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VIDEO: SLCC Professor Suspended for Sexual Abuse At Previous School
By Gabe Bullard
Filed
Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 11:14 PM
Earlier this week, St. Louis Community College (SLCC) suspended music professor Lawrence Stukenholtz for sexual misconduct. Stukenholtz was not suspended for any misdeeds at SLCC, but for incidents at Matter Dei High School in California, a Catholic institution.
Court records show that after reports of sexual relationships and abuse with female minors, Stukenholtz was offered the chance to resign or else face a full investigation. He resigned and eventually wound up teaching music at SLCC.
When one of Stukenholtz's victims, Sarah Gray, found out about his position in St. Louis she contacted the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Local SNAP officials say they told SLCC administrators about Stukenholtz's past, but after no action was taken, they met with Gray and hand-delivered a letter to the school's main office.
Following the delivery, Stukenholtz was suspended.
Gray's legal options against Stukenholtz are limited since she already settled a case, along with other victims.
"The settlement was basically a way for myself and the other girls to move forward," says Gray.
Gray is currently pushing to get Stukenhotlz indicted on charges of sexual abuse of a child in Orange County, California.
PubDef talked with Gray before she and SNAP representatives delivered their letter to the SLCC.
The President of the 24th Ward Democrats sat down with PubDef.net this afternoon to discuss the ongoing effort to recall Mayor Francis Slay and why his organization opposes it.
John Corbett, president of the 24th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, was active in the recall of his own alderman, Tom Bauer, just two years ago. Corbett is a retired University City firefighter and has spent time lobbying on behalf of firefighters in state government. He says he sometimes worked with, and sometimes against, former Fire Chief Sherman George back when George was an active member of the black firefighters' organization, F.I.R.E.
"Sherman has his own agenda, just like I did when I was president of the firefighters' union," says Corbett. "I don't think Sherman ever changed from working for F.I.R.E."
And now the exciting conclusion of our interview with affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly.
Connerly has come to Missouri to support a proposed amendment to our state constitution to "ban affirmative action programs designed to eliminate discrimination against, and improve opportunities for, women and minorities in public contracting, employment and education."
Last week, I sat down with Ward Connerly, the controversial founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, a national non-profit organization created to oppose racial and gender preference, commonly known as affirmative action.
In 1996, Connerly was instrumental in getting Proposition 209 passed in California. The controversial initiative amended the state's constitution to prohibit public institutions, such as universities, from taking race or gender into consideration in hiring or admissions.
Connerly has now come to Missouri. He has been brought in to be the spokesman for a group based out of Grain Valley, Missouri which is organizing to get an initiative passed next year which is very similar to the one passed in California.
The California initiative passed by 54%. In this much more conservative Midwestern state, supporters of affirmative action are up for a fight — one that will likely be settled on the very same ballot that decides who will be the next President of the United States.
And now, part 1 of my interview with Ward Connerly...
PubDef.net caught up with State Senator Rita Days (D-St. Louis County) as she was leaving the Ferrara Theatre in America's Center, where Democratic Presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama addressed the National Urban League Conference just moments before.
We asked Days, who says she supports Barack Obama's campaign, what she thought about the candidates' speeches and the absence of the major Republican candidates, who each chose not to attend.
Days said for all the talk from Republican candidates about wanting to reach out to African Americans, their actions speak otherwise.
PubDef.net caught up with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean at the National Urban League Convention today. We asked him what he thought about the major Republican Presidential candidates choosing not to attend the convention.
"I'm not entirely surprised," said Dean. "They didn't show up at the NAACP. They didn't show up at the National Association of Latino Elected Officials."
"Our party is the party that includes everybody — in fact, it depends on everybody in order to win. And theirs doesn't."
Longtime "Blairmont" watchdog Michael Allen sat down with PubDef Friday to discuss Governor Matt Blunt's veto just hours earlier of the giant economic development bill that included a $100 million tax credit for one man, developer Paul McKee.
In addition to giving his reaction to the veto, Allen, an Old North resident who said he fully supports the state earmarking millions of dollars in tax credits to rebuild north St. Louis, suggested ways that McKee and state legislators can craft a better piece of legislation next year — one which residents and local elected officials can support.
Very few of the tens of thousands of people who attended this week's V.P. Parade know anything at all about its history.
