrett Cox, Sabra Driskill, Lindsey Gilbert, Travis Goodwin, Alec Johnson, Rikki Lee Jump, Sharon Keefer, Crystal Lane, Kirsten Lee, Ashley Nickolaisen, Samantha Olson, Shaela Smith, Michael Testerman.

   Sixth Grade- Amanda Brand, Veronica Buening, Samantha Burnett, Brianna Carneal, Ernest Chavana, Emilee Dailey, Keysha Danner, Jeffrey Ellis, Samantha Enayati, Erin Esposito, Nychelle Goad, Samantha Hare, Matthew Holland, Harold Jansen, Justin Jinks, Jonathan Paul, Kadey Rea, Chase Starr-Kercheval, Jinger Renae Thomas, Taylor Tuter, Craig VanLue, Morgan Wirth.

   Fifth Grade- Victoria Albrecht, Caitlin Blizzard, Turner Brown, Kaci Clark, Jordan Comer, Lynsey Copley, Derick Devins, Christopher Epperson, Eric Esposito, Hayley Etter, Chelsea Flint, Kylie Gates, Emily Gilbert, Micah Harp, Jacob Henson, Carrie Hobbs, Katherine Hughes, Rebecca Johnson, Jaycee King, Jayde King, Jodi Lawson, Brooklyn McGlothlin, Jacob McLees, Gabrielle Palmer, Sara Schmitt, Brent Skinner, Shelby Sloan, Hannah Snow, Brittanie Sparlin, Taryn Stevens, Miranda Thomas, Shelbi Thurman, Jordan Welch, Dylan Youngblood.

POWERS MAKES ALL-STATE CHOIR

Diamond High School senior Dezi Powers has been selected to the All-State Choir for the second year in a row.

Only 16 students were selected for the elite choir from the southwest district. Dezi and the other students will perform in concert in January 2004.

MIDDLE SCHOOL FALL CHOIR CONCERT HELD

The Diamond Middle School Fall Choir Concert was held Oct. 30 in the middle school gymnasium. The concert was under the direction of Mrs. Billie Joe Hardy.

HALLOWEEN PARTIES INVADE MIDDLE SCHOOL

It has been a long time since Halloween parties have been held at Diamond Middle School, but that changed last week when parties were held in both the fifth and sixth grades.

School officials apparently felt the children were not ready to totally wean themselves from the things they enjoyed while in elementary school.

GRANT COULD PROVIDE POLICE OFFICER FOR SCHOOL

The Diamond Police Department is seeking a grant which would enable it to provide a resource officer for the Diamond schools. Police Chief Brian Misner told the R-4 Board of Education his department will apply at the end of the year for the grant, which would pay for the officer

FUND RAISER HELD FOR PROJECT GRADUATION

   The Class of 2004 Project Graduation Fund received a boost Saturday, Nov. 1, from a Pancake Feed and Turkey Shoot held at Shepherd's Dance Studio in Diamond.

   That's not going to happen.

   I 'm not going to beg, Im not going to plead. I don't intend to let the actions that were recommended by the superintendent rob me of my dignity. I appreciate, however, the opportunity to ask the board to reconsider its decision.

   Prior to the four years I have served as a teacher in the Diamond R-4 school system, I was a reporter and editor for various newspapers in southwest Missouri for 22 years. During that time, I covered approximately 1,200 school board meetings. I thought I had seen just about everything that could happen at a board meeting.

   I was wrong.

   This was the first time in 26 years of being around school boards that I saw a board vote to take jobs away from people without even knowing who those people were. It was also the first time I had seen a school administrator brazenly use a serious situation, our state's budget problems, to get rid of three people he did not want to have in the school system.

   I have never seen administrators act in such a cowardly fashion as what I observed at the June 26 meeting. This meeting was the first time that any mention had been made in open session of eliminating teachers positions due to budget considerations. After a brief closed session, the board approved the superintendents recommendation, without knowing who the three people were, then came out of the library and headed home.

   I made an effort to talk to the superintendent, but he quickly dashed by me, went into his office and shut the door. I asked Ms. Mounts if I was one of the three people. "I can't talk to you about that," she told me. "I'm not supposed to say anything about that."

   After that, I went into the parking lot and asked Dr. Webb the same question. That was when I discovered that the board members did not know whose jobs they had eliminated. They, too, would have to learn by registered letter.

   When I was an editor at The Lamar Democrat and The Carthage Press, there were times when I had to fire reporters, sometimes because of performance, sometimes due to budget considerations. I would never have dreamed of letting those people know by sending a letter. That is not the way decent human beings behave. I can only imagine how Mr. Badley and Mrs. Cleary felt when they received their letters. At least I had an inkling that I might be one of the three people who had been targeted by the superintendent.

