by Jeff Moore & Lisa (Reichert) Essig    "Class of 85"

"...Liberty High School live forever and true to thee will be, may the coming years deepen our great love for thee..."

".. Many Lessons thou has taught us, In our days of youth, Principles of right and justice, Loyalty and truth...."

All along the citizens of this town have been leery of the Westbrook review.  With good reason though, as the real lack of confidence is in the board itself, the very body elected to oversee the district. Setting aside the a large number of the items in the Westbrook review that were uncovered by Mr. William Walker, the amount of items in this report suggest that the School Board was no more than a rubber stamp body for a less than honorable band of thieves with Dr. in their title.

In the beginning the School Board attempted to sell us on the Westbrook “audit” as an alternative to the “State Audit” the citizens so desired. As the final report was delivered we even got Webster’s definition of audit just in case we, the citizen, were thorough enough to actually read the Closing Comments of the Westbrook Review that states “We did not perform an audit nor were we engaged to perform an audit.” It goes on to say “Our engagement cannot be relied upon to disclose errors, fraud, or illegal acts that may exist and was not designed to detect employee embezzlement or other fraudulent activities involving bank accounts, accounts receivable or other assets susceptible to fraud.”

This topic may seem to be moot, in a sense Westbrook did a large review of receipts and expenditures and there seems to be quite a mother lode of information in this report. But we think this is the essence of the problem. The board will defend their actions to the death regardless of the merit. We have yet to hear a contrite word from this body; we have yet to hear from individual board members on this subject. The board speaks as one, and that my friend is how we got into this predicament.          

We need to hear from each board member with respect to this document. The public deserves open and transparent discussion of this document. Each member of the Board owes their constituents at minimum their comments on each section of this report, and at maximum their resignation.

Over the years we have heard how unfair the State funding formula is to the district, we have even been at the forefront of a lawsuit with the State of Missouri, led by a former Superintendent. All this while going over budget $14 million+ in construction projects, while living lavishly and abusively off the taxpayer. Any claims in this fashion will fall on deaf ears and be considered unreliable as the district remains the poster child of abuse across the entire State of Missouri.

How ironic was the contribution to the Partnership for Economic Growth & Development to claim the district had a role in economic development as the very Superintendent was destroying the reputation and good name of the district my children, their parents, and grandparents worked so hard to maintain. How ironic that the very teachers whom are the lifeblood of our schools must forgo fair wage increases while facing higher contributions to the retirement system while their leader abused and possibly defrauded the fund with full knowledge and unanimous approval of the board. 

We would also encourage the board to quit harping on the cost of the State Audit. Based on the way this board fails to oversee expenditures it is ludicrous to the taxpayer to make the argument that suddenly something is too expensive. It is unfortunate but this cost is on you the board but I think the board wishes to place this expenditure on the backs of the citizens who petitioned to bring credibility back to this district. Reimbursements to the district found by the citizens already far exceed the cost of this audit.  

So now that the board has their magic bullet, the much awaited Westbrook review, what will they do? Will they stay behind closed doors and hide behind litigation and personnel issues or will there be an attempt to act and discuss these issues in open forum? Will they continue to hide behind prepared statements and exemplify the idea that they are the victims in this charade?         

The citizens must also learn a lesson here. Do not take for granted that your elected officials are doing their job. Just as the board has oversight responsibility to the staff they direct, we the citizen have the responsibility to oversee our elected officials.

Please stay active and involved in local government as Liberty Public Schools represent an extreme example of what happens, waste fraud and abuse is very common in smaller doses and similar to retail items, in the end it is the customer that pays for the shoplifters with higher prices and so goes the citizens who pay for waste fraud and abuse with higher tax bills.   

William Carlin Walker deserves to be reimbursed for his Sunshine requests. His requests were proper and with merit.

The first order of business should be that one board member make a motion and this item discussed openly in the board meeting. At least have the guts to vote it down.   

Liberty School Board you are now on the clock. What are you going to do?

We encourage everyone to read the Liberty Sun News Article written by Janese Heavin  on June 30, 2005 and I most especially encourage current elected officials and anyone considering public service to READ IT AND REFLECT ON IT.

To access this article along with the Westbrook report highlighting the items William Walker and the citizens group documented go to the SUNSHINE DOCUMENTS TAB and choose:

Joe Citizen Article & Westbrook Review Walker Credits

In time we will return to that Sunset Hill Of Glory but for now the storm damage must be attended to.

On a final note: Though we should not excuse the actions of the board, as human beings, however, we all have friends and neighbors serving in these positions. We should welcome them with open arms into our churches and social gatherings and accept them as our friends and fellow citizens. We encourage the board not to take criticisms personal and we encourage the citizens not to alienate the board members outside in the community. Too often we can't separate business issues from personal relationships. After all the inability to draw the distinction is what got us in this mess to begin with.