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Tech Exec’s Interest in Lindbergh School Board Raises Concerns

Published

1 year ago

March 25, 2024

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The conservative outrage express is barreling hard toward the school board governing the Lindbergh School District, courtesy of a political action committee run by Martin Bennet, a Des Peres man who is the regional manager of an Internet services company that markets to schools.

Direct mail flyers began appearing in the mailboxes of Lindbergh voters last week that were paid for by the St. Louis County Family Association Political Action Committee, which Bennett launched in January.

The flyers promote the candidacies of David Randelman and David Kirschner, who are among the four candidates vying for the two seats on the eight-member board at stake in the April 2 election. Randelman and Kirschner are running on platforms demanding improved test scores and greater fiscal responsibility.

The flyers attack diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs supposedly being overseen in the Lindbergh School District.

The flyers define DEI as driven by a “huge need to re-educate our white students” and to “make social justice and anti-racism a priority in the district.”

The flyers also claim that the district’s “emphasis on equity was not transparent” and that “academic rigor has declined in the district.”

The St. Louis County Family Association Political Action Committee has so far raised nearly $20,000 in cash — with $10,000 of that sum coming in cash from Bennet, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records.

In addition, Bennet made an $11,279 in-kind contribution to the political action committee, according to the latest MEC report.

Bennet is the regional manager for Common Goal Systems, of Elmhurst, Illinois, an Internet learning company that markets a wide range of services to public and private schools.

The SLCF PAC has so far spent $6,122 on direct mail, plus $1,939.74 each on the candidacies of Randelman and Kirschner — by far the biggest donations each man has reported receiving, MEC reports show.

In addition, Bennet has made $900 in in-kind contributions to Randelman and Kirschner, MEC records show.

Megan Fennell, the mother of two Lindbergh students, raised concerns about the divisive tone of the flyers. But her biggest issue is the potential financial conflict of interest involving Bennet, his company and any business dealings CGS might bring before the Lindbergh School Board.

“The financial gain is my concern,” Fennell said of Bennet. “That a corporation is trying to buy seats on the board.”

Fennell said she’s tried to contact Bennet, Randelman and Kirschner to express her concerns, but none of the three men responded to her questions, she said.

“The silence is pretty aggressive,” she said. “Something’s up, but I don’t know what it is.”

Bennet declined to answer a reporter’s list of emailed questions.

“We are pretty tied up for several weeks due to the election, business schedules, and personal events,” Bennet responded by email. “But, thank you for reaching out and we appreciate our area’s journalists!”

The SLCF PAC is connected to St. Louis County Family Association, a nonprofit group led by Bennet that has attacked DEI programs across St. Louis County, with a special emphasis on the Kirkwood, Ladue, Mehlville, Rockwood, Lindbergh, Parkway and Webster Groves school districts. The latter three districts were the sites of candidate forums the group sponsored last year.

The Family Association’s website is a veritable theme park of right-wing culture war issues, with topics including “Gender and Political Indoctrination” and the “Sexualization of Children.”

Bennet also started the group Tax Fairly, which fought against a 2020 Kirkwood School District bond issue.

Bennet, in his email, suggested that the RFT review a series of websites his organization has set up dealing with the alleged academic decline in Lindbergh and other school districts and informing parents about “changes to gender.”

Randelman and Kirschner also declined to answer the RFT’s questions.

“Thank you for reaching out to me,” wrote Randelman, 45, an IT professional. “At this time I am extremely busy as we are in the last two weeks of the campaign and work. Perhaps we can catch up after the election, if it is still relevant?”

Kirschner, 62, a retired oil company researcher and former Saint Louis University geology professor, wrote in an email that “I am somewhat surprised that the River Front Times is seeking to write an article so late in the election process…Given my focus on being elected, I will make myself available to you after the election, but not before.”

The other two Lindbergh School Board candidates — Rachel Braaf Koehler and Megan Vedder — have raised $2,737 and $1,994, respectively. Koehler and Vedder have received endorsements from the Lindbergh branch of the National Education Association.

Andrew Tolch, a Lindbergh parent who lives in Randelman’s neighborhood, says it “seems a little sketchy” that Bennet would use a political action committee he had set up to support the school board candidacies “of a different school district from where he’s at. That’s definitely one concern.”

But Tolch’s primary concern is Bennet’s potential financial stake in the April 2 election’s outcome.

“If your biggest donor is trying to sell your school district resources,” Tolch said, “we got a conflict of interest there.”

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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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