   The timing of this "leave of absence" is also suspect. You have three people who have been valued employees of the Diamond R-4 School District, who are put on unpaid leave when it is obviously too late for them to find teaching jobs for the next school year.

   I am also reminded of what the superintendent said during the June 26 board meeting when the subject of Career Ladder came up. He indicated that the district "would live up to our commitment and pay our share of Career Ladder money." I had always considered a signed contract to be a commitment. I was telling this school district that I would come back and teach here for another year. Apparently, the superintendent believes in living up to his commitments when he is unable to find loopholes to get out of them.

   I also question the necessity of eliminating these three positions due to budget concerns. I would hope that the board members would have begun questioning the superintendents logic the minute they saw the names of the three people whose positions had been eliminated.

   It's hard to believe a rational person could say that having my name and Mrs. Cleary's names on that list is just a coincidence. We all remember the recent exchange of letters between the superintendent and myself concerning Wildcat Central. Well, let us remember the problems that happened during the first semester of the 2002-2003 school year. Suddenly, all kinds of Diamond teaching positions were being advertised on state websites. Most of those positions were still being held by people who had no idea that they were going to lose their jobs. One of those people was Mrs. Cleary.

   At about that time, the superintendent was putting together a committee of teachers, supposedly to supply leadership to the school district with the impending retirements of Larry Doennig and Larry Augustine. At the first meeting, we found out that the most urgent concern of this school district was the adoption of a calendar for the 2003-2004 school year. No other subjects were addressed.

   At the second meeting, which was held shortly after the Christmas break, the superintendent was challenged about numerous things that he had done. When he was challenged about advertising the positions that were still being held, at first, he tried to blame Missouri Southern for putting it on the state website, something that the college has never done and never will do. Later, he passed the blame on to his secretary, Mrs. Bridges. He was also challenged about the obvious violation of your school board policy, which says that job openings must first be advertised within the district. "I didn't know about that," he told the group. Apparently, he still doesn't know about that. I might add, that was the last time the leadership group met. It appears that subservience, not leadership, was what the superintendent was looking for.

   When Dr. Smith and Mr. Mitchell first hired me in August 1999, I was told that my class was designed to help prepare students for the MAP tests, especially seventh graders who take the communication arts test.

   My first year of teaching, and I believe almost every teacher will tell you this, was more of a learning experience for the teacher than for the students. I learned a lot from the other teachers on the middle school staff. They probably got tired of me asking them question after question. I learned a great deal from Mr. Augustine and Mrs. Patrick, two teachers who would still be teaching in this school district, if not for the superintendent. After that first year, I spent the summer of 2000 designing a new curriculum for my class, one which I hoped would improve the Communication Arts MAP scores. It did. Working together with Mrs. Jones and Miss Brummett, we succeeded in bringing up the seventh grade scores dramatically, just in time for the MSIP evaluation. That year, approximately 80 percent of the seventh graders took current issues, my writing-based class. Our scores were better than every school district in a five-county area except for Nevada and Seneca. They were better than Joplin, Carthage, Webb City, Neosho, East Newton, all of them. Unfortunately, that was the last time I would ever have that many of the students in my classes. The scores those kids posted that year would have ranked them in the top 10 percent of the state last year.

   Since the school district had paid me $180 to write the curriculum for my class, imagine my surprise when school started in August 2001 and only 12 seventh graders were taking that class. Part of that was due to the success of Mr. Lundien with his band program. Part of it was because when given the choice between band, a new choir class where you sing and a class where you write 35 one-and-a-half page papers and two longer research papers per year, some of the students quite naturally opted to take music.

   I talked to the superintendent about this problem in early October 2001 when he was still middle school principal. I told him we were looking at a decrease in MAP scores if we didn't do something. I suggested we work something out with the wheel classes. Students should not have to choose between taking a writing course and a music course. The superintendent said that studies show that students who take band do better in math. To this day, I haven't the slightest idea what that had to do with what we were talking about. As it turned out, I was just going through an experience that is not unusual for teachers in this school district. The superintendent was simply not paying any attention to what I was saying.

   After the death of Dr. Smith, when Ms. Mounts took over as middle school principal, I talked with her about the problem with the numbers for the writing class. I suggested that we at least work out a way for seventh graders to take my class, even if they were in music. She said that sounded like a good idea. And when I left for summer vacation, I was told that I would have all the seventh graders for the 2002-2003 school year. When I returned, nothing had been done. The schedule was exactly the same and there were fewer and fewer students in my classes. This school district had set up a class to help seventh graders do well on the MAP tests. During the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 school years, only about 15 percent of seventh graders took the writing class. Last year, the MAP scores reflected that.

