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Community Corner

Keep RSforRS's Tyrrell off the Rockwood School Board

Arriving at my desk this morning I found my in-box clogged with a deluge of forwarded emails from friends, acquaintances, and even Rockwood residents whom I have not met.  The occasion for this ever-increasing number of residents contacting me is their outrage at receiving yet another manipulative mass email blast from Eileen Tyrrell's self-described watchdog group, RSforRS.  

Your neighbors are increasingly becoming aware of Ms. Tyrrell and witnessing her attacks on our schools, teachers, and school officials, and are then flabbergasted to find that she is seeking a seat on the Rockwood School Board in the April 8 election.  As the saying goes, caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”).  I and others have previously rebutted some of the more outrageous claims, leading to my clogged in-box coinciding with these mass email blasts, as neighbors seek-out someone to publically respond.

The recent communiqués by Ms. Tyrrell and her RSforRS group are a malicious and self-serving attempt to promote her name in the public forum to support her campaign.  Ultimately it is up to you to turn-out for the April 8 (Tuesday) election and vote your choice for the School Board.  As they say, you cannot “un-ring the bell”, so please vote in this election, which typically has very low voter turn-out, to avoid living with the frightening potential consequences.  There are five candidates running for three open seats, so there is no shortage of alternatives to Ms. Tyrrell.

Perhaps helpful is this article describing the candidates at last week’s Meet the Candidates Forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters. http://eureka-wildwood.patch.com/groups/announcements/p/meet-the-school-board-candidates.

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In the final paragraph of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the farmyard animals look through the house window where they witness that the pigs, who rose to be their new leaders through manipulation and lies, are indistinguishable from the overthrown humans.  There is a parallel here with Ms. Tyrrell’s RSforRS group, which publicly but falsely claims to hold the ethical high-ground, but which has made the final transition to being her personal campaigning tool.  It is openly advocating for her to gain a seat on the Board, but since RSforRS is not a registered campaign finance committee (e.g. Political Action Committee, PAC) this would appear to be a flagrant violation of state campaign finance law.  From the studied manner RSforRS avoids overtly mentioning Ms. Tyrrell (since she declared her candidacy), they believe they are cleverly avoiding this legality; however, state law defines a Campaign Finance Committee as “Accepting contributions or spends money for the purpose of attempting to influence the action of voters”, and, my conversation with the previous Acting Director of the Missouri Ethics Commission informed me that advocating for the defeat of other candidates falls under this definition. The only other test is whether “The money spent or received exceeds certain dollar amounts”, and the threshold spending amount is significantly less than the annual subscription RSforRS pays to their mass email service.  Interested parties can read relevant law here: http://www.mec.mo.gov/WebDocs/PDF/CampaignFinance/Guide_to_PACs-07132012-fullsize.pdf.

Before I stop I want to address the accusation in this latest RSforRS attack that goes after the only School Board members running for reelection that have attempted a reasoned response to Ms. Tyrrell’s misguided accusations, Dr. Kinder and Mr. Doell.  It is transparent that this most recent RSforRS attack, like its predecessors, “campaigns” to replace one of their Board seats with Ms. Tyrrell.  Lacking factual information to smear them, her RSforRS group manufactures innuendo.  In this most recent RSforRS criticism, the Board recently discussed the possibility of seeking an increase in the operating tax rate increase as one of a multitude of means to fund capital improvement projects and technology upgrades.   Disregard for the moment that the role of the Board is to hold these types of discussions, and that this particular one was in response to a report and suggestions made by Tim Rooney, RSD’s well regarded chief financial and legislative officer.  Focusing solely on the finances, RSD per pupil expenditures rank near the lowest, in 20th place out of the 22 StL county districts (see graphic, above).  Just look at nearby Parkway, which spends $12,121 per student, while RSD spends only $9,364.  Also recognize that Parkway has passed ALL of its recent school bond ballots while RSD has voted down its last several.  Also worth mentioning is that RSD teachers earn well under the median for the county, and were near the bottom until the Board made a slight increases to their pay to bring them closer to the median.  As for administrator pay, something which Ms. Tyrrell keeps harping on, RSD salaries place it near the very bottom in the county. 

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While each will make their own determination of what they believe is a reasonable level to fund Rockwood student education, something we should be in agreement on is the high academic performance of our schools, which are among the best in the county.

Eileen Tyrrell unashamedly believes gaining her ends justify the means, and seeks a narrow agenda that does not include improving education. This is further represented by her recent refusal to meet with Rockwood's teachers association, as other candidates, including serving Board members, have done (Hello?:  Ms. Tyrrell, wouldn't it be useful to start a dialog with the teachers if you do serve on the Board?).  

Dear neighbors, don't let a small group of disaffected individuals control our schools.  Readers may examine her organization's website to read the false accusations and attacks against our schools, teachers, administrators, and School Board members.  Shameful behavior.
http://rsdstakeholders.org/ 

Vote against Ms. Eileen Tyrrell and her RSforRS cronies in the April 8 election.

-Artie Romero, Rockwood resident and father
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