MCC Superintendent Keeps Public Uneducated

[XLFD]

<---  Mason County Central (Scottville Area) Superintendent Jeff Mount is once again ignoring the duties of his office and also keeping the public ignorant of what is going on in his school district.   Late last year it was his recalcitrance to respond to FOIA requests concerning the investigation into CSC charges (later found to be unfounded) on one of MCC's coaches.  And his lack of doing any kind of internal investigation, even when he officially stated that he had.   This time it deals with his district's buses and the question of why they were taken out of service yesterday, May 31, 2013. 

 

According to a bus driver from a nearby district, several MCC buses were tagged not roadworthy by the Michigan State Police and/or Michigan Department of Transportation, necessitating the use of other district's buses, an inspection that likely took place on Thursday.  Another bus driver for MCC reports that they drove a Ludington bus on Friday, and it was due to red-tagging of some of the district's buses which happened the previous day.

 

At least one parent was reportedly given a call from the school saying that due to unavoidable circumstances they had to temporarily adjust bus routes for (Friday) only.  This was reported here, amid some speculation as to what the truth of the matter actually was:   http://www.masoncountypress.com/2013/05/31/mcc-parents-ask-whats-go...

 

It is a responsibility of a school district's administration to keep the parents of the district (and all others that pay their taxes to prop up that district as well) apprised of what's going on in a timely manner.  Apparently, if we are to piece together the truth by the words of two bus drivers of the district, several MCC buses were red-tagged on Thursday, and they were able to coordinate with MCE, Ludington, and other districts to replace those buses contingent to the buses getting repaired. 

 

Of course, speculation is the best we have to offer two days after these buses were taken off-line because there has yet to be an official declaration of what has happened regarding these buses, like you would expect would come from effective leadership.  What was the problem with the buses, and what sort of safety issues led to their sidelining?  Are these buses going to remain red-tagged for the rest of the school year?   How long were the buses operating with these defects? 

 

These are all questions that could have been easily transmitted to parents by phone, e-mail, or a simple memo sent home with the affected kids on Friday, but has any such transmission taken place, enigmatic phone calls received by some notwithstanding?  Take a look at today's City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) issued two days after the Thursday where the decision to take the MCC buses out of service was made: 

 

 

No announcement about buses, or any safety issues here or anywhere else in the 'newspaper',  just informing the public about a special meeting of the school board to discuss a plan for early retirement incentives for teachers.  The Mason County Central School District has recently upped their millage by 1.4271 in February, and pay their superintendent a $125, 000 salary, but cannot share with the people that pay the bills the simple fact (if our speculation is accurate) that buses were taken out of service and the reason(s) why they were.  They are a public agency operating on taxes and they have a duty of the public to do so immediately.

 

 

[XLFD]

According to today's Mason County Press (this problem is still being ignored by the City of Ludington Daily News):  "Mason County Central Schools Superintendent Jeff Mount confirmed this morning that several MCC buses were “red tagged” last week during a Michigan Department of Transportation inspection. The tagging caused the school district to re-route some bus routes and to borrow buses from neighboring school districts. Most tags were minor, however.

“We have a new bus inspector that takes his job very serious,” Mount said. “He was here last Thursday and Friday inspecting our bus fleet.  An annual thing as required by law.  I will say his timing was awful and the inspection process is not conducive to our normal bus operations this time of year as we have many special trips and athletic events along with our daily bus runs that puts a high demand on the number of buses needed each day.

“The process is an all-or-none process, if the inspector finds something that may not be in compliance with updated regulations, then he ‘red tags’ the bus until it can be remedied.  These changes cannot be done while he is here.  So, with him red-tagging some of our buses and our need to transport our students, we borrowed some extra buses from Ludington and Eastern so we could continue to provide the expected level of service our families count on.”

Most parents and bus drivers commenting on the topic, on our Facebook page, said the transition was a little smooth and caused little issues. Some parents did say they would like to have had a little more information regarding the bus changes.

MCP: Red-Tagged Buses

A parent responding to this article allegedly called the MDOT to find out about the problem, and heard that the red tag could be something minor like burnt out lights or they could be serious like a wheel about to fall off. The MDOT official gave the reason for the inspection was following up a complaint made about part of a bus rusting through, and that all 19 of the buses were red tagged for some type of violation.  She adds:  "Mr Mount makes it sound like its no big deal but fact it is. I put my kids on these buses everyday assuming they are safe."

Bingo.  But if this parent's report is right, it shows that Superintendent Mount was not only withholding this information for all the wrong reasons, but lying by saying it was part of a routine inspection and in his remarks about "some buses" when it appears to be all buses.  By his words, he himself doesn't think it's all that serious when all his buses fail an inspection, and wants to blame the inspectors more for the inconvenience of their timing and attention to detail, something he himself has received failing marks in, in this instance. 

[Willy]

It would be in everyone's interest if the Superintendent would come forth with any and all information regarding this matter. I think he forgot that his salary is paid by the taxpayers.

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos Willy, and like the good liberal Mr. Mount must be, he must also keep secrets from the public, just as his peers in DC & Lansing do as routine. Just another example of passing the buck to the next person. It's the newest fad these days you know.

[XLFD]

The main thing I appreciated about former Ludington superintendent Cal De Kuiper (recently promoted to Zeeland super) was that he knew the job, gave out information promptly and honestly, and appreciated the public's curiosity.  Ludington and Scottville's current superintendents are not concerned with transparency or dispensing the truth when pressed.