At the December 7, 2021 Francis Howell School Board meeting to discuss the $79 million cost overrun on the Francis Howell North project, CFO/COO Kevin Supple was asked if design team looked for any cost saving measures when they realized that costs would increase. Supple responded: “We have a very strong advocate for the board, Mr. Hoehn, who is always conscious of costs and encouraging us, pushing us, to be as conservative as possible and still develop a quality program.”
So Mike Hoehn served on the project design team, and it sounds to us like he worked very closely with COO Supple. What cost saving measures did Mr Hoehn contribute on this project, which is now 91% over budget? We would certainly like to know.
Last week, Mr. Hoehn wrote a Facebook post defending his record, where he said: “I’ll be the first to admit the district did a poor job in communicating the increases in costs for the FHN project, and steps have been taken to insure these mistakes never happen again.”
Specifically what steps were taken? Exactly when did he know that the project was going to be severely over budget? When did he tell the rest of the board? We think that Mr. Hoehn should answer these questions.
The most important step can be taken on April 5th, if voters replace Mike Hoehn on the school board.
What you can do:
- Make sure that you vote on April 5 and get your friends and neighbors to do the same.
- Find out more about the candidates that we are endorsing – Adam Bertrand and Randy Cook
- Please contact us if you have questions, or find out how you can help us return Francis Howell to fiscal sanity.
- Consider making a donation to help us elect better school board members.