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St. Louis’ College Kids Program Won’t Release Funds, Grandfather Says | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 7, 2023

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click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD Joe Miklovic holds copies of the College Kids memorandum of understanding.

Funded by parking revenue collected by the city treasurer’s office, the College Kids Savings Account program aims to help city public- and charter-school families save money for college and learn financial literacy by providing students with savings accounts at Alltru Credit Union and “seeding” each with a $50 deposit.Since its launch in 2015, the city has spent about $2 million on the College Kids program, which has enrolled more than 23,000 students who live or once lived in the city of St. Louis.Students automatically enroll in the program in their kindergarten year, but they aren’t supposed to access the money until after they graduate from a city public or charter high school.Exceptions are made if students leave the district, if there’s a family financial emergency or if their parents and guardians want to move the money into a Missouri 529 Education Savings Plan, also known as MOST.So far only 31 account holders have successfully moved money out of their College Kids accounts, city treasurer records show.Joe Miklovic wants his grandson Josef to be the 32nd. But getting to that point has proven a frustratingly slow bureaucratic slog that so far has taken 14 months — and he still has no money to show for it.Miklovic, a retired certified public accountant who lives in south St. Louis, wants to withdraw the $1,255 in the boy’s account — including $825 that Miklovic personally donated — and invest it into MOST, which he says program rules allow him to do. Miklovic is doing this legwork with the permission of his daughter Leah, the boy’s mother.But the treasurer’s office still hasn’t released any money from the account. They’re fighting Miklovic on turning over the city contributions, saying he is only entitled to the $825 he personally donated. And they haven’t remitted even that portion yet.Miklovic can file an appeal to an undefined Program Committee, but thinks ultimately he and his daughter might have to go the legal route to pry the money loose. “I guess I can always file litigation and ask the courts to force them to do it,” Miklovic says.Neither city Treasurer Adam Layne nor Christina Bennett, the assistant city treasurer, have responded to RFT’s requests for comment.In an email sent in May to the RFT, Layne underscored that parents and guardians of College Kids account holders “can move their funds into a MOST 529. I already informed you [that] parents can have both accounts if they wish to. All parents have choices on where to invest their family’s excess cash.”However, the city has drawn a line with the incentives it provides through the program. As officials explained to the RFT in the spring, account holders can withdraw any monies they personally invest. Money the city provides is a different matter. And that distinction has led to problems for Miklovic, who says the memorandum of understanding setting up the program in 2015 outlines a different protocol. Under its terms, he says, his grandson should be given his entire account. Miklovic’s involvement with his grandson’s College Kids account began in 2019, when Josef was a student at Gateway Science Academy South, a charter school in south St. Louis.Miklovic began donating $25 every month to the account. His donations over the ensuing two and a half years added up to $825, plus $400 in incentives the treasurer’s office provided for good attendance and participation in financial literacy classes.But then two years ago, Josef’s family moved to Webster Groves. A year passed. Miklovic, acting on instructions from Josef’s parents, attempted to move the $1,255 in the College Kids account to the MOST account set up for the boy.Another year of frustration ensued, punctuated by long delays in returned phone calls and emails.Finally, on July 11, Miklovic received an email from Bennett, who shot down the idea of withdrawing the full $1,255 from the boy’s account.“You are reading an MOU from 2015,” Bennett wrote. “Unfortunately, you are reading only part of the document. Our goal is to provide financial education programming for all SLPS and charter school children from K-12 grade and grant the accrued incentive and family deposits at graduation. “Since you are requesting a withdrawal of funds and [withdrawal] from our program, you are forfeiting the accrued incentives,” Bennett wrote. As Miklovic counters, the 2015 MOU that set up College Kids states, “An account beneficiary’s parent or legal guardian may transfer all of the account balance, including deposits made by the STLTO (the Treasurer’s office), incentive deposits, deposit adjustments, deposits made by other individuals, and earned growth match to another privately held college savings vehicle each time the account reaches $500 or more.”To Miklovic, the matter is “pretty cut-and-dried. I have a 529 account that I want him to put the money into. And we have over $500.” Tishaura Jones set up College Kids while serving as city treasurer. It became one of Jones’ signature achievements, touted during her successful 2021 mayoral run. The treasurer’s office will likely spend at least another $1.5 million, for a total of $4 million, on the program before the first high school graduates touch any of the money, which won’t be until 2028 at the earliest.The June 7 RFT story on the program showed that only 15 percent of College Kids accounts have grown past the $50 seed level, and that only 12 percent of parents have signed up for incentives. The RFT also reported that account holders don’t earn interest, while the treasurer’s office will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars off the seed accounts by investing the money into U.S. Treasury notes.Miklovic dismisses College Kids as little more than an effective public relations tool for Jones, a stepping stone that helped get her elected mayor.“It was a campaign issue. On the surface it seems great,” Miklovic says. “But why would you advocate that we’re here to educate these families on good banking practices when we are keeping them from earning any interest?” Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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