Ludington School Board Chooses Superintendent Finalists, Hears Concerns

[XLFD]

Throughout Monday afternoon and evening, the Ludington School Board held a special meeting with a few purposes.  Primarily they were there to review the candidates for superintendent who applied for the position,   They would do this after a lengthy closed session, a session where they also reviewed two disciplinary hearings for students. 

In the early part of the meeting they would also decide whether to modify their quarantine process for students who are identified as close contacts to positive Covid cases and are asymptomatic.  This was passed unanimously, such students and staff will now have the option to test negative by rapid antigen testing each school day prior to attending class for 7 days past the date of their last exposure, instead of the alternative quarantine for two weeks. 

While it will be effectively unclear to the general public what were the facts and disposition of the student disciplinary hearings held in the closed session, the board did announce the three finalists to be the next superintendent, they are:

Kyle Corlette, superintendent of Delton-Kellogg Schools

William Roderick, senior director of student services, Lakeport, California

Jason Misner, (pictured below) superintendent of Parchment School District

In two more open special meetings where the public is invited, Corlette will be interviewed next Tuesday at 5 PM, Roderick and Misner will be interviewed next Monday beginning at 5 PM.  Like this meeting, the interviews will be held at the administrative office boardroom at 809 E Tinkham.

Each candidate has prior experience as teachers and principals, with Corlette having the additional distinction of losing out to Ludington's former Superintendent Jason Kennedy when they both applied to be Fruitport's next superintendent and were finalists.  None of them appear to have any controversies in their past careers that might taint their brand.  They will likely take over the position at the beginning of next year if everything goes according to schedule at about the same time the new elementary will be ready.

At this late-called special meeting in the close-quarters of the administrative boardroom, about a half dozen concerned citizens and parents showed up.  A couple of those would speak up.  One was a father of a senior at LHS who related a personal story of the difficulties he has had with the school district's mitigation policies, primarily with the intrusive aspects of regular testing just for his son to participate in the football program and other activities.  For him and many other parents of local high school students who are in sports or in advanced learning programs it's a very hard decision to make to either comply with the odd protocols local schools burden students with or yank them out of the craziness.  His wife is a member of our sister group on Facebook, the Ludington Pitchfork (she posted about this meeting being held), so perhaps she can share that comment with a larger audience.

His speech ran about 5-6 minutes and may have wore a little on the patience of the board chairman, who knew they had a long night ahead of them.  I would be the only other member of the public to speak, with a comment that was only a little over two minutes long, after which the board voted to go into closed session to discuss the two disciplinary issues and review applicants:

XLFD:  "I was emotionally touched by the twenty or so LHS students who peacefully protested outside the auditorium before the last board meeting for their right to choose whether to mask up or not.  When the six young ladies from LHS commented at the beginning of the meeting, delivering a message of mental anguish, physical agony, and spiritual suffering, I can only hope it emotionally touched each of you at least half of what I felt.  

The district is eligible for and has received a lot of ESSER funds from the federal government for dealing with pandemic issues.  There is effectively a financial benefit for keeping these pandemic issues alive in our schools.  LASD has been taking advantage of those benefits, as evidenced at this last meeting in the discussion over a new position of health liaison officer, and by other purchases made since last year that I reviewed after receiving a FOIA response. 

I can present you with over a dozen longstanding peer reviewed randomized control trials that indicate face coverings do not significantly affect community spread of respiratory viruses like Covid-19.  I can present you with dozens of LASD students who have suffered definite negative effects from mandated mask wearing.  I have presented you with 2020 statistics from Sweden showing that open schools without mask mandates had no effect on school age children dying, and a significant positive effect when less teachers died than expected for a normal year.   

An honest risk benefit analysis of mandated mask wearing in our schools will always point towards relaxing the mandate to allow for choice.  Unfortunately, there's no ESSER money available for our school if they don't buy into the fear, anxiety, and hysteria running viral throughout American schools.  [END comment]

While the millions of dollars of ESSER money the district is eligible is definitely a seductive carrot on a stick for the LASD Board, it is essentially only a catalyst for the progressive forces on the board (Nagle, Autrey, Reed, and Carlson) that actively desire to exert more control over your kids than you could ever lawfully exercise.  

[AQUAMAN]

I was offered seven gov't. jobs right out of college, and turned them all down, saddening my mom.  For obvious reasons,  I preferred the more proud, intelligent, and honest private business sector. For 26 some years, some ppl. were programmed and brainwashed, and still have the after-effects for the rest of their lives, plus way too much money accumulated along the way.