Local Civil Rights legend Percy Green sat down with PubDef.net yesterday to discuss to history of the Veiled Prophet (V.P.) Parade and tell us the story of how in 1972 he led his group of militant ACTION activists in an operation to unveil the mysterious prophet.
JEFFERSON CITY – Still receiving criticisms and praises alike, State Sen. John Loudon spoke with PubDef today about his passion for the controversial issue of midwifery and the fallout from his stealth legalization of the practice in Missouri.
Yesterday, Missouri House members in support of Affirmative Action held a press conference in Jefferson City to express their opposition of an anti-Affirmative Action ballot initiative being pushed by a group calling itself, rather ironically, the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative.
State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin (D-St. Louis City), one of the organizers of the event, told PubDef that this issue is not just about reserving jobs and spots in higher education for African-Americans. He contends that the entire country benefits from diversity.
"We wanted to convey that this is not solely an African-American issue," said El-Amin. "We're trying not to be reactionary... trying to make sure people are being educated as to the deceptive language that is being used."
El-Amin went on to say that he expects any bill attacking Affirmative Action to receive strong Democratic opposition, and that he has spoken to some Republican lawmakers that he has worked with in the past that will also "be inclined to support" Affirmative Action.
While opponents contend that Affirmative Action programs have outlasted their usefulness, El-Amin couldn't disagree more.
"You can look at the numbers, and there is a disparity. It is obvious that you need some type of remedy," he said. And he will continue to feel that way, "until they can show me some numbers" to the contrary.
A native St. Louisan and former reporter for several local publications, Jabari Asim's byline can now be regularly seen in the pages of The Washington Post as deputy editor of the book review section. But it is his own book which is earning this "hometown boy made good" national attention.
Asim's book details the history of what is perhaps the most controversial word in our language today: nigger (commonly referred to in polite company as "the N word").
On Sunday afternoon, Asim sat down with PubDef on the corner of 14th Street and Washington Ave, in front of the Geletaria café, to talk about his new book and the word that continues to cause so much pain and controversy.
You can meet Asim tonight at the St. Louis Public Library Central Branch, 1301 Olive Street, at 7:00 p.m. He will be discussing and signing copies of his book. The event is free to the public and all are welcome.
There was a time not too long ago when religious leaders in America focused the energies of their flocks on social ills like poverty, education and civil rights. But in recent decades, religious conservatives have refocused those energies on the narrow fights against abortion and homosexuality.
While the country engages in wars which result in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, with only some notable exceptions, the religious community is largely silent. What happened to the Christian calling for social justice?
The name Kennedy is synonymous with a religious calling leading to social action through politics. The family and their two most famous sons have a legacy of public service that is rooted from their Catholic values and has branched into nearly every arena of public service thanks to a family tree as large as any in Yellowstone.
Earlier this week, I sat down with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and the eldest of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy's 11 children. We discussed her new book, "Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way".
Click here to buy "Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way" on Amazon.com.
There is a rumor that Riverview Gardens has been notified that the state is about to step in. Last week we asked Gov. Matt Blunt if state involvement in troubled districts was going to end with St. Louis Public Schools.
UPDATE: Today DESE released the agenda for the State Board of Education's April meeting. It specifically noted that neither the St. Louis City schools nor the Riverview Gardens School Districts will be discussed this month.
Friday afternoon, the day the Special Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools recommended that an appointed three-person board run the city schools for the next 6-10 years, Mayor Francis Slay sat down with PUB DEF to discuss what it all means for the children and parents of St. Louis City.
"The school district is in crisis. It's been on a downward spiral for quite some time," said Slay.
"It's not something that happened last week, or several months ago, or even four years ago. It's something that's been going on for a number of years."
But some would argue that the current state of the SLPS financial and academic spiral can be traced back to 2003, the year longtime superintendent Cleveland Hammonds retired and four new members, all backed by Mayor Slay, were elected to the school board. Since then the district went from a positive to a negative fund balance, slipped further away from full accreditation (after being only two points away), and has lost the confidence of the city's parents, voters and corporate community.
But Slay maintains that the current woes have more to do with troubles which started much earlier.
"What happened back then is something that was created by the crisis this district presented," said Slay.
He said the financial situation realized in 2003 forced the board to make some tough decisions causing some disruptions. But the mayor repeated his view that the school district's problems go back many, many years.
"This started a long time ago," he said.
