Lafata Out of County Council Race

Last night, at the Francis Howell School Board meeting, board president Mark Lafata announced that he was in fact NOT going to seek the republican nomination for the County Council, and threw his support behind candidate Nancy Matheny, former St. Charles city councilwoman.

There are a few interesting scenarios that come to mind -- one of them being the fact that Matheny has far more experience than Lafata when it comes to business and government issues, and far more supporters that will go to the mat for her. Lafata's role reversal from teacher's union demonizer to teacher's union ass kisser has lost him a lot of support and credibility from those that are watching.

What I find interesting about Lafata's decision not to run is that it was presented as a press release on school district letterhead, prepared by Jim Joyce, district spokesperson, under instruction from Lafata.

So Lafata ... who wants Joyce gone, instructs Joyce to prepare a press release on district newsletter with district time, to announce his future political plans?

When did THIS become appropriate?

Lafata made the announcement at the end of the board meeting, which is fine. But to use district resources to communicate your future political plans is a clear violation of any person's oath of office.

The Francis Howell School District's resources are NOT there to be used by Lafata for his personal life. It would figure that it would be done this way, though -- Lafata thinks he's every employee's boss anyway.

Will someone get Bill Webster on the phone and ask him what he thinks about this?

Election Thoughts

Once the spinning settles down, quiet (or not so quiet) reflection must be given to the outcome of various elections in St. Charles County yesterday.

Between the Dottie Greer recall attempt, the two special elections for the state senate and county council, municipal elections, school boards, tax levy increases -- one thing remains fairly clear.

The concept of "political science" and "election science" is a lost art in St. Charles.

Rep. Scott Rupp defeated Rep. Wayne Henke for the senate seat vacated by Jon Dolan a few months ago -- as predicted -- but neither candidate was in control of their own campaign. The state parties stepped in and essentially ran every aspect, including the negative advertisements that sadly came from both camps.

The victory by Cheryl Hibbeler ought to serve as a wake up call to Skippy and his cohorts on the western part of the county that if you don't wake the hell up, you're going to start handing seats over to Brand X.

The recall election in St. Charles was quite telling.

Just a thought ... of all the people involved in the recall attempt on both sides of the issue, Rory Riddler was the only person that has a lot of experience running a political campaign.

There are plenty of people out in the community that have held office before or ran for office that know how to run political campaigns, but if you don't solicit their assistance, this is what you get.

Greer's recall failed because of the lack of coordinated effort by someone that knows how to run an effective political campaign. With all due respect to Kevin Kast and Tom Hughes, money doesn't buy votes -- campaigns do.

Prior to going into yesterday, they should have known who was voting how. There should have been NO surprise whatsoever as to the outcome of this election.

You can name all the spokespeople you want from the community -- Kast and Billie Collier headed up the community college tax levy campaign, which was a TOTAL bust.

The teacher's union got their two candidates elected in the Francis Howell School District because they've done these campaigns before quite effectively and nobody seems to know how to run an effective campaign against them. Look for more of the same corruption and mass exodus from employees of the school district.

The St. Charles School District received a resounding "HELL NO!" from the voters as they attempted to increase taxes again -- most feeling like they went to the well too often, especially after a large tax increase just a few years ago. Now they will have the arduous task of deciding what to do with the lack of revenues. They have essentially discussed having to close "neighborhood schools," something which voters of the district have become accustomed for years. I don't envy Superintendent James Cale or the school board in the coming months, as they refine their budget.

O'Fallon turned the tide on those that were swept into office a couple of years ago -- Alderman Bob Patek, in all his smugness, got trounced in his ward by almost a two to one margin. This election signals a shift in power (again) on the Board of Aldermen in O'Fallon -- let's see how long THIS honeymoon lasts!

Wentzville Mayor Paul Lambi defeated former Mayor Vicki "Is My Skirt Short Enough Yet?" Boedeker in a rematch from a few years ago when Lambi won by just a handful of votes.

