School board brings in outside consultant to investigate state fair incident

The Boonville School Board will not take action for right now against Superintendent Mark Ficken, who was the announcer at the Missouri State Fair rodeo where a clown pretended to be President Barack Obama.

The board held a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss Ficken’s involvement in the incident and his future as superintendent.

The meeting was a closed-door discussion to further investigate the incident.

School Board President Charlie Melkersman said he would not release any information about what was found or decided for 72 hours.

He did say the board has an outside investigator looking into it.

Ficken’s attorney, Al Watkins, said he should not be punished for something he didn’t do.

He maintains Ficken only said one thing, “Watch out for that bull, Obama,” and that cautioning statement was part of his job as the rodeo’s announcer.

“You’ve got an amateur rodeo, an amateur announcer, an amateur sound person, and a rogue clown,” said Watkins. “You combine those things and you’ve got a real mess.”