Even if all of the Advisory Committee's recommendations, which seem to attempt to take politics (and the voters) out of the process for a while, are eventually adopted, the central question of how to better educate urban children is barely addressed in their report and is by no means a riddle only we in St. Louis are scratching our heads about.
All across America, large school districts are trying to answer the same question: How do we prepare poor children for the world of the future while competing with the deadly challenges of their world today? None of these recommendations guarantee success. So we asked the mayor if at the end of two, four, even six years into this latest experiment, SLPS still isn't succeeding -- what then?
"I think everyone involved in this ought to make sure that doesn't happen," said Slay.
The chairwoman of the St. Louis City Board of Elections says Election Day is going pretty smoothly so far.
Kim Mathis told PUB DEF that aside from some minor problems with a few optical scan machines, the election is proceeding without any major controversies so far.
We asked her about reports of confusion at some polling places -- either with faulty equipment or misinformed elderly judges -- that resulted in some voters being given provisional ballots. Mathis said she had not heard of any of those incidents, but she said even though an optical scan ballot might have been marked "provisional" it wasn't actually a provisional vote if it was scanned and counted on the spot.
Mathis also said she had not heard of any touch screen machines not working today. But when this reporter arrived to vote at Yeatman School this morning, only one of the three touch screen machines was operational. Twenty minutes later, by the time I got to the front of the line, all three were functioning.
Mathis would not predict what time tonight the election board would have the final unofficial vote total. "We'll try to get them out as soon as we can," she said. "But I don't anticipate you're going to see anything longer here than you would find anywhere else."
Watch our entire 5-minute interview with Mathis...
State Auditor candidate Sandra Thomas sat down with PUB DEF for a few minutes this morning to talk about her campaign and her vision for the office.
Thomas, who is a CPA and currently the auditor for Platte County, said she thinks politics has no place in the auditor's office.
"I think it's really important that we have someone that is going to take the politics out of that office," she said. "Someone who wants to do the job for the taxpayers of finding the waste, fraud and abuse in state government."
She focused on her education (Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in accounting) and her experience in Platte County as qualifications for the office.
Yesterday we published our interview with Thomas' Democratic opponent, Susan Montee. Click here to watch it.
A few weeks ago, Susan Montee, the Democratic candidate for State Auditor, sat down with PUB DEF to talk about her "exciting" race to succeed Claire McCaskill.
Montee, who is a CPA and currently the auditor for Buchanan County, said the office of State Auditor is important because it serves as a watchdog for state government.
She said if Republican Gov. Matt Blunt gets an auditor of his same party we will see is a lot of "happy news coming out over the next two years from the Auditor's office telling us about how great the Blunt administration's policies have been."
Tomorrow we are scheduled to interview the Republican candidate for State Auditor, Sandra Thomas, who is also a CPA and currently auditor for Platte County.
On Nov. 7, St. Louis City voters will be asked to raise their sales tax by 1/8 percent to pay for the construction and maintenance of two new state-of-the-art recreation centers -- one in north St. Louis and one in south St. Louis -- and to provide a dedicated revenue source for maintaining and upgrading the City's existing recreation facilities.
In an interview yesterday, Mayor Francis Slay said the new tax is estimated to generate about $4.37 million annually. Should Proposition P pass, the City would almost immediately issue bonds to pay for building the new rec-plexes (which cost about $19 million each) and upgrading its existing rec centers (about $9.5 million). Expanding the number and scope of recreation programs offered by the City will cost about $700,000 per year, according to Slay.
The southside rec-plex is going to be built in Carondolet Park. The northside location has not been finalized, but O'Fallon Park is the frontrunner after receiving the endorsement of the Aldermanic Black Caucus. Should the tax increase pass, Slay said to look for doors to open on the two facilities in two to three years.
If Prop P fails next Tuesday, Slay said it will have been another "lost opportunity" for the City of St. Louis.
"This is what it's going to take," said Slay. "It's going to take something like this to really do something that makes a difference as far as recreation in the City."
There have been rumors of a battle brewing for State Sen. Maida Coleman's position as Minority Floor Leader -- possibly from fellow Democrat, State Sen. Tim Green. We asked Sen. Coleman if she's worried about losing her position.
When Coleman returns to the senate she'll have a new colleague from St. Louis -- Jeff Smith. Coleman was openly supportive of one of Smith's opponents in the August primary election. With that in mind, we asked her if she expects Smith to be an ally in Jefferson City.