In all, there seemed to be a desire for change in the air, although unfortunately that change won't happen in the city of St. Charles or in the Francis Howell School District.

Look for Greer to become even nastier while feeling like she has a voter mandate to be a bitch, and look for Mark Lafata to continue to demonize anyone having anything to do with the FHSD past or present in order to try to springboard his campaign to the county council.

Francis Howell Board Elections

Given the facts that have been presented lately regarding the Francis Howell School District, I have to agree with the letter to the editor in last weekend's Journal from Kevin Palmer, Chief Information Officer of the FHSD.

Mike Sommer and Rhonda Brown are current members of the board of education and deserve an opportunity to move the district forward. Now, I wouldn't normally be saying such things, but Brown's recent battles with board president Mark Lafata have been quite telling. She took a while in coming around, but she finally realizes that Lafata is the phony that many have been painting him as for years.

Sommer has quite an impressive resume, including a lifetime teaching certificate, a CPA in private practice in St. Charles, former Chairman of the Board of the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce and volunteer positions in many organizations too numerous to go into here.

The bottom line is -- they have a keen understanding of what is going on in the district and can carry that understanding forward, along with other board members Anne Womack and Rev. Bob Farr to do the right things for the Francis Howell School District.

Now, none of this should be construed to believe that Marty Hodits is undeserving of election, and if there were three available seats, I would suggest that Hodits would be a worthwhile choice. But without trying to split any voting blocks up, it is imperative that Ken Schaller NOT be elected to the board, lest Lafata maintain his stranglehold on the district as president.

The Union Takeover of the Francis Howell School District

Since as long back as I can remember, I've disliked the idea of collective bargaining for public employees. The reasons are very simple, and can best be demonstrated by the fire district in Cottleville. The union-controlled board had allowed rampant spending at the detriment of the future of the district. These firefighters, through their union, have manipulated to the point that collective bargaining is a moot point in their district, but it shows where things can go on one extreme.

Although I don't support the unionization of public employees, I don't necessarily have a problem with unions or employees of a particular public entity working toward electing one or more of the candidates for office.

USUALLY!

In the Francis Howell School District, the teacher's union, Francis Howell Education Association (FHEA), which is an affiliate of the Missouri NEA, has always maintained a certain level of dialogue with the board and administration. I've never thought that was overly bad, because I believe all sides need to be heard. I also will suggest that voters have been able to see through any smokescreens for years and elect mostly competent people to the board -- and when they haven't, they've been quick to get rid of them.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case lately, as has been documented by previous comments on this and other blogs.

When the district went through the kindergarten miscount debacle, heads started to roll. In many cases, probably heads that didn't deserve to roll just for that particular reason, but the FHSD was starting to realize that it needed to clean house. Superintendent Dr. Lee Brittenham and Chief Financial guru John Hutchison were the first to leave, which opened up a whole different world to the board members and public. In promoting Dr. Dan Brown to superintendent, I thought the board had made a good decision -- they took a man who had essentially grown up in the district and placed him at the helm. He had been, at one time, president of the FHEA, so he would surely have a good opportunity to work within that organization toward a common goal. But Brown had enemies on the board (Sally Breck, et. al.) and decided that the nonsense they were pulling wasn't worthwhile.

Brown exercised a clause in his contract and abruptly retired, thrusting Dr. Dan O'Donnell into the position on an interim basis. O'Donnell was given the permanent contract just before a new school board was to be seated. He was an Associate Superintendent overseeing human resources and certified staff, and came to FHSD after having been a superintendent in two smaller districts.

O'Donnell also had enemies on the board, Breck and new ally Lisa Naeger had strung along Erik Hunt, who was merely looking for someone on the board to provide leadership, so he went with their lead. Breck, Naeger and Hunt, in the board minority, seemed to relish their role as spoilers -- those that wanted O'Donnell gone since he had had ANYTHING to do with the FHSD at any time during the past.

