Last nights Cameron R-1 school districts board meeting we heard concern raised about possible unnecessary and wasteful spending in the district. Were these legitimate concerns about wasteful spending, or a veiled attempt by the district to discredit a local resident? Let’s flesh this out a little and allow you to draw your own conclusion.
The relevant discussion happened in the first few minutes of last nights meeting. School board vice president Ryan Murphy brought up a concern and started a discussion about a large bill for attorney services to redact records for a single Missouri Sunshine Law request. During the discussion about that bill, board member Pam Ice asks Superintendent Matt Robinson how much that specific records request cost the district to make redactions. Matt responded that it was $8200. That is unquestionably a lot of money.
You can watch that full exchange in the following video. But be sure to continue reading as we will provide additional and relevant details about likely reasons why attorneys are now making these redactions.
Can those redaction be made by school staff to save money?
That is the relevant question I would have liked one of the board members to have asked superintendent Robinson. Board members Peck, Ice and board president Lockridge all joined in the conversation to share concern about the cost for redactions. They were concerned about the cost, why were there no questions on how the district could reduce that cost?
I believe that both the district and school board have a fiduciary responsibility to the tax payers to spend our money wisely. Paying a law firm $200 plus dollars an hour to redact names from public records doesn’t seem like a good use of tax dollars IF those redactions can be made by the district.
Around the 2 minute and 45 second mark in the above YouTube video, Robinson mentions the district can only charge the individual requesting the records an amount equal to the lowest paid qualified staff member to complete that task. Robinson mentions that is around $20 an hour.
Why then isn’t the Cameron school district making their own redactions and saving tax payers $180 an hour? Of course hindsight is 20/20, but this would have been a good question for a member of the board to ask. I’d love to hear a cost reduction question at every board meeting!
Has the school district previously completed their own records redactions
That is another question I would have liked to hear a board member ask. And if the answer provided was “yes”, a follow on question to ask why the change from previous and cheaper in house redactions. The board didn’t ask those questions, but i can still provide an answer to that question.
Yes, the Cameron school district has made its own redactions in the past.
In this screenshot you will see an email response from the district where they state that the superintendent was personally redacting records requests previously. Why was the highest paid staff member for the district conducting this task?
This image is from one of my own Sunshine Law requests and the redactions being made were staff names, the same type of redactions made in the $8200 request mentioned at last nights May 20th board meeting. If the district was previously able of making redactions to protect the names of district employees, why outsource that task to a significantly more expensive law firm? Another good question I wish one of the board members had asked.
Why did the Cameron school district stop completing their own redactions for records request?
While it is typically frowned on to comment on such questions with mere speculation, in this instance my answer is based on irrefutable fact. Records we previously obtained through Sunshine Law requests pertaining to the dirty book fight appear to indicated unlawful redactions made by the district.
One of the redactions appears to be an attempt to avoid transparency and coverup proof of records the district previously said didn’t exist. We can show you that unlawful redaction.
To the right in the attached screenshot you can see a record with a poorly made redaction. The link is to a google document of book votes taken by a book review committee. This is important because when I originally asked for records of these votes I was told that no records existed. This redaction appears to be an attempt made by the district to cover up the existence of public records. This is the exact opposite of transparency.
When did the district switch to using lawyers for redactions
If Mr Murphy were to extend his records request he shared with the board and made a public record at last nights meeting to around the time of my records request, I suspect we will find an uptick in the billable hours by Ed Council. It is my belief that it was around this time that found this unlawful redaction and attempt to avoid transparency that the district began outsourcing simple redaction duties to its law firm.
Was this a personal attack or legitimate concern about wasteful spending
Once again I can only speculate on this question. In the 2 plus years I have been attending these board meetings, last night was the first time I recall a monthly expense budget item being questioned during a meeting. If this was a one time event and we don’t hear similar questions in the future, we have our answer.
I hope that I am wrong. I hope this is a sincere concern about possible wasteful spending of our tax dollars in the Cameron R-1 school district. I hope to see additional concerns about expenses brought up at future meetings. Hopefully routine series of questions are developed and asked during those meetings to ensure our hard earned tax dollars are being spent responsibly and wisely.
In a recent post on Facebook by Cameron R-1 School board candidate Michael Barlow responds to questions asked by the local Cameron Newspapers. One of the questions asked of all the school board candidates relates to the 2 year battle over sexually explicit books in the Cameron R-1 public school libraries.
