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State to audit Francis Howell School District on its spending

Published

2 years ago

April 9, 2023

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ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – The Missouri State Auditor announced that he is opening an audit of the Francis Howell School District in St. Charles County.

Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said he heard from the public, as well as from a member of the Francis Howell school board and state legislators, asking him to investigate.

It all started when the construction of Francis Howell North High School, which was supposed to cost $86 million, instead cost $164 million.

The school district released an internal audit of its spending. It concluded that a lot of procedures were violated, and costly additions were made to the project without the proper approval of the school board.

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“Well, just in general, when you have a member of the board of education that is interested in having the state come in, that’s a big step,” Fitzpatrick said. “We try to look at factors, and one of the ones we already know about is the amount over budget that the high school project went, and that can lead to other concerns about internal controls and management effectiveness and efficiency.”

He said the state audit has a lot of advantages for taxpayers.

“One big difference is that obviously, they were the client in that audit; they paid somebody to come and conduct that audit,” Fitzpatrick said. “Whereas, the audit that we’ll perform will be totally independent. They did not ask us to come; we’re coming on our own. We’re doing this on behalf of taxpayers as opposed to on behalf of the district being paid to do the audit.”

State Representative Phil Christofanelli is one of the lawmakers who wrote the auditor, asking him to investigate.

“I received a number of concerning messages from parents in the Francis Howell School District, particularly as it relates to funds that were spent in the passage of Proposition S,” Christofanelli said. “We want answers, we want to figure out where in the process things went wrong so that we can make sure that in the future these types of coverages of tax dollars don’t happen again.”

The Francis Howell Families group has been fighting the school administration over spending for years. This past election, they ran a slate of candidates for the school board, and all of them won. The head of the group, Ken Gontarz, said he was glad to see the state auditor coming in.

“We had a $79 million overrun; we could have built another school for that,” Gontarz said. “So for the $79 million, we still have a lot of things that will have to be done in the school district.”

The auditor’s office said it will pay the $60,000 to $70,000 cost of the audit. It will be finished later this year or next year.

A spokesperson from the Francis Howell School District released the following statement about the state auditor:

“We are aware of the state auditor’s intent, and as we’ve shared previously, we welcome this external review of district finances.”

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Man attacks Jeff Co. deputy with screwdriver during attempted arrest

Published

2 years ago

July 11, 2023

Natural Bridge

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. – Two people are behind bars after a man reportedly attacked a Jefferson County deputy with a screwdriver during an attempted arrest over the weekend.

Prosecutors have charged Nicholas Davis, 47, and Amanda Davis, 45, of Dittmer, Missouri, with felonies in the investigation.

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The alleged attack followed a traffic stop of a driver in the 9500 block of Jones Creek Road on July 7, though the driver was not Nicholas or Amanda.

According to court documents obtained by FOX 2, Nicholas reportedly came out of his nearby home, yelled at a deputy and started approaching him while holding a screwdriver. The deputy initially ordered Nicholas to back away, then used pepper spray.

Per court documents, the deputy attempted to arrest Nicholas, who then struck him in the chest with the screwdriver. Amanda reportedly approached the deputy and pulled him away from Nicholas before both ran inside their home.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says the situation prompted an hours-long standoff involving negotiators, a SWAT team and a K-9 deputy. The situation led to Nicholas refusing warnings and being bitten by a K-9.

Nicholas and Amanda are both jailed in the Jefferson County Jail without bond. Nicholas is charged with first-degree assault on a special victim and armed criminal action. Amanda is charged with resisting/interfering with arrest.

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St. Louis Public Schools superintendent to be sworn in

Published

2 years ago

July 11, 2023

Natural Bridge

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ST. LOUIS — The new St. Louis schools superintendent will be officially sworn into office today. Dr. Keisha Scarlett took over the job in July after the retirement of Dr. Kelvin Adams. She was assistant superintendent in the Seattle Public School District. The installation ceremony is at 6:15 p.m. before the regular school board meeting.

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Gas tanker crashes into St. Louis Metro transit center

Published

2 years ago

July 11, 2023

Natural Bridge

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ST. LOUIS — A gasoline tanker truck crashed into a Metro transit center near Riverview and Hall Streets early Tuesday morning and knocked over a power pole. The pole is leaning on other power lines. Police have the area blocked off here because there is a downed power line. Ameren and Metro crews are also on the scene.

The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. It’s still unclear exactly what caused the crash, but we do that there was a second vehicle somehow involved. The airbags on that second vehicle did deploy.

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Police at the scene have not been able to give us a lot of details. Metro officials tell FOX 2 that the transit center here is operating this morning for passengers and buses. Access to certain areas will be limited here as clean up unfolds.

A Metro spokesperson says half of the station isn’t being used right now because of safety issues. It isn’t impacting overall bus operations, everything is just happening on the other side of transit center.

The extent of the damage to the actual transit center is still unclear, but I’m told it does not appear to be extreme. A Metro spokesperson tells me there were no injuries to any metro workers or passengers. The tanker driver also was not injured.

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