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St. Joseph School District administrators placed on leave
January 22, 2015
By Sam Zeff
The biggest bombshell to date has dropped in the ongoing scandals in Missouri’s St. Joseph School District. After a marathon meeting behind closed doors on January 20, 2015, Ballotpedia has learned that the two top administrators in the embattled district have been placed on paid administrative leave: Superintendent Fred Czerwonka and Chief Operating Officer Rick Hartigan.
Hartigan appeared before the executive session of the school board with a lawyer and a court reporter to record the proceedings. Hartigan left the district’s downtown headquarters with his lawyer without commenting.
Czerwonka also exited the building without comment.
Hartigan was hired by the district in 1988 as its communications director. He was promoted to COO in 1998.
His name hasn’t surfaced much in the ongoing controversy, but he’s been central to ongoing investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Missouri State Auditor.
The Candy Man saga turns bittersweet
Czerwonka has only been in St. Joseph for two years, but controversy has dogged him from the beginning.
It was his decision to divvy up a $270,000 insurance settlement with 54 top administrators that opened the door to the raft of problems currently staring down the district.
Czerwonka has admitted to giving those administrators $5,000 stipends last spring without seeking board approval. Those secret payments earned Czerwonka a nickname: The Candy Man.
Soon after The Candy Man stipends became public at a Board of Education meeting, the FBI opened its investigation. The district has also been served with three subpoenas from a federal grand jury in Kansas City.
At the executive session, the board also met with the state auditors and reviewed the report page-by-page.
While the report hasn’t been released, those who’ve seen it say it’s scathing and reviews some district finances and operations going back to 2000.
Sam Zeff covers education for KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri. He's won a National News Emmy for investigative reporting, four National Headliner Awards and four Edward R. Murrow awards. Zeff has managed newsrooms in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City. He was educated at the University of Kansas.
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