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St. Joseph school board rescinds CFO suspension
November 18, 2014
By Sam Zeff
The ongoing financial investigation of the school district in St. Joseph, Missouri, took an unusual turn on November 17, 2014, when former Chief Financial Officer Beau Musser returned to his post after seven months on paid administrative leave for accusations of sexual misconduct and creating a hostile workplace.
The personnel move coincided with a third grand jury subpoena against the St. Joseph School District, which requested the district's personnel records and information on its tuition and teacher certificate reimbursement programs. According to some sources, the cause for the new subpoena is that only a select number of administrators have received reimbursements for their pursuance of graduate degrees, and that these reimbursements were given "without board approval or knowledge."[1]
Musser was placed on leave and accused of misconduct, according to a lawsuit he filed against the district, after he helped bring to light $270,000 in improper stipends the district paid to 54 administrators, from associate superintendents to assistant principals.
Superintendent Dr. Fred Czerwonka, according to some in the district, handed out those stipends soon after he was hired. He quickly picked up a nickname for those generous payments: "The Candy Man."
CFO claimed innocence all along
At the time of the suspension, Musser told Ballotpedia, "So my efforts were to protect taxpayer dollars and do what was right, and I was punished for it."
Musser had also uncovered other improprieties, including 4,000 gallons of missing gasoline, cars purchased without board approval and a sloppy system for approving contracts with employees. "Nobody over the years, until I got there, basically stood up and said wait a second, you know, this is wrong," Musser said.
The St. Joseph School District, which oversees 11,000 students, would not make anyone available for an interview after Musser restarted his job as CFO.
Czerwonka offered this statement: "We welcome back Mr. Musser to the St. Joseph School District. The focus of the St. Joseph School District remains the same: to educate each child for success. It is important for our leadership team to move forward together to continue the work of this district."
Investigations continue
The Musser saga is not over. Even though he’s returned to work, his lawsuit against the district charging wrongful termination, breach of contract and slander remains active.
School board member Chris Danford, who also blew the whistle on the alleged improper stipends, says she’s worried about how much Musser’s lawsuit could cost the district.
"Was Beau Musser’s reputation hurt in the seven months he was on leave?" asks Danford. "All you have to do is Google his name and see what comes up."
Danford says the board voted in executive session two weeks ago to ask Musser to return to work. That decision followed an outside investigation that cost the district $12,000, and showed allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against Musser by Czerwonka and Human Resources Director Doug Flowers were untrue.
The district is also paying an outside HR firm to help transition Musser back into the district and paying another law firm to investigate whether Czerwonka and Flowers acted within district rules when they put Musser on administrative leave.
"There’s no accountability for the superintendent and his HR director," says Danford, who believes another outside investigation is necessary.
The district is already in the middle of major outside investigations related to questions about finances. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and a grand jury in Kansas City have ongoing probes. Dozens of people have been interviewed and, according to a source, the district just finished fulfilling a subpoena for records from the grand jury.
The district is also waiting for a forensic audit from the Missouri State Auditor. Some in the district believe it will be scathing.
Part of the district’s local property tax assessment will sunset next year, and if voters lose confidence in the school board and don’t approve a new levy, the district stands to lose $6.5 million in revenue. A date for that levy election hasn't been set, but the earliest vote could come in April 2015.
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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