ST. LOUIS 鈥 A group of prominent area attorneys is asking the Missouri attorney general to investigate Francis Howell School District鈥檚 nearly $230,000 payment to a former superintendent who never spent a day on the job.
In a letter Friday morning, Holy Joe Society asked Attorney General Andrew Bailey to probe the circumstances surrounding a separation agreement with Mike Dominguez, in which the education leader received $229,166.76 before ever starting work.
Dominguez was hired to replace Kenneth Roumpos with a July 1 start date, but he was placed on administrative leave four days before he was set to begin work. Francis Howell has indicated it will not reveal the reason for Dominguez鈥檚 departure, which the separation agreement described as a mutually agreed-upon decision between Dominguez and the board of education.
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In the agreement, the board agreed to respond to questions about Dominguez鈥檚 departure by saying he resigned and members could not comment further about personnel issues.
The payment to Dominguez represented 11 months of his original $250,000 salary.
鈥淏ased on the published reports, it would appear either that Mr. Dominguez anticipatorily repudiated his contract with the district, or the district terminated the contract for reasons of its own,鈥 a letter from Holy Joe Society to Bailey reads. 鈥淚n either case, it is questionable that the payment of 11 months contractual salary was proper.鈥
Francis Howell spokesperson Jennifer Jolls and school board President Steven Blair did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday.
Three days after Dominguez and the board reached a deal, Dominguez landed another job as assistant superintendent at Shawnee Public Schools in Oklahoma.
The letter from Holy Joe Society was signed by Robert Dierker, a retired judge of the 22nd Circuit Court.
Dierker鈥檚 letter also asked Bailey to investigate a $3,000 payment to a far-right educational consultant that recently brought a Francis Howell board member under fire.
Parents over the past month have accused board member Jane Puszkar of hiring Jordan Adams to vet the district鈥檚 library materials for age-level appropriateness without proper approval. One parent, Ewan Ross, relating to the expenditure, including emails from Roumpos saying Puszkar did not have majority board or administrative approval to tell Adams to work on behalf of the district.
The district decided to pay Adams after he completed work and invoiced the district. Roumpos wrote in an email to Puszkar around 2 a.m. on April 1 that the district did so to avoid legal action.
Asked about the payment earlier this week, Puszkar said she did not want to get into a 鈥渉e-said-she-said鈥 over who approved or did not approve Adams鈥 consulting work.
鈥淚 think the better question is, why would I want to hire a third party to review books that are being purchased in our libraries?鈥 Puszkar said. ...鈥滻 have had reports from parents who tell me their children are bringing home books that they don鈥檛 approve of, and they want their children protected from reading these books.鈥
Dierker said the payment could violate a state law requiring contractual services start with a written contract executed in advance of services.
In a separate letter on Monday, this one to Francis Howell鈥檚 school board, Dierker also asked the board to investigate the 鈥減otentially unlawful鈥 payment to Adams.
鈥淥ur view is, if there was, in fact, no contract and rendering the payment was unlawful, the board should seek to recover those monies,鈥 Dierker said in a phone interview earlier this week.
Puszkar described the allegations brought by parents as a 鈥渟mear campaign.鈥
鈥淣o crime was committed and there was no misuse of funds,鈥 she said. 鈥淲hile some try to connect dots that aren鈥檛 there, I am focused on ensuring that there are age-appropriate materials in the libraries of FHSD.鈥
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