A newly released state audit had found problems in a number of areas of concern, but no criminal wrongdoing on anyone's part, specifically regarding the kindergarten miscount, which led to a state overpayment of over $7 million. The state, because of special legislation passed, allowed the district five years to repay this debt, so as not to take such a hard hit in one year.

While this repayment time was ongoing, Tom Wootten and Jon Bennett were elected to the board as Pat Fitzgerald and Sandra Ferguson left the board. Like others on the board, Don Wescott and Lou Cheli, Wootten and Bennett were supported by the FHEA. This infuriated Breck and Naeger, since they are so anti-NEA and felt like the four in the majority would be doing the bidding of the NEA while on the board. In fact, Wootten and Bennett ran at a time when Mark Lafata was trying to get on the board, along with Kim Norton, an attorney who abruptly moved to Texas right after losing the election.

Meanwhile, Lafata, Naeger and Breck all criticized the board majority for having been supported by the FHEA, even though the support they sought came from a mere promise to listen to them and treat them with respect. Hunt switched sides when he realized the lack of common sense coming from Breck and Naeger on the board and the next year was rather blissful. Hunt moved, Gene Hendrickson was placed on the board to fill out the term and the board set Naeger and Breck at opposite ends of the dais so that they couldn't sit and talk like a couple of school girls throughout the meetings, which had been the subject of many comments by patrons, including students.

When Lafata got on the board the next year, as Breck disappeared, the 5-2 majority held and so did the criticism of any board member that had ever been supported by the FHEA. Bennett didn't run for re-election, Wootten was elected to a second term with Anne Womack, and the district had put an incredible administration in place, still led by O'Donnell, with Dr. Elizabeth Schmitz as Deputy Superintendent, Chad Brady as CFO, Kevin Palmer as CIO, Mark Recca as Controller, Judy Cochrane as Director of Special Education and many others. I mention these administrators because, as of July 1, 2006, every one of them, and many others, will be gone from the district. Either from retirement or because they chose to bail from the "new" school district, with Lafata at the head of the board, followed by his faithful band of merries, Bill Spencer, Terry Black and until recently, Rhonda Brown. Brown's epiphany about Lafata's motivation came too late, unfortunately, and a lot of the damage has been done to the FHSD by this new team of candidates.

Interestingly, Lafata and his friends' election came during a time when the FHEA remained conspicuously silent through the election process. As soon as Lafata was named president of the board, it all became clear. He had made a deal with FHEA president Linda Hess, and was there to do the union's bidding. Schmitz went out the door, as did Recca. Brady bailed, Cochrane retired mid-year, Palmer is leaving and O'Donnell is out at the end of the school year, as is Pat Houlihan, Director of Administrative Services and many others (see below).
Brown, sometime around the beginning of the year, started having some feuds with Lafata about the direction he was taking the district, which came to a head during the February meeting. Lafata, fearing that he may lose control of the board with a reorganization being demanded by the NEW majority on the board, cancelled the March meeting, opting instead for a full-court press to get one person elected to the board to replace Brown.

The FHEA suddenly has chosen to be involved in the elective process again, now that Lafata's lips are planted firmly on Hess' ass, and they are supporting Ken Schaller and Marty Hodits for the board. To be true, Schaller is Lafata's true choice for the board -- Hodits can't stand Lafata. But Hodits' wife is a well respected kindergarten teacher at Castlio Elementary, and the FHEA couldn't NOT endorse him. If the two of them are elected, Lafata maintains his 4-3 majority over the board and will use it as a springboard to try to land on the County Council.

I would find it absolutely amusing, if it weren't so appalling, that Lafata is now the whore for the teacher's union in the Francis Howell School District. I find it equally appalling that the FHEA membership would sit by while allowing Hess to virtually destroy any credibility they have as an organization.

They used to sit back and say, "we're not a union, we're a professional association." They can no longer say that. And Lafata can no longer complain that others were in bed with the teacher's union -- none of them had ever been kissed like he has been. The FHEA can no longer be trusted to be supportive of principles, ideas or candidates that will carry the Francis Howell School District into the future.