The Missouri state Auditor’s Office has agreed to audit the Fox School District, according to a written statement issued this afternoon (Aug. 14).
“State Auditor Tom Schweich announced today that his staff met today and decided to go forward with an audit of the Fox School District,” the statement said. “The state Auditor’s Office will pay for the costs associated with conducting the audit.”
Spence Jackson, a spokesman for the Auditor’s Office, said he doesn’t know when the audit would begin.
He said a representative from the Auditor’s Office will attend an upcoming Fox Board of Education meeting to address school officials and residents in an open session and that will mark the beginning of the audit process.
Jackson said he didn’t know if Auditor’s Office staff would be available for the next Fox school board meeting, which is at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19.
If not, then a representative would attend a later one, Jackson said.
The Fox school board voted unanimously Tuesday to request the state audit after newly hired chief financial officer John Brazeal said he has uncovered possible fraud and financial improprieties over the past several years.
Those allegations followed a controversy about derogatory online comments made about district residents that were traced to computers at the home of Fox Superintendent Dianne Critchlow, who is on paid leave until her October retirement.
She had denied making those online comments.
Critchlow could not be reached for comment about the audit.
Her husband, Jamie Critchlow, another Fox administrator, was fired after the online comments were traced to their Arnold home.
Comments also were traced to computers at the home of administrators Dan Baker and his wife, Angela Burns Baker, who were placed on leave, but then allowed to return to their jobs after losing some pay and vacation and sick time.
District residents Sam Ferry, Richard Simpson Jr. and Michelle Tyler have filed a libel lawsuit against the online posters, although the defendant is listed as John Doe since the identities of those posters were unknown when the suit was filed in February with the Jefferson County Circuit Court.
Since April, when the court ordered the release of names associated with IP (Internet Protocol) addresses attached to the computers at the Critchlows’ and Bakers’ homes, attorney Dan Hermann, who is representing Ferry, Simpson and Tyler, has filed another motion requesting names associated with more IP addresses.