The response from Mr. Barlow highlights one of the issues we have been vocal about over the past 2 years. I have no doubt Mr Barlow believes those things, but his belief is based on a lack of information from the Cameron R-1 schools. There is a serious lack of transparency in the school district and the community simply doesn’t know the reality of our book fight with the school.
In his statement, which you can read in its entirety HERE, Michael said the following about how he believes the book issue will be handled moving forward.
“A legitimate concern has been brought forward about content in books. My belief is this will continue to be identified, addressed, and corrected by the school district.” – Michael Barlow for Cameron School Board
What the Cameron community doesn’t know, the school superintendent knew 6 months before we found and went public with the first book challenges these books were there. The district knew, had the opportunity to quietly remove them, and did nothing. Matt Robinson, school superintendent, ignored the issue and waited for parents or the community to figure it out. How do we know this? Public records obtained through a Missouri Sunshine Law request.
The following image was 
obtained through a public records request. This email was sent by Matt Robinson to the entire boards of education. Go to the last paragraph and read the last two sentences. Matt Robinson told the board of education “I sat down with all librarians in August and shared by thoughts on controversial books and shared our day is coming, it’s only a matter of time. Well, our day arrived last Thursday.” – Cameron R-1 school superintendent
The Cameron R-1 School district knew we had abhorrent and deviant sexually explicit books in our school libraries. They also knew they had books with content that was of concern and would likely be challenged. Children were checking out and reading these books while the problem was ignored. Instead of being proactive and getting ahead of the issue, they did nothing and waited for these sexually explicit books to be discovered by someone else. They knew these books were in our libraries and chose to do NOTHING.
The Cameron community largely believes the school district is addressing the book issue. Because of a lack of transparency by the school district and the board of education the community doesn’t know the truth of the matter. Every step taken by the Cameron school district relating to the sexually explicit and other adult content in these books has been reactive.
The following is a bulleted list of things I do not believe the community knows about the book issue, the Cameron R-1 school district and the board of education.
- The school district has no plan for the district to identify any other remaining books with adult content. They are relying on parents and the community to find them.
- Despite relying on the community to identify books with adult content, the district and board refuse to allow the community access to the libraries to inspect books. Parents are not allowed to see the books being provided to their children.
- The Cameron school district and board of education have ignored every one of our questions about the educational value or curriculum objective of these books.
- The school and board president have ignored every request for a community engagement meeting to talk about the book issue. They do NOT want to be on the record talking about this.
- The “book review committee” meets in secret and keeps no records of any kind.
- The procedure used by the book review committee to determine if a book needs to be restricted is also secret. They refuse to provide any documents.
- The reason a book has been restricted by the book review committee is also a secret. The school will not tell the community what content is on those restricted books.
- Once a book has been restricted, the school doesn’t share any information with parents that would empower us to determine if we want our children to read these books. They have used tax payer resources to pay employees to review these books. Why not document the process and inform the public?
- there is no policy that allows a parent or tax payer to challenge a book. Most every other Missouri school has that policy.
- unlike every other school in our area, Cameron has no policy that would allow a member of the community to challenge a decision by the book review committee and ask the school board to take a vote and make the final decision.
- Cameron did have both of those policies in place but rescinded them both when I challenged the decisions of the first book review committees.
- Cameron does not have a policy that covers the selection of library books. It is entirely at the discretion of the librarian. This is likely why we have so many inappropriate books in Cameron.
- In two years, the Cameron school district and board of education have NEVER addressed the community or publicly talked about what kind of books are appropriate for our district.
- The only public responses by the board of education is to cite “diversity”. Do they truly believe that “diversity” requires we provide abhorrent content to children?
- The Cameron school board doesn’t like the book issue, so they changed policy and limit us to discussing books once every 3 months. Even with new information relevant to the book topic, the board refuses.
In March of 2023, the board of education amended policy BDDH-1 to allow them to place specific restrictions on citizens addressing the board of education during public meetings. One of those changes allows the board to restrict a citizen from discussing a topic which has previously been discussed before the board in the past 90 days.
The problem is that the school district and board of education are selectively enforcing that policy. Watch the video below for details.
