Attorney general will not pursue complaint against Bell City schools
(01/25/07)
BELL CITY, Mo. -- The case that resulted from the wrongful residency claim of 10 students in the Bell City School District seems to have run its course. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's office confirmed Wednesday it will not pursue the complaint against superintendent Rhonda Niemczyk and the Bell City School Board...
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Bell City-SCC feud
Parent stands by his account in probe
(09/21/06) Among the evidence collected in the Missouri State High School Activities Association's investigation into undue influence on the part of Scott County boys basketball coach David Heeb was a letter written by Bell City resident Melvin Johnson. In the letter, Johnson described a pair of meetings between he and Heeb where the coach tried to persuade Johnson to move his family back to the Scott County Central school district...
Heeb files suit over MSHSAA action
(09/13/06) Acts of conspiracy and coercion are just some of the allegations presented in a petition filed in the Stoddard County Circuit Court last week on behalf of Scott County boys basketball coach David Heeb. The petition was filed Sept. 6 by Heeb's attorneys, the firm of Scott, Kidwell and Scott. The Bell City School District as a representative of the Missouri State High School Activities Association and the Bell City School District individually are listed as the defendants...
Scott County Central school board member resigns
(08/25/06) Standard Democrat SIKESTON, Mo. -- A Scott County Central school board member decided Wednesday to step down from his position. Eric Kesler said his resignation, which was effective immediately, came because the issue of his residency was creating too much of a distraction for the district, its teachers and students...
Reporter disciplined for ethical lapse
(08/24/06) A lapse in journalistic ethics by a Southeast Missourian reporter has raised serious issues about the newspaper's coverage of the eligibility of a Scott County Central School Board member. On June 19, the Southeast Missourian first reported, in a story by reporter Mark Bliss, that a question had been asked in an anonymous letter from a Morley, Mo., resident about whether board member Eric Kesler resided in the Scott County Central School District. ...
Scott Co. prosecutor says school official will resign
(08/17/06) Scott County Central school board member Eric Kesler will step down by Friday amid evidence that he didn't meet the state's residency requirement, Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Boyd said Wednesday. In a faxed, one-sentence statement to the Southeast Missourian, Boyd said he expects Kesler's resignation by the end of business Friday. Boyd also wrote that he would have "no further comment" on the matter...
Bell City School issue sent to attorney general
(08/15/06) Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Briney Welborn has asked the Missouri Attorney General's office to review a state investigative report to determine if charges should be filed concerning the Bell City School District illegally obtaining state aid...
Stoddard County prosecutor to look at Bell City school issue
(08/09/06) The Stoddard County prosecutor will review a state investigative report regarding the Bell City School District's actions that led to illegally obtaining state aid. Stoddard County prosecutor Briney Welborn said Tuesday that ultimately he may forward the matter to the Missouri attorney general's office...
Petition seeks ouster of Bell City officials
(06/28/06) A former Bell City school board member wants a Stoddard County circuit judge to remove six of the seven current school board members and the school superintendent from office in the aftermath of a state investigation over the district illegally obtaining state money...
Bell City penalized $13,000
(06/23/06) In a rare move, the state Board of Education voted Thursday to financially penalize the Bell City School District $13,000 for illegally counting some students as residents and subsequently drawing more state aid. The school district wrongly counted 10 students who actually were residents of a neighboring district, a state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education investigation found. ...
MSHSAA upholds penalties, but will revisit in April 2007
(06/15/06) Scott County Central superintendent Dr. Joby Holland and boys basketball coach David Heeb had mixed feelings about the action taken by the Missouri State High School Activities Association's board of directors on Wednesday. The board voted unanimously at its regularly scheduled meeting "to uphold its previous opinions and actions" on a suspension for Heeb and probation for Scott County Central...
Scott County Central hopes MSHSAA will lift penalties
(06/13/06) While the Missouri State High School Activities Association won't revisit the investigation of Scott County Central and coach David Heeb, officials at the school hope the MSHSAA board reconsiders the penalties against the school and eventually drops them...
Bell City appeals state finding of illegal aid
(06/10/06) Bell City school officials have appealed a finding by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that the district illegally secured more than $19,000 in state aid this school year. Education commissioner D. Kent King is expected to rule on the appeal before the end of the month. The State Board of Education could ratify the commissioner's decision at its meeting on June 22, DESE spokesman Jim Morris said Friday...
Bell City schools illegally obtained $19,000
(05/23/06) The Bell City School District illegally secured more than $19,000 in state aid this school year, state education officials said Monday. The small school district in Stoddard County enrolled 10 students who reside in a neighboring school district, an investigation by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found. The Bell City district unlawfully obtained state aid by reporting those students as residents of their district, state officials said...
MSHSAA's case vs. Scott Central seems to have reasonable doubt
(05/18/06) To any objective outsider, the Bell City-Scott County Central boys basketball dispute is a tough nut to crack. If you talk to people with knowledge of the case, which went before the Missouri State High School Activities Association board of directors and resulted in the suspension of basketball coach David Heeb for much of next year, and you're confronted with a thicket of private relationships and personal acrimony that's all knotted up with the long history and proximity of the two schools...
Scott County Central situation to be topic at MSHSAA's meeting in June
(05/11/06) The penalties against Scott County Central's boys basketball program will be a topic on the agenda in the June meeting of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. But MSHSAA spokesman Rick Kindhart doesn't expect the board to consider information that has come to light in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's investigation into residency discrepancies for Bell City students... 
State: Bell City schools wrongly claimed funding
(05/10/06)The Bell City School District illegally obtained state aid for at least nine students who don't live in the district, a state education agency found. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will demand the district -- which has approximately 300 students -- repay thousands of dollars in state aid received over the past two years, agency officials said Tuesday...
SCC will hold off on legal action vs. MSHSAA
(05/10/06) Scott County Central officials decided this week to hold off on pursuing legal action regarding the Missouri State High School Activities Association until it is determined whether new developments will affect the penalties the organization recently handed the school...
David Heeb states his case
(04/30/06) After three weeks of silence, Scott County Central High School officials -- including athletic director and boys basketball coach David Heeb -- are responding to sanctions handed out earlier this month by the Missouri State High Schools Activities Association's Board of Directors...
MSHSAA suspends Scott County Central's Heeb
(04/09/06) Scott County Central boys basketball coach David Heeb has been handed a suspension that will keep him from coaching the Braves for much of next season, including district and state tournament games in 2007. The Missouri High School Activities Association Board of Directors on Saturday handed out a suspension for the second semester of the 2006-07 season for violations of association by-laws pertaining to undue influence...
MSHSAA takes no action against SCC
(01/27/06)
An investigation of alleged undue influence involving Scott County Central did not result in any actions taken by the Board of Directors at the Missouri State High School Activities Association meeting Thursday in Columbia. The findings of the investigative committee and a summary of the investigation were sent to the school on Thursday, according to MSHSAA spokesman Rick Kindhart... |