Finally, we asked Coleman about her own plans for life after the senate. State term limits prohibit her from seeking re-election. Earlier this year she had expressed interest in running for state auditor and city license collector. But after little support among Democrats and a scathing article in the Post-Dispatch about her own personal financial history, she decided against campaigning this year. Coleman said those experiences left her questioning the commitment of her party to African-American candidates.
Last week, State Senator Maida Coleman blasted Gov. Matt Blunt and his head of the Office of Administration for politicking on the taxpayers' dime. In a press release she called Commissioner Mike Keathley a "spin doctor" and said he lacked credibility when speaking on issues other than the budget.
Coleman, who as the Minority Floor Leader in the senate is one of the highest ranking Democrats in Missouri, sat down with PUB DEF today to discuss her criticisms of Keathley and Blunt. She also discussed one of Blunt's latest hires, former St. Louis Election Board Chairman Ed Martin, who is now the Governor's new chief of staff.
Coleman said the election board under Martin had no business trying to get involved in the legal fights over the new voting requirements, which she said was really about "disenfranchising the large numbers of blacks and Democrats who vote here in the City of St. Louis."
Come back tomorrow for part two of our interview with Sen. Coleman as she discusses rumors of a fight to retain her leadership post in the state senate; her relationship with the newest senator from St. Louis, Jeff Smith; and her future plans for life after term limits.
U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill took a few minutes to talk to PUB DEF before tonight's Willie Nelson concert at the UMB Bank Pavilion in St. Louis County. The country music star has thrown his support behind McCaskill's campaign against Republican Sen. Jim Talent.
We discussed how effective celebrity support is in a close race like hers, why she thinks Nelson chose to support her campaign, what she thinks about Talent's silence on the issue of raising Missouri's minimum wage (which voters will decide the same day they select a U.S. Senator), and if she is worried about having much less money in the bank than her opponent.
We have requested an interview with Sen. Jim Talent some time in the near future.
What did you find as auditor of the district and are you still the auditor?
How long will you be "interim" superintendent?
What do you think about the recent talk about a state takeover of the district?
What makes what you're doing any different than what Creg Williams was trying to do?
How will you alter Creg Williams' "strategic plan" and will you rehire the teachers that he fired?
Will you end or alter Williams'reorganization plan for some of the city's most troubled high schools?
How will you lure students from charter schools?
Only 4 of the 7 members of the board are here today. How will you help heal the rift that exists on the school board?
PUB DEF asked Bourisaw, who is the 6th superintendent in three years and the 2nd superintendent in the last 7 days, what can she say to parents who wonder about stability in SLPS?
What experience to you have that qualifies you to reforming this district?
A parent asked Bourisaw, because SLPS is at least double the size of any district you ever led before, not to mention it's urban and mostly poor and black, what makes you qualified to lead this district?
What are you going to do differently than Creg Williams to reform SLPS?
How will you work with the divided board?
You're taking a smaller salary than your predecessor, will your other staff as well? And how will you pay for your planned reforms?
When where you first approached about becoming superintendent?
It Didn't Have to Go Down Like This, Board Becoming What it Hated
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 12:39 PM
Last week, in an off the record conversation with a member of the St. Louis school board's minority, he and I agreed that the tensions between the board's majority and Superintendent Creg Williams could only be solved in one of three ways:
(A) Williams and the board could try harder to work together, coming to a working agreement about each other's roles in reforming SLPS; (B) The board can get rid of Williams; or (C) The state could get rid of the board.
He and the Mayor opted for C. The board majority opted for B. And both Williams and the majority seemed unwilling or unable to take the A option.
There may have been reason to dismiss Creg Williams. To date, he had offered no plan to deal with the estimated $50 million financial crisis facing the district in less than 18 months. He was often unwilling to provide board members with information they felt they needed to make informed decisions. He routinely overreached his authority in hiring high-priced consultants, reassigning employees, and making major moves without the approval of the school board, as was contractually required. And he was often openly insubordinate to his bosses -- something that the mayor has fired his own high-profile employees for.
When rumors began to spread about possible action against Williams, I offered the following advice: Make your public demands of the superintendent, allow him time to comply or not. If the tensions persist, then make your case for the need for new leadership. Over 30-60 days, talk to opinion makers and editorial boards. Tell them what Williams is doing wrong. Build public support for a change in direction.
