St. Joe Post

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Federal agents on Friday served the St Joseph School District with a subpoena for a large amount of records.

In a statement, Assistant to the Superintendent Steve Huff said the subpoena demands meeting records, meeting notices, polices, personnel records and other documents.

Huff acknowledged the records will be part of a federal grand jury investigation in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Huff would not offer specifics on just how long a period of time the subpoena entails, but he did say it might take more than a week to comply. Federal agents served the subpoena to the school board secretary, Debbie Consolver.

“I want to be very careful what I say,” Huff told reporters. “Obviously, this is new ground for us, and, really our purpose here today was to make the community aware that we were served with the subpoena.

“I don’t want to overstep our bounds in terms of what we say. I just don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize, interfere, trample on the investigation that is ongoing.”

Stipends given to district administrators, over the course of at least ten years, now total at least one million dollars, and many of those were never announced to, or approved by, the school board.

Superintendent Dr. Fred Czerwonka, who was not present for Friday’s announcement, points to a report from outside legal counsel that asserts they’ve done nothing wrong, and the FBI has no jurisdiction in the case.

Dr. Czerwonka said earlier this week that someone deliberately edited a YouTube video to make him appear critical of district personnel.  He also complained that he and his family are being subjected to what he called “vicious personal scrutiny.”