   The current issues class not only was designed to help the students with their writing but they also had the opportunity to learn about and discuss issues that affected them. We talked about Sept. 11, 2001, we talked about the election of 2000, we talked about issues ranging from capital punishment to the war in Iraq to cheating in school and bullying. Bullying is not just something that happens with school children. In the Diamond R-4 School District, it is something the teachers, school employees and the principals have had to deal with every day since the death of Dr. Smith.

   Toward the end of the 2001-2002 school year, the superintendent came up with the idea of having me replace Mrs. Doennig as the yearbook sponsor. I was not interested in teaching yearbook, but he asked me to think about it, so I did. During the conversation, other positions were discussed, not at my prompting. They were brought up by the superintendent. He said, "We can't you put in journalism. Mrs. Miller does a great job." I had no problem with that. I wasn't trying to replace anyone. He was the one who brought up the journalism job. Then he brought up the job that would be opening in high school social studies when Mr. Doennig retired. "Were going to want a coach for that position," he said. I didn't say anything.

   I did think about the yearbook position and I decided against it for two reasons. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of going to Mr. Blizzard about my decision, naively believing that in the Diamond R-4 School District the high school principal is the one who makes decisions about who is going to teach in the high school. I told Mr. Blizzard that at that time I wanted to continue to teach writing to middle school students. I also believed that the amount of work that being yearbook sponsor would require would force me to shut down the school website, Wildcat Central. I believed at that time, and I still believe, that Wildcat Central is an important educational tool. I had made the mistake of going to someone other than the superintendent. In this school district, that is an unforgivable mistake. Teachers and school employees who have talked to board members without the superintendents okay, or who have rejected one of the superintendents ideas, have been shouted at, threatened with loss of employment, been humiliated and have been told that when the time comes, they will not receive tenure.

   I was not yelled at. I was not threatened. The superintendent never said I would not receive tenure. I would like to think it's because bullies are afraid when they know someone is not going to back down. In truth, I believe the reason was Wildcat Central. It is easy to threaten people who have no one to turn to. I always had the option of taking any complaints I had to Wildcat Central, an option, I might add, that I never used until June 26.

   The superintendent never threatened me personally, but he took several steps to undercut my standing at the school.

1. He again rejected a plan that had been approved by the principal to put seventh graders into the Current Issues classes for the 2003-2004 school year. I never heard a reason for his objection.
2. Several months ago, the superintendent came up with a plan to save $25,000 by eliminating a middle school teaching position and by putting some teachers teaching just sixth graders and the others handling all of the seventh and eighth graders, even though it appears likely this plan will cause classes to have as many as 35 to 40 people in them. Mr. Reed suggested an alternate solution. This would have required eliminating my writing class, but have me teach sixth and seventh grade social studies. The position would still be gone, but the class sizes would remain the same and the educational value would have been far greater. The superintendent rejected this, saying that my certification is for 7-12, so I couldn't teach sixth graders. All I would have had to have done was to go to Southern, take a test and I would have been certified to teach sixth graders.
3. The middle school principal proposed that class sizes be cut down in seventh and eighth grade social studies and language arts by having me teach one unit of each. The superintendent rejected that idea because "That would be unfair to the math and science teachers." In other words, to be fair, we have to see to it that all of the students core classes are crowded and not just half of them.
4. School officials decided to make Mr. Doennig's social studies job a full-time position instead of half-time. Instead of having the principal talk to any teachers who might be interested in the position, the superintendent set up a session with Mr. Blizzard, Ms. Mounts, Mr. Reed, Mr. DeWitt, Mrs. Madden, and me in the middle school library. Mr. Reed had already said he was not interested in the position. Mr. DeWitt clearly had no reason to want to change all of his lesson plans. During the meeting, it became clear to me that the decision had already been made and the job would go to Mrs. Madden. I heard one of the administrators comment, "That will work out so much better. She'll be closer to her girls," referring of course to the high school basketball team. The meeting, I understand, had been set up so all social studies teachers in the district would have an opportunity to have a shot at the position. However, it appears more likely it was set up to make it look like I was getting a fair shake, since some other people in this district who were qualified to teach high school social studies were not even invited to the meeting.
5. Despite concerns about the budget, the superintendent hired a new speech and drama teacher, who when all of the extra frills on his contract are added, will make $38,000. This teacher was also brought in to teach high school journalism and do a district website, in association with the new technology coordinator. Again, these jobs were never advertised in house. My qualifications for both the website and journalism positions are far greater than the man who was hired. But there was never any chance of the superintendent putting me into positions that involved communication with the public. He has made it clear that the only information he wants to come out is information that comes directly from him.
6. When Mrs. Madden resigned, a new high school social studies teacher/coach was hired. If we were trying to save money, why wasnt I moved into the teaching position and, for heaven's sake, let's put one of the many coaches we have in this school system who are no longer coaching anything back into a coaching position.
7. When teaching positions had to be eliminated, why is it that teachers who have offered years of service to this district, at discount prices, were let go, while teachers who have not done one thing for the children here, brand-new teachers hired by the superintendent, are kept at budget-breaking, salary-schedule-smashing sums.