If it is true, as some board members have said, that Williams has made so many poor decisions that the district is being set up for a chaotic and disastrous first week of school, then the board should have kept Diana Bourisaw "in waiting" for a few more weeks, let the disaster happen, then come in to save the day.
But now, if any little thing happens during that first week (and it always does), it's going to be seen as the board's fault for throwing the district into chaos just weeks before the start of school.
This thing should have gone done much smoother than this. As I write, nearly 48 hours after the bloodbath at 801, the board still has not held a press conference. The board still has not said why Williams (or even Floyd Irons) was dismissed. The board still has not explained why a quarter million dollars of taxpayer money is going to paid by an already bankrupt school district to get rid of a man who had a higher approval rating than the board of education.
The new school board majority has disappointed many of its supporters who backed them because they were upset with the secretive and arrogant manner in which the former majority operated.
That school board, backed by Mayor Francis Slay, made major decisions, costing the district millions of dollars, without any regard for public input. It thumbed its nose and the state's Sunshine Laws and operated like a private corporation whose major stockholders resided in City Hall and not in the poorest neighborhoods of our city.
This board is now on the brink of becoming what it said it hated.
Two months ago, after the board agreed to hold off on Williams’ recommendation to close Cleveland High School to allow time for public input, Board President Veronica O’Brien, a Slay appointee, called a special public meeting with less than 24 hours notice. Some school board members were out of town and couldn’t even attend. Some aldermen who showed up at the hastily called meeting complained that it appeared that O’Brien had called the meeting just to “get it out of the way.”
As we all know now, O’Brien again this week -- with far less than 24 hours notice -- called an emergency meeting to replace Williams with a woman that some board members had never met before and clearly the public does not know. After the deed was done, neither she nor board members Bill Purdy, Peter Downs or Donna Jones had anything to say to the media or the public about what they had done.
The level of arrogance of this board has shown this week matches, and maybe even exceeds, that of the Slay/Schoemehl/Roberti board. It has squandered much of the good will coming from the April election and has done two things that many thought were impossible: made Archibald and Jackson the voices of reason, and made this reporter agree with Mayor Francis Slay.
It is a damn shame how this thing went down. It didn’t have to be this way and the damage may be irreparable.
Most Many of the employees of St. Louis Public Schools did not get paid today as scheduled. District spokesmen Johnny Little and Tony Sanders have not returned repeated calls, but sources in the district say the fault lies in the treasurer's office.
As we reported earlier this week, Superintendent Creg Williams turned those duties over to the district's interim chief financial officer, Cedric Lewis, after Enos Moss suddenly resigned from the post three weeks ago.
Developing...
UPDATE 1: Mary Armstrong, the president of the teachers' union, said today's payroll mistake affects all of the district's employees who get paid by direct deposit. She said she has asked the superintendent to make paper checks available to those employees today for pick-up at the district headquarters.
She said she has also asked the district to prepare letters addressed to the creditors of those employees facing non-sufficient funds (NSF) and late fees because of the today's error.
UPDATE 2: Tony Sanders, a district spokesman, said that principals are collecting names those teachers that "want or need" to get paid today and that checks will be delivered to those employees at the school sometime this afternoon.
Sanders would not say how the mistake occured, except to call it a "human error." He would not identify the particular human at fault.
UPDATE 3: Two thousand (out of approximately 5,000) employees were affected by today's direct deposit transmission error. District spokesman Tony Sanders pointed out that that is not "most" of the district's employees. And so we have corrected our original post to reflect that.
Sanders also wanted to clear up a couple of other things. He said the decision to give paper checks to only those employees who requested one was because had checks been written to all 2,000 employees, you would have some employees who would not be available today to receive them. Due to Independence Day holiday, some staff members would then not receive their pay until they returned next week -- or later for employees who are on vacation. It would also be difficult to notify those employees.
Sanders also pointed out that the error impacted all staff members who utilize direct deposit, not just teachers, as some have suggested.
UPDATE 4: Contrary to a promise from Dr. Williams emailed to all district staff, some employees did not receive paper checks by the end of the day. We are told that those employees who bank at U.S. Bank should see the funds available tomorrow. Those that bank at other institutions should see their funds available on Monday, July 3.
