Last night was the Fox school board meeting and since I was off work I decided to attend. It was very interesting. It started with them doing a short video on a bus driver and what his day is like. My first thought was those people don’t get paid enough to drive 70 crazy kids around town. I learned all about safety features on the bus that I didn’t know existed. It was really interesting.
Once they moved on to public comments things became really interesting. First of all someone got up and attempted to attack the acting superintendent by asking him how he could even show his face after admitting that he knew staying in the expensive hotels was wrong but did it anyway because the previous superintendent told him too. They shut him down immediately and said you cannot attack a specific board member on a public forum. They did however agree to let him come into closed session. I am not sure if they have ever done that before. It was kind of funny because this guy basically said what everyone in Arnold has been thinking for months. How can any of these people still show their face after what has come out. This includes the teachers whose bad comments on the Topix website were traced back to their home. One of them was sitting on the board last night. Another person got up and asked why they would make the starting salary of the next superintendent 170-210 thousand dollars. By starting that high we would be right back where we are in regard to salary and we are not the Ladue or Clayton district. He encouraged the board to start the person at the 170 mark. A teacher stood up to explain the amendment 3 issue that is on the ballot. She recommended voting no and after hearing her speak the only thing she left out was that if voted in we are well on our way to being stuck with the common core and our kids instead of taking 26 standardized tests in 12 years would be over 220 and the school has to pay for all the tests. I cannot figure out what was wrong with the way I learned things in school and why we are trying to dumb down our kids and make life all about testing. However that is another issue for a different post.
After public comments they then decided to have the board members meet with each of the elementary school principals for their plans to improve their school. This took well over an hour. At first i thought maybe it was a ploy so most people would leave but then I decided it was so the principals weren’t stuck at this meeting until almost ten o’clock since they had worked all day. Of course so had everyone in the room except for me. So who knows but I stuck around and spent time texting and reading (against my better judgement) Steven King’s The Stand. I am remembering how much I loved that book. Then Rich came over and said hi and I talked to him for quite a while. He is very easy to talk too. Of course I knew I would get hell at home from Brian for this. He constantly teases me saying I’m leaving the family for Rich. As if I have time for that nonsense!.
The most ridiculous comment came out of the talk about replacing Cheryl Hermann the board member who resigned last month. I can’t remember which one said it but it was to the effect maybe we could have a past board member sit in until election time because they would know what they are doing. Oh if anyone on the topix site heard that they will go nuts. Because why would we bring back in a “rubber stamper cronies of Dianne’s who started this mess in the first place?” I can hear it now. I don’t know what the answer is but that was not the best suggestion for sure.
I can finally put faces to everyone’s names. It has taken four school board meetings but finally I can recognize them. Now if I would only meet Sam Ferry. He’s not on the school board but was instrumental in bringing to light the hiring of the Linda Nash’s daughter in law to be head of the nutrition department. She was unqualified and remains unqualified to this day. And for my nurse friends you may be interested to know that the head nurse (for lack of a better word) of the nurses at Fox does not have a BSN and makes about 10 grand more a year than a full-time nurse at Mercy that is at the ceiling with pay. Very, very interesting.
And that is my personal take on the school board meeting.
nine years ago that someone named Brian Moehlmann showed up at my doorstep wearing this shirt. (Yes, I have kept it all these years. A couple of years ago he put it on and told me it still fit. I told him it fit like the Hulk was wearing it, about to bust out of it. It was so funny looking on). Anyway why I ever got into the car is beyond me. Most likely because my really good friend Lisa Rush fixed us up because Brian was thin and I liked thin guys. Something must have clicked on that date because it’s been 29 years and still growing strong. I met his mom on our first date too. I am not sure where his dad was but they had just gotten a fairly new dog that was being stubborn about potty training. We ended up playing pool in his basement. Or I should say he played, I watched. I rarely play pool to this day because he is some sort of pool shark and I suck! It’s only nine more days until we have been married for 24 years. Allyson told us a couple of weeks ago that we will never be divorced. We both shook our heads and then smacked our foreheads and said bummer! Life with moles, interesting in a bizarre sort of way!
LifeWithMoles 