Mehlville Group Advises Rockwood Residents on School District Reform

Three Mehlville School District residents attended the inaugural meeting of the Concerned Patrons of Rockwood (CPR), a group seeking to hold the Rockwood School District administration accountable to the public.

The residents, Ken Meyer, Rich Franz and Greg Frigerio, were members of the , an anti-tax group that campaigned against an 88-cent tax increase in Mehlville that voters rejected in November.

Sunday's CPR town hall meeting included about 35 participants who met at the Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Wildwood. The meeting was organized by Rockwood resident Dennis Broadbrooks in response to districtwide criticism of Rockwood’s hiring practices and finances.

Meyer said he was at the meeting to explain how local activists defeated a proposed 88-cent tax increase for the Mehlville district. He said it definitely can be done with a grassroots structure.

"District officials are often arrogant, and typically believe that you owe them your money," said Franz. "Attack them head on."

Franz is a founding member of the MCTA and  on the Mehlville school board in April.

The three Mehlville residents lent moral support and gave advice on how to organize a grassroots approach to matters of importance to Rockwood taxpayers. 

Meyer explained how local activists defeated the tax increase. He said the group got the word out in Mehlville by first having a town hall meeting.

"Five former school board members became involved, and we just hammered away,” he said.

After the Mehlville tax increase failed, Meyer said teachers and staff didn’t receive pay raises. He said a proposed new middle school that was “desperately needed,” according to a district survey, has disappeared from the district’s agenda. Both Meyer and Franz said the number of employees and the revenue to pay them has decreased through attrition and the district's since the tax plan failed.

Franz, who writes , encouraged the Rockwood group to organize and focus on publicizing their efforts and finding candidates to seek positions on the school board. 

Two candidates from the association's members ran in the April school board election. Meyer said they interviewed nine candidates to see which ones they believed represented taxpayers. They endorsed two candidates and both were elected.

Frigerio said former Mehlville Superintendent Terry Noble was close to becoming one of the highest paid in Missouri at $186,000 with a proposed $44,000 raise in 2010. Noble turned down the raise and has since retired.

"We need to put an end to the insanity. You are the owners of the district. Taxpayers keep the district going,” he said. “Boards sometime forget that.”

Frigerio called the typical tactic used by district’s "educational cartel," was to instill fear that students are not going to get a good education.

"The $24,000 per student invested by the City of St. Louis doesn’t guarantee an education, does it?" he asked. 

Frigerio said a common rationale for tax increases is to keep teachers in the district.

"But teachers aren’t going anywhere,” Frigerio said. “We researched it, and the average Missouri teachers' experience is 13 years. There's really nowhere for them to go, and there's a bunch of great young teachers just graduating who need jobs."

Frigerio said his main concern is that 75 percent of a district's funds go to salaries, pensions and benefits.

“This is no longer the '80s, and it's bull that districts can't be run like businesses,” he said. “It’s your money. My eyes got open last year. The board couldn't care less about your money. Times are bad for everybody. Until you vote every tax increase down, it's just more money they get."