The Missouri state auditor’s office sent a subpoena to the Francis Howell School District’s Board of Education on Monday demanding additional information on the dismissal of former Superintendent Mike Dominguez.
St. Louis Public Radio reviewed a copy of the subpoena, which requests the following information from the school board:
- An explanation for Dominguez’s resignation.
- Unredacted closed meeting minutes related to a settlement reached between Dominguez and the board.
- Unredacted meeting minutes from when the board accepted Dominguez’s resignation.
- Dominguez’s application materials, including background and reference checks.
After some back and forth between the district’s legal counsel and the state auditor’s office over the past few months, a Francis Howell spokesperson said in a statement that it will submit all outstanding documentation by the end of the week.
“The District received a request for information from the State Auditor and provided an initial response to the Auditor, along with redacted documents,” the statement said. “Our legal counsel expressed some concerns about providing what would normally be considered confidential information, including confidential personnel information.”
Scott Fitzpatrick’s office confirmed in August that it would review the district’s nearly $230,000 payment to Dominguez, according to a separation agreement obtained through a records request.
School board President Steven Blair said at the time that they had “nothing to hide.”
Dominguez was announced as the district’s new leader in March, but then resigned on July 31.
He started as an assistant superintendent with Shawnee Public Schools in Oklahoma in August.
The board has provided minimal public information about why Dominguez was first delayed in starting with the district and then eventually resigned just weeks before the start of the school year.
A previous school board paid School Exec Connect, a recruitment and consulting firm, over $40,000 to recruit the new leader, according to two invoices obtained through a records request. The firm was hired after former Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos left to run the Kirkwood School District.
The review of Dominguez’s resignation is in addition to the State Auditor’s office’s regular practice to follow up on a report from December 2024 that found the district had not been transparent about the growing costs to build its newest building, Francis Howell North High School in St. Peters. That update is expected later this month.
Francis Howell’s school board announced on Tuesday that it had appointed Mark Delaney as its permanent superintendent through June 2028. He had been serving in an interim capacity after Dominguez’s resignation.