UPDATE 5: Here's a video of an interview we did this afternoon with the Local 420's president, Mary Armstrong...
On Tuesday, we reported that Superintendent Creg Williams had not recommended a replacement for the school district's treasurer, who resigned three weeks ago. After an investigation by PUB DEF, it was learned that Williams had assigned those duties to the district's chief financial officer without consulting with the school board.
On Wednesday, we reported that Williams may have also overreached his authority by firing roughly 1,000 teachers and asking them to reapply for their jobs. A copy of the superintendent's contract, obtained by PUB DEF after a Sunshine Law request, clearly states that all hirings, firings, and reassignments are to be recommended by Williams but must be approved by the school board.
While the board did approve reconstituting three high schools and four middle schools at its May meeting, district spokesmen said Williams sent termination letters to teachers at more than a dozen different schools.
School Board President Veronica O'Brien said that she believes Williams should have asked the board before such moves were made. She also said that she had requested the superintendent to submit a resolution asking the board to act on his recommendation. That had not been done.
PUB DEF asked Williams by email when he planned to ask the board to approve these two moves. He has not responded.
The board's vice-president, Bill Purdy, told PUB DEF, "superintendents are directly accountable to the board of education and not the other way around."
Yesterday, Mayor Francis Slay weighed in on the situation in support of Williams. "It is no secret that I -- and a lot of people in our community -- trust Dr. Williams and hope that he perseveres here. And it is no secret that Purdy disagrees," Slay wrote on his blog.
"School boards are elected to provide direction. The superintentent is hired to run the district. Not the other way around," wrote the mayor.
VIDEO: CRB Flap Again Shows Police Should Be Under Local Control
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, June 19, 2006 at 9:55 AM
Alderman Terry Kennedy (18th Ward) was the original sponsor of the bill that was passed earlier this year by the Board of Aldermen to create a civilian review board to investigate reports of abuses of power by city cops. Mayor Francis Slay vetoed that bill and proposed a weaker version, which the state-controlled police board approved.
Last week, we reported that supporters of Kennedy's bill noticed significant changes between the version the police board approved in public and what actually became policy with the signature of police board president Chris Goodson.
Kennedy sat down with PUB DEF to again express his belief that the citizens of St. Louis deserve the same right to control their police department just as citizens of most other American cities.
VIDEO: Percy Green says Board should not renew Superintendent's contract
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Friday, June 16, 2006 at 6:00 AM
Legendary activist Percy Green has for decades been at the forefront of the struggle for civil rights and equality for African-Americans, a goal that over the years has found Green dangling from the Gateway Arch, sitting in numerous jail cells, standing before the Supreme Court, and all points in between.
In November 2003, Green found himself again in handcuffs. This time after being dragged from a meeting of the St. Louis Board of Education after a member of the school district's security team claimed he was trying to incite a riot. Green denied that charge and after hearing testimony from three witnesses, including school board member Bill Purdy, and judge agreed, finding Green not guilty Wednesday of all charges.
Green sat down with PUB DEF the day after his acquittal at a southside café to talk about the incident that led to his arrest and his recent open letter to the members of the school board asking them not to renew the contract of Superintendent Creg Williams.
Click here to download the video "Percy Green on his Arrest" (8MB). Click here to download the video "Percy Green on Creg Williams and SLPS" (12MB).
The president of the St. Louis City school board would neither confirm or deny tonight that a special meeting was being planned for Tuesday.
School board president Veronica O'Brien called PUB DEF to inquire about our sources for an earlier story about a meeting being planned for this week to discuss, and possibly vote on, the question of closing Cleveland High School.
"Where did you get your information?" she repeatedly asked. When we twice tried to confirm with her the meeting plans, she yelled "This is how this will work; you will listen to me." We then hung up the phone.
Shortly afterwards, O'Brien sent an email to two other board members, the board's attorney, and PUB DEF.
"I am asking your assistance in informing [Antonio French] that he is not privy to confidential information nor do I owe him any special privileges regarding the content of board communication," she wrote.
"It appears Mr. French is determine [sic] to find fault in my leadership and thus I wish him well," she said. "One thing for sure is that under my leadership you will always know where I am coming from."
If the school board does plan to have a meeting on Tuesday, state law requires that public notice be given sometime tomorrow. With the heat being received by the board president, and two to three board members possibly unable to make the meeting, it is likely that it may not happen on Tuesday.
