Donna Jones has filed a campaign committee with Missouri Ethics Commission. A link to her upcoming reports has been added to 2022 School Board Candidate Info page.
As of today, only Jones and Emily Hubbard have filed committees. October quarterly reports are due October 17th.
If you have an interest in learning how to file campaign finance reports with MEC, there is a Wednesday webinar.
School Board Candidates are required to file a campaign committee with Missouri Ethics Commission when any of the following occurs
+ Candidate receives more than $325 from a single contributor (other than the candidate)
+ Candidate spends over $1,000 of their own money
+ Candidate’s contributions and expenditures are over $1,000
A Candidate may file a committee before meeting any requirement to do so.
1:30 pm Tuesday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register
9 am to Noon Tuesday Plant It Forward at Tower Grove Park. Help dig cannas, elephant ears, other plants; clear display beds of debris; plant 20,000+ spring bulbs. 6 more volunteers wanted. Register
4 pm Wednesday St. Louis Public Library Workshop: Create Your Own Zen Garden at Barr Library, Gate District: 4 Seats Remaining. Register
4 pm Wednesday Missouri Prairie Foundation Webinar Master Class: Dazzling, Daring, Aerial Beauties- Dragonflies. Free: MPF members and Grow Native professional members. $15: non-members. Register
Oct 5th Seed St. Louis and St. Louis County Library Workshop: Edible Landscaping. Rock Road Library, St. Ann. Register
6:30 pm Oct 7th Missouri Department of Conservation Discover Nature Night Hike at Powder Valley Nature Conservation Center, Kirkwood. Register
Oct 11th Seed St. Louis and St. Louis County Library Workshop: Composting 101 at Grand Glaize Library, 1010 Meramec Station Rd, Manchester. Register
October 12th Grow Native Missouri Webinar: Dicamba and 2,4-D- Old Herbicides Causing New Problems. Presented by Robbie Doerhoff, Forest Entomologist, Missouri Department of Conservation. Register
Oct 13th Seed St. Louis Zoom Class: Reuse in the Garden. Register
Oct 15th Plant a tree in memorial to someone special with Sustainable St. Louis Memorial Tree Planting at Shaw Forest, 39th @ DeTonty. Register
Oct 26th Grow Native Missouri Zoom Master Class: The Seed Cycle: Native Seed Collection, Stratification, Propagation with Mike Hoyle, manager, Missouri Wildflowers Nursery. Free: MPF members and Grow Native Professional Members. $15: non-members. Register
Oct 29th ForestReLeaf Fall Tree Planting, St. Vincent Greenway, West End. Volunteers Wanted. Register
Nov 12th ForestReLeaf North Riverfront Mississippi Greenway Tree Planting. Volunteers Wanted. Register
6:30 pm Sept 21st New 4th Ward Democrats Meeting at SEIU Local 1 Hall 2725 Clifton. Open to public. Agenda includes St. Louis City School Board Candidates and presentation by Andrew Arkills on the impact of TIFs on public school finances.
6:30 pm Oct 6th School Board Candidate Forum at Vashon High School Auditorium, 3035 Cass. Sponsored by St Louis Public Schools Foundation, SLPS Parent Action Council, League of Women Voters
Friday Deadline to Order from Brightside St. Louis Annual Daffodil & Tulip Sale. 30 for $17. Order now for pick up Sept 30 or Oct 1st at Forest Park Greenhouse.
1:30 pm Friday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register
6:30 pm Friday tasteMAKERS Screening: “Winemaking in Missouri” with Cat Neville and Panel at Nine PBS Public Media Commons, 3653 Olive Street. Free Tickets
9 am to Noon Saturday Wells-Goodfellow Clean Up with North Newstead Association, Wellston Loop CDC, Cure Violence, Employment STL. Register
10:30 am to 5 pm Saturday Missouri Department of Conservation Eco Tones Concerts & more at Emmenegger Nature Park, Kirkwood
Oct 1st St. Louis Audubon Beginner Bird Walk at Forest Park. Register
Oct 1st Seed St. Louis Garlic & Shallots Sale at Carriage House, 3815 Bell. Softneck Garlic ‘Inchelium Red’: 50¢ per clove, Hardneck Garlic ‘Music’: 50¢ per clove, Elephant Garlic: 75¢ per clove, Red Shallots: 50¢ per shallot
Oct 5th Seed St. Louis and St. Louis County Library Workshop: Edible Landscaping at Rock Road Library, St. Ann. Register
1:30 pm Wednesday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register
2 pm Wednesday Seed St. Louis and St. Louis County Library Virtual Workshop: Season Extension and Winter Gardening. Register
4 pm Wednesday Missouri Prairie Foundation Webinar: Prairie & Native Plant Careers. Panel includes Sarah Kendrick, Migratory Birds Biologist; Ronda Burnett, Community Conservation Planner; Jerod Huebner, Director of Prairie Management. Register
For Kids ages 3-6. 6 pm Thursday Missouri Conservation Department’s Conservation Kids, You and Me under the Canopy: Becoming Bears. Tower Grove Park. Register
6 pm Thursday Seed St. Louis Webinar: Getting the Most From Your Harvest. Register
10 am Saturday Missouri Conservation Department Workshop at Forest Park Hatchery: Fall Butterflies and Monarch Migration. 10 Seats remaining. Register
10 am to 2 pm Saturday Missouri Conservation Department event at Powder Valley Conservation Area, Kirkwood: Protecting Our Pollinators. Info Booths & Presentations.
