I finally finished up my taxes today. I was waiting on the 1098-T form from Rockhust and my stuff from Ameriprise. I finally had to call Rockhurst because someone moved (cough Emily) and did not give Rockhust her new address. Luckily they could email me the form. Prior to adding what we paid in tuition for both kids we were only getting 2000 or so back. Because both Emily and Kayla are over 18 we did not get the child tax credit. To which Brian’s solution was to have another kid. I told him he was out of his mind. That a baby costs way more to raise to the age of 22+ than getting an extra 2 grand back a year. Once I added in the college stuff for Emily and Kayla our refund went way way up and so now we are rich for about three weeks. Hahaha.

I then proceeded to the FASFA so that Jefferson College will get off my back about filling it out. She won’t qualify for financial aid but by filling it out now, it will save me time when she goes to the big expensive college. Ha.

Now that I have wasted three hours of my day off, its time to find something fun to do, like take a nap. HAHAHAHA.

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.

Today I attended my first ever school board meeting. This means one of two things, I am either getting really old or I have been sucked into the C-6 school district drama. Probably a little of each. It was interesting and I learned a lot about the format and how a meeting is held. I found it ironic the school board didn’t understand the simple question of why the time was changed from 5:30 to 7:00 and therefore never did give a reason. If it was to decrease attendance, that was not successful. I arrived fifteen minutes early and barely found a seat. By the time the meeting started it was standing room only.

There is a seven million dollar deficit that needs to be fixed. So of course the answer is cut pay and make all the employees pay 300 a month health insurance. For those that make ten dollars an hour that could be very difficult. How about we cut the superintendent salary by 100,000 as well as all the other high paid administrators. It will be very interesting to see how the budget turns out.

I wanted to laugh when one of the board members thanked the audience for bringing all the issues out into the light. I wanted to stand up and say you should thank Sam, Michelle and Rich who no matter what was said of them stuck to the facts. But wait, you can’t thank them because they have a lawsuit against the school district for the horrible things said on topix that was traced back to the superintendents home. And that woman is refusing to step down. I really thought by now she would have said I screwed up and I resign. But I think she will hide behind her lawyer and play out her contract. I could be wrong, I mean I hope I am but time will tell.

Tomorrow I return back to work. I cannot wait as I will have other things to keep me busy. I didn’t get much accomplished while I was off. I think I read two books and I did finally beat the level in candy crush I was stuck on for six weeks. Yes life in the mole house is super exciting when out on leave!