   Of the teachers who were let go, I know that Mrs Cleary and I both have had problems with the superintendent. Mrs. Cleary had to threaten legal action in order to keep her position when the superintendent tried to get rid of her earlier. The only reason I can think of for Mr. Badley's elimination is that it is designed to show Mr. Blizzard that he can't cross the superintendent. If you remember, last December, the superintendent called Mr. Blizzard into his office and told him he would not be rehired. Mr. Blizzard had the audacity to actually fight for his job and he got it back. So let's make him be the full-time principal and teach three math classes.

   The reason Mr. Blizzard was able to keep his job was because the superintendent couldn't keep quiet about his plans. He didn't keep quiet this time either.

   During the first week of June, I stopped by the middle school to work on my website. Several janitors were eating lunch in the commons area. They seemed surprised to see me. "We were told you weren't going to be coming back this year," one of them said. The others were nodding in agreement. I was a bit surprised, but after a brief conversation, I was convinced that the information had come directly from the superintendent. I asked Ms. Mounts if she had heard anything about this. As far as I can remember, she never gave me an answer. This was well before any of the budget meetings had taken place. That was one reason why, when I heard that three teachers were going to lose their jobs, I knew that I would be one of them.

   This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision made by the superintendent because he found out the state budget problem was worse than anticipated. My elimination, the elimination of Mrs. Cleary, and the elimination of Mr. Badley, were part of the superintendent's plan all along.

   And if we really wanted to bring in revenue to this school district, why are we not using Wildcat Central? I have the ability to do on-line auctions, sell institutional advertising to civic-minded businesses and patrons. It also could be used as a central clearing house for fund raising from patrons and alumni. Plus, as many of you are aware, I also a member of a musical group that performs at benefits and has performed at benefits for school programs. Why are we not using our imagination to come up with revenue ideas? We could use camcorders to film ballgames, dances, National Honor Society installations and other school events, then sell the videos.

   And why have we not set up a foundation to allow people to make tax-deductible contributions to the school district? We might have a business donate 50 computers or the money to buy 50 computers. Someone else might pay for our high school library to have a subscription to U. S. News and World Report. Each contribution could help relieve the financial burden that our taxpayers face.

   People should not have their livelihoods threatened because the best ideas the superintendent has come up with are renting out a school van that is about to fall apart, increasing the tax levy, and extorting $9,000 from the Booster Club so kids who can't afford it won't have to play to pay sports.

   The ideas I propose could work, but I warn you, people are going to find it very hard to give money to this school district when they have been watching the way it has been spent.

   There is a lack of trust in this school system.

   That same problem existed three years ago when Mr. Mitchell and Dr. Smith asked me to start Wildcat Central and to write news articles to publicize the good things that go on in this school district every day. I was told at that time that I would eventually be paid for these services. If you recall, this began at a time when we had just had a board member get into a fight with another woman at a youth wrestling match. It was a time when we had received negative publicity about two little boys doing unmentionable things to a little girl on the school playground. For three years, at no charge to the school district I have provided nearly all of the good news that has reached district patrons, through articles I have written, articles my students have written, and through Wildcat Central. The superintendent is suggesting that we save money by eliminating the job of a person who has been saving money for this school district for years. When the administrators came up with the idea for a reading skills class, but did not provide any books or materials for it, I established a reading curriculum in the computer lab at no cost to the district.

   When this district passed a bond issue, emphasizing that we would have a middle school library, but didnt consider where the books would come from, Mrs. Jones and I worked with the Middle School Student Council and we have a wonderful library today. I put a lot of my own money into the library so these kids could have the best library they could possibly get. They deserve the best and God knows they certainly have not been getting it lately.

   If the superintendent tells you that getting rid of me is going to help with this budget situation, I suggest you specifically ask him how. Remember, this is the same man whose logic dictates that we bring in somebody at $38,000 to do a website and teach journalism, when we have somebody already here who can do those things and who is the lowest paid teacher in the middle school at $24,500.

   I'm not going to beg you for my job.I shouldn't have to. I've earned it. If Mr. Badley, Mrs. Cleary, and I are still unemployed when this meeting ends tonight, youre going to have a hard time finding anyone who will trust anything that comes from the Diamond R-4 School District. You have a chance to turn this around and bring an end to the bullying that has every employee of this school district in constant fear and has done serious damage to the education of the children, the main reason, the only reason why we are here.

   That is what I am asking you to do.