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The KSHB 41 I-Team is breaking new details after chemical contamination testing at a small town school district in Henry County, Missouri.
The Davis R-12 School District's superintendent was placed on administrative leave as many families are leaving the district.
KSHB 41's Isabella Ledonne has covered concerns about hexavalent chromium for months.
Now, Ledonne uncovered another complaint about how the superintendent responded to a serious threat against students and a school board member's family.
The Davis R-12 School District had five rounds of testing for reports of cancerous chemicals.
The EPA did detect two small amounts of hexavalent chromium on school grounds, but determined it was safe to return and not a large enough amount for concern.
However, many parents and community members are concerned with the decision to return to the campus and how the testing was handled.
The trust issues go back to the superintendent's response to a death threat that happened in September.
The threat happened before any concerns arose with the fly ash, but at least two school board members confirmed the superintendent mishandled that issue, too.
The number of students set to return to the Davis R-12 School District is dwindling by the day.
"Trust is a really big issue in these small, rural areas," Amy Green-Nold, the former school board treasurer, said. "I hope that there's an opportunity for the ability to rebuild."
Green-Nold is one of the five school board members from Davis who all resigned within weeks of each other, prompting the Henry County Commissioners to step in and appoint new members in accordance with Missouri state statute.
She exclusively sat down with KSHB 41 News to discuss her resignation from the board and the issues that have arisen in the last year.
"I just started noticing our board being very divided and unable to talk the way we used to," Green-Nold said. "[My resignation] gave the commissioners an opportunity and a third party to invest in that and make that decision and got that really out of the board's hands, allowing some diversity and some unbiased people to enter the board."
Testing from professional labs commissioned by Henry County residents, county commissioners, and the Davis R-12 School District revealed hexavalent chromium was found in the soil at the school campus.
More tests from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the EPA found "no concerning levels" of the cancerous chemical.
But Green-Nold found out about the potential risk when the rest of Henry County did.
"The public knew, and as a board member, I didn't even know the school had been tested," Green-Nold said. "There were community members that knew about it, faculty and staff may have even known about it and didn't share that information. That was really concerning, especially as a mom."
According to testing documents and emails KSHB 41 News obtained through Missouri Sunshine Requests, the first round of testing done by the Triangle Environmental Group was sampled on November 15, 2024.
Superintendent Karen Mefford told families and the board at the end of January when the results came out, according to emails and letters sent to parents dating to January 23, 2025, at the earliest.
"It really put the board, I feel like, behind the eight-ball because we didn't even know that there was testing that was done or there was even a risk that our students were being exposed," Green-Nold said. "[Knowing that information], it wouldn't have changed the results, but it would have allowed us to have all the information immediately instead of being blindsided by something we didn't even know was at risk."
Since January, enrollment has dropped by half. 48 students were enrolled last year, but only 24 are set to return in August, according to numbers presented at the July school board meeting.
"There's just been so much in our community in the last year causing divide and mistrust," Green-Nold said.
Green-Nold decided to take her children out of the Davis R-12 School District before the fly ash testing concerns came up. She continued to serve on the school board.
"I felt that that was my civic duty," Green-Nold said. "I could continue to be there for those other students and those parents and the community members that had questions and concerns."
Green-Nold's decision stemmed from the school's handling of a death threat against a board member and their family, including students at the school.
Records from the Henry County Sheriff's Office outlined the details of the threat.
A nine-year-old male student made threats while at school during lunch to shoot a student's parents.
While making the comment to the student regarding the student's parents, the nine-year-old boy made finger guns and shooting sounds while threatening to kill them.
"[The school board member] advised that Davis Elementary School never reached out to her in regards to the threats being made," the incident report stated. "[Superintendent] Karen Mefford had a short interview with [the nine-year-old student] about the comments he made. Karen advised she was not able to have an in-depth talk with [the student], but [the student] did admit to making the comment and stated 'one to the head and one to the heart.' When Karen asked what did he mean by that, [the student] replied, 'kill them'."
"I was very concerned by hearing that," Green-Nold said. "It still kind of gives me goose bumps."
Green-Nold explained her daughter reported that comment to the superintendent, who allegedly didn't tell the board or other families until days later.
"It was then stated that [the student] wouldn't be returning to school, but that was four to five days after the threat had taken place," Green-Nold said. "There was a lot of time in there where there was a lot of uncertainty."
Many families in an exit survey/interview with the district cited the school threat and the handling of the fly ash situation as to why they won't be returning.
"We decided to remove our children from the Davis school district for several reasons," one parent wrote. "The threat and mishandling of the threat, along with the lack of accountability for the mishandling of the threat was more of a "last straw" for us."
"There was a lot of parents that felt guilty like I did, that they let their kids down because they trusted the school," Green-Nold said. "It just led down a path that snowballed."
The Henry County community has packed the board meetings since, calling for transparency from the superintendent and school board on how issues are being handled.
"[Davis] is 87% locally funded," Green-Nold said. "That comes from tax revenue, literally, from your neighbors. Your community is footing the bill for 87% of your budget."
According to financial documents KSHB 41 News obtained, Davis R-12 School District maintained their tax levy rate at 4.1269% for the 2024-2025 school year.
But it's not currently at the maximum rate.
The school's budget is set at $1.76 million as of June 2025. $680,000 came from local tax dollars.
The school board is considering raising the community's tax levy at its August 19 meeting.
However, it's unclear how many students will be returning since the board offered to pay for students' tuition at another district if their families were uncomfortable with the chemical contamination reports.
"Rightfully so, taxpayers are asking why?" Green-Nold said. "Why are you raising our taxes and collecting more money from us and taking it from our families to put in a bank?"
Green-Nold resigned earlier this month, along with Angie Westhusing, Jaclyn Carroll, Esther Hart, and Cassie Cook.
The new school board, including members appointed by the Henry County Commission, voted to place Superintendent Karen Mefford on administrative leave.
The first day of school is set for August 20.
"It's going to be really, really hard to rebuild that trust," Green-Nold said.
KSHB 41 News has called and emailed Superintendent Karen Mefford multiple times over the last three months. We've also contacted her attorneys. We haven't received any response.
More coverage on the fly ash situation in Henry County can be found here.
