Tensions Rise Over Retiring Superintendent's Lifelong Health Insurance Benefit

The Ferguson-Florissant School Board meeting drew an unusually large crowd on Wednesday night. The crowd became so large that School Board President Les Lentz moved the meeting to the theater room next to the normal meeting room. 

The crowd didn’t come just to listen to the new requests sitting in front of the board, though. Members of the crowd came to speak out.

Retired teacher Denise Marler stood in front of the board and voiced her feelings regarding the recent announcement of Superintendent Jeff Spiegel’s lifetime health insurance plan. 

The Ferguson-Florissant School District said last year that Spiegel and his wife will continue to receive health insurance coverage for the rest of his life, following his retirement this June.

“We have some very angry tax payers in our district right now, including me,” Marler said.

Marler said Spiegel was not responsible for the raise in district-wide test scores. 

“The teachers are responsible. The teachers are the ones in the trenches every day, and they deserve more,” she said.

Marler said she doesn’t understand how this health plan would not cost taxpayers money, and she said she had previously received reassurance from Lentz that Spiegel would not receive lifetime health insurance from the district.

She continued, requesting information regarding the benefits and perks of incoming superintendent and current Assistant Superintendent Dr. Art McCoy.

Marler expressed that without Dr. McCoy working as a teacher and "in the trenches," he could not understand the feelings of teachers who work in a classroom.

After listening for only a few moments, school board member Doris Graham said Marler was being personal and inappropriate. That didn’t stop Marler, however.

Dr. McCoy stood up and addressed the crowd and Marler’s allegations.

“I have worked in the classroom,” he said. “I was, in fact, one of the youngest teachers in the state because I was teaching fresh out of school at 19-years-old. I have taught for many years, and I still teach during the summer.”

Dr. McCoy said he knows exactly how teachers are feeling and will do everything he can to bring change.

“Education is being attacked from outside our walls, from outside our neighborhood and our state. We have to unite and fight together because the problems in education are much bigger than the ones being discussed tonight,” he said.