Graphic novel Watchmen violates MO statute 573.550, is available for children to read in Cameron, MO
The graphic novel book Watchmen has been removed from Missouri school districts for being in violation of MO revised statute 573.550 which prohibits schools from providing porn to minors. These books were pulled from schools back in 2022. Not in Cameron. This book is currently checked out and in the hands of a child in the Cameron school district at the time of this post and the video below.
You can confirm the book is currently in the Cameron school district for yourself, don’t take our word for it. In March of 2023 Dan Landi shared instructions on how concerned parents and citizens can look for themselves. I will like to his blog and that post, DON’T LOOK ETHEL!
In April of 2023, Andi Lockridge, the attorney who sits on the Cameron board of education, read aloud during the board meeting the complete revised statute 573.550 to make clear how the state defines pornography. Lockridge asked the superintendent Matt Robinson if any of those books, as defined by the statute she read, were in the Cameron school district. He said no. The video of the board meeting can be found on the Citizen Observer Facebook page. Lockridge begins around the 46 minute and 20 second mark.
This book Watchmen, despite being pulled by numerous Missouri school districts for violating law, doesn’t violate any district policy. There are no policies in place which would allow them to remove content like this, or to prevent something like it from being added. Currently the Cameron school district has two very vague and subjective policies for the selection and reconsideration of books. Those policies are IIAC and IIAC-R1. Those policies are so vague that the outcome of the reconsideration process will be dependent on the beliefs of those who are involved. Shouldn’t this be an objective process with clearly defined guidelines?
There is no policy in Cameron which currently allows parents or concerned tax payers to challenge a book, despite the majority of other Missouri schools having such a policy. The only option currently for Cameron residents to challenge this pornographic book is to address the board during the next school board meeting. Unfortunately the school board president Pam Ice has placed a ban on book discussions until the December 2023 board meeting.
It is time that the Cameron school district and the board of education stop ignoring this problem and take it seriously. They keep placing hurdles in the way and take no steps to make any meaningful change. They need to pass or change district policy that will protect our children, give citizens and parents a meaningful role in the education of our children.
One of our constant concerns about the Cameron school district and the board of education is that we do not feel they are listening to us. We have been saying consistently for some time that they are ignoring us. On Tuesday night two of the board members, Pam and Staci, proved it.
In this video clip you will hear a portion of the address that Paula Allen made to the board. She referred to the April board meeting when a student told the board about sexual comments being made by teachers. Pam and Staci both asked about this teacher and when he left the school district. Had the looked into the complaint of sexual harassment of students by teachers back in April, wouldn’t the know the answer to this question? Shouldn’t they know?
This clearly indicates to me this board of education does not take our concerns seriously. It appears they dismissed Kassidy Wilcox entirely. This is why parents and students say that when they come to the district with concerns and problems that we feel ignored and dismissed. Because they are ignoring and dismissing us.
At the conclusion of the September 19, 2023 board of education meeting, Pam Ice, president of the board of education in Cameron, Missouri, read a prepared statement to the public who were in attendance. I believe some of the information she provided is inaccurate. I have inserted my response into that original video. That compilation is shared in the video below.
I believe this is yet another calculated delay tactic by the Cameron school district to try and buy time. This policy, like the last one they used to review the sexually explicit books, does not include a solution to the problem. This policy does not give the district the ability to restrict content that is vulgar or sexually explicit.
The district has no policy in place that will prevent additional sexually explicit, vulgar and inappropriate content from being added to our libraries. They do not have any plan, or apparent desire, to start a process of finding additional concerning content that hasn’t yet been identified. Why are the members of the public responsible for finding the inappropriate content the school added?
This shouldn’t be so difficult.
Does the Cameron board of education truly respect your uninhibited freedom of speech? Or do some of them believe there are limits? Should a public body, or specifically members of that body, be calling for their constituents to curb their freedom of speech because the topics turn our stomachs?
We get freedom even in these topics that sometimes turn our stomachs.
Pam Ice, board president of Cameron school district, at 29 August 2023 board meeting
Below is a video clip taken from the special meeting of the board of education on the evening of August 29, 2023. In the meeting Pam spoke after Ann and Jackie, but I include her part in this clip first. Freedom is scary. But Pam is right, it is what our nation was founded upon.
Several grievances have been filed with the district alleging 1st and 14th amendment violations relating to freedom of speech issues. Perhaps there is true merit to those allegations and they should be taken seriously.