Francis Howell School District paid a conservative consultant thousands of dollars in fees for services that were not approved by the Board of Education nor by the district, according to documents obtained by St. Louis Public Radio.
The consultant was contacted by board member Jane Puszkar, who served as treasurer in 2024 and was endorsed by the conservative Francis Howell Families Political Action Committee in 2022. Her term ends in 2026.
In April, former district Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos sent an email to Jordan Adams of J.C. Adams Consulting saying the district would pay Adams’ $3,000 invoice for work done in February.
Adams is a conservative consultant who offers services to review K-12 curriculum and materials for age-appropriate content.
The district paid Adams $3,000 on May 2, according to an accounts payable statement that was approved by the majority vote of the board during a May 15 meeting. Such payments are often rubber-stamped by school boards after review.
In his email, Roumpos makes clear that Puszkar hired Adams behind the backs of the district and the board.
Roumpos writes that the unauthorized work was initiated by Puszkar without “the support of the administration to engage in this work, nor did she have any votes from the majority of the Board of Education, aside from her own.”
The email continued, “based on lack of authorization from the administration or a vote of a majority of the board, this agreement should never have been executed.”
Roumpos then instructed Adams to deliver his work directly to him rather than Puszkar.
He adds that “no additional work with J.C. Adams Consulting LLC, is currently approved. Should FHSD decide to engage with you on any future projects, you will be contacted directly by a district administrator or by the Secretary of the Board of Education, following an affirmative vote by the majority of the FHSD Board of Education.”
On June 3, Adams sent his completed work to Roumpos.
The document titled, “New Resource Review, Francis Howell School District,” lists books available across various schools in the district during the 2024-25 academic year and suggests that they be reviewed “to ensure grade-level appropriateness, ideology-free content, and to provide parent notification as necessary.”
“The presence of a title on this list does not necessarily indicate that it should not be procured or made available to students,” the document reads.
Adams did not reply to a request for comment.
In a statement to STLPR, Puszkar maintained that there was no misuse of funds.
“There was no crime committed. There was no misuse of funds. There was an agreement by the Board to ascertain whether there are age inappropriate books/media in the Francis Howell School District libraries. We are currently working through the list of books provided to determine the amount of age inappropriate materials and will issue a comprehensive report when it is complete,” Puszkar said in a statement. “The many attacks on my integrity and accusations of a crime will be addressed legally. In the meantime, I look forward to making the school libraries safe and age appropriate for all Francis Howell students.”
Roumpos now serves as superintendent of the Kirkwood School District and could not be reached for comment.
Coming to light
Jamie Martin, president of the progressive PAC Francis Howell Forward, said she found the consultant’s relationship to conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation concerning.
“We're really interested in getting the culture wars to move on and get on with the business of education,” Martin said. “So to find or to see that a sort of political consultant really has been paid to review books in her district is concerning.”
Francis Howell Forward got the documents through a public records request to the district and shared them with STLPR, which has reviewed and verified their authenticity.
Ewan Ross writes a blog called “No to Francis Howell Families for FHSD.” He had been going through the district’s financial records and sharing them publicly when a community member flagged the May 2 payment to Adams listed in the accounts payable document.
This came after Puszkar mentioned hiring a consultant to review the district’s library books during a public board meeting on June 19.
Ross then submitted a records request for all correspondence between district leadership and Adams.
Francis Howell Forward was also in the process of taking a closer look at the district’s finances and had submitted similar records requests.
“As a parent of kids in the district, I am both shocked and disappointed by this action and its aftermath,” Ross said in a statement. “The administration and prior board leadership are also disappointing here — the invoice should not have been honored, nor should the events have then been kept quiet only to be uncovered by accident. I hope the current board can come to a resolution that is acceptable to the public, and that policy is created to prevent this from happening in the future.”
The school board declined multiple request for comment.
The school district also declined to comment.
Jordan Adams’ conservative roots and Francis Howell
Puszkar met Adams during an event held by the School Board Academy for Excellence in 2023, according to an email she sent to former board member Adam Bertrand.
SBAE is a national, conservative-leaning organization that helps train school board members across the country.
At the time, Adams did similar consulting work under a different organization’s name – Vermillion Education.
“Vermillion Education is an independent, nonpartisan, and non-religious K-12 education consultant helping public school board members strengthen the education offered in their districts,” the website states.
Adams, a graduate of the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, also led a presentation about how to support more conservative-leaning school board members during a Moms for Liberty event in 2023.
In January 2024, Puszkar sent an introductory email to Bertrand, former board member Randy Cook and Adams introducing the three and requesting a meeting for Adams to share how he could conduct a “neutral curriculum audit.”
Puszkar’s email states, “This meeting is in no way proposing a contract or any other commitment to Mr. Adams or Vermillion Education.”
It’s unclear if a meeting took place.
Adams never had a contract with the district but was set up as a vendor in its payment system, according to an email obtained by STLPR.
In December 2024, Adams sent an email to Puszkar with an attachment labeled, “Project Proposal - Materials Vetting - Francis Howell.” STLPR has not yet obtained a copy of the proposal.
Puszkar then forwarded the proposal to Roumpos and Carol Embree, the district’s former chief finance and operations officer.
On Jan. 6, 2025, Roumpos wrote to Adams requesting additional information including a description of the scope of work he would do in terms of vetting materials within the district.
Adams responded on Jan. 8 with a general explanation of his work and an attachment of the project proposal.
“Common questions a board or staff member may seek to have answered may include, but are not limited to, questions of quality, extent of classical pedagogical principles, grade level-appropriateness, ideological bias, accuracy, alignment with policy or statute, et al.,” the email states. “The proposal grants the consultant zero authority to select or reject a text, resource, or material.”
The district adopted a policy in 2024 that allows parents and guardians to challenge certain books they view as not age-appropriate.
Battles in the culture wars
Francis Howell school board meetings have seen a number of fierce debates similar to those around the country about book bans and discussions of gender identity in the classroom.
In 2024, the district approved a policy that would ban books with certain types of content, including discussions of sexual identity and violence. In addition, the board voted to prohibit teachers from discussing gender identity in the classroom.
The district also made policy changes to prevent what it saw as viewpoint discrimination. Parents and opposing board members said the measure would allow for hate speech and falsehoods to potentially end up in educational materials.
The board approved a revised curriculum for African American history and literature, which removed social justice standards but maintained much of the original curriculum, in the 2023-24 school year.
Voters in the St. Charles County school district ousted two of the conservative members from the board in April, signaling a desire to move on from what are known as culture war battles and refocus on student learning.
“I think our organization [Francis Howell Forward] is hoping to see less headlines,” Martin said. “We're hoping to see less political conversations. We're hoping to see less outrage, uproar, less chaos.”