1:30 pm Saturday Missouri Botanical Garden Workshop: Pollinator Conservation Begins at Home. South Auditorium, Visitor Center. Register
Sept 19th Missouri Conservation Department’s Monarch Tagging at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. Register
Sept 30th Missouri Prairie Foundation’s St. Louis Area Native Plant Sale at Roeslein & Associates, 9200 Watson, Crestwood
UPDATE: Sometime after 8 am Monday, September 12th, Soulard Special Business District posted a notice to its website for the 6:30 pm Monday, September 12th Soulard SBD Meeting, less than seven hours notice for a public meeting on public tax money. That Notice says the meeting has been moved to Molly’s, a venue owned by Soulard SBD Chair Luke Reynolds (also Vice Chair of Soulard Community Improvement District, sales tax district). As of 10:30 am Monday, September 12th, the meeting Notice on City’s Public Meetings Calendar had not been changed to reflect a different meeting place. That notice says the meeting is at Soulard Station. Notices and edits to City Public Meetings Calendar get time-date identification. Notices on most special tax district websites only get a date first posted.
Original blog post below.
Or not.
Soulard Special Business District is one of St. Louis City’s special tax districts that fund private policing and part of last week’s two part investigative report by Jeremy Kohler for ProPublica.
We know there’s a meeting notice for Soulard SBD on the City of St. Louis Public Meetings Calendar. We also know that a year’s worth of meeting notices and generic skeleton agenda’s were posted by the SBD Board to the City Calendar on Dec 7, 2021.
It doesn’t matter whether they’re having a public meeting without a notice on their website or failed to cancel the meeting notice on City website. It doesn’t matter whether they don’t want questions relating to the ProPublica investigative reports or Coatar’s involvement in tax districts before Tuesday’s election. It’s all Transparency Fail.
The Soulard SBD Budget includes $18,000 for Communications Management, $50,000 for Advertising/Promotion, $25,000 for Communications, $50,000 for Marketing/Branding. You would think that one of those line items includes competent online posting of public meetings notices at both their website and the City Public Meetings Calendar.
How does your neighborhood association support the public schools within or near its boundaries? In Lafayette Square and Soulard, they don’t. They do, however, support private charter schools*.
Lafayette Prep is a private charter school located in Lafayette Square. The school is considered an important neighborhood asset and is on the agenda for monthly LSNA general membership meetings.
According to LSNA Board Meeting Minutes, fundraising for Charter Athletic League is not the first time LSNA financially supported private schools. In March 2021, they donated $250 to Lift for Life Academy fourteen blocks away in Soulard/Kosciusko neighborhoods. In March 2022, Lift for Life asked for $1,000. The Board approved $333 and then asked members at the next general membership meeting to donate and reach the $1000 goal.
I looked at LSNA Board and General Membership Minutes for 2021-2022 and found no mention of their closest public schools: Peabody School (it is mentioned on their website’s resources for residents page), seven blocks east, and Sigel School, seven blocks south.
Humboldt Public School, St. Louis, 19th Century
Soulard has a longstanding relationship with the neighborhood’s two private charter schools- Lift for Life Academy and Soulard School. Some examples. In February 2022, the SRG Board voted to buy a table ($250) for the Soulard School Trivia Night. In May, there was a pitch for the fundraiser at the SRG general membership meeting. Lux Living SoHo Apartments says it will donate $100,000 to Soulard School. Mardi Gras Foundation awarded a grant to Soulard School for landscaping.
There is no relationship between the neighborhood and Humboldt School, Soulard’s remaining public school. aside from Trinity Lutheran, which adopted the school for school supplies, special events, volunteers. Humboldt is five blocks from Soulard School and eleven blocks from Lift for Life.
*Charter schools are private schools funded with public tax dollars taken from public schools.
Tuesday Deadline to order native Missouri plants online from Missouri Wildflowers Nursery for pick-up Saturday at Kirkwood Farmers Market.
9 am Thursday Horticulture Hike at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Horticulturalist led walking tour focusing on trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. Be prepared to walk on uneven terrain with moderate slopes. Register
7:30 am – Noon Friday Workshop at Lewis & Clark Community College, Edwardsville, Illinois. Native by Design: Successful Gardens for Pollinators and People. $25 for Grow Native Missouri and Missouri Prairie Foundation Members, $30 non-members, $15 with student ID. Register
1:30 pm Friday Leaf Walk at Bellefontaine Cemetery. Master Guide led walking tour. Register
10 am – 9 pm Saturday Astronomy Festival at Tower Grove Park. Lots of activities including Noon Lunch & Learn Astronomy Talk: Urban Light Pollution and Bird Migration.
7 pm Saturday Missouri Conservation Department’s Harvest Moon over the Confluence at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. 1 Seat remaining. Register
Sept 14th Seed St. Louis & St. Louis County Library Virtual Workshop: Season Extension and Winter Gardening. Register
The Great State of St. Louis 