The Sociopathy of the Ludington School Board

[XLFD]

At the November 15, 2021 regular meeting of the Ludington School Board three themes manifested themselves in the board's actions that followed a pattern of antisocial behaviors and attitudes, including manipulation, deceit, and a lack of empathy for others-- in other words institutional sociopathy.  These aren't traits that are usually considered good for a school board, but they were evident in spades at this meeting and it isn't too far of a reach to consider that this is a systemic problem.  

Lack of Empathy- Coaches call for more facilities to replace those lost

Coach Thad Shank led off the public comment period with a commentary that the new configuration of school buildings have resulted in a loss of gyms and practice space.  The four elementary buildings soon to be abandoned in 2022 each have gym facilities in one form or another, allowing for various school sports to have a place to play.  The loss of those gym facilities, with only the addition of one new consolidated school's gym and none extra planned for the secondary complex redo, has potentially left a logjam for those sports needing to play and/or practice.   He was hoping that they would consider an auxiliary gym.

Coach Warren Stowe echoed these concerns and further emphasized the insufficient amount of gyms for practice.  Vic Burwell, did the same, noting that 40 of the 96 Mason County athletes in the local sports hall of fame came from Ludington schools.  Another person who failed to give their name, gave additional concerns about the lack of gym space.

At this point it should be noted that the school board, their hired architects, and construction company, should have known about this fact when they put a $101 million bond in front of the people in May 2019 which eliminated four schools to consolidate into one mega-elementary.  But as it is now, the district will have three less gyms available and will be $101 million poorer in the process. 

It is totally irresponsible on the board's part to have not recognized that LASD sports would be negatively affected by the loss of those facilities, and they shouldn't be surprised as they were tonight, when the coaches finally looked over the new configuration and figured out how they and their student athletes would be screwed.   I recall having discussions with others who were against the millage that this would be a problem, but the school board finally got the memo.  Even so, they did not publicly recognize it as an issue at any point during the rest of the meeting, so the lack of empathy continues.

Deceit-- hidden audits and hidden offers

Before the public comment period there was a presentation of the 2020/21 Audit by Hungerford Nichols.  After a few minutes of technical issues with auditor Marc Sawyer's internet feed, he went through the latest audit of the school's financial records with audio only.  The audit was prepared for each of the board members, but this audit was not in the agenda packet, nor is it on the school website (they do have the prior year's up).  They would approve this audit as an action item this evening, without the chance of any public scrutiny.  

The worst deceit of the evening would be the giveaway of Foster School without any kind of public review.  The first half of my speech (I was the fifth and final speaker) dealt with the issue:

"Section 7300 of the school board policy manual states quite clearly:  "All written offers on real property under consideration for disposition shall be presented as an item on the agenda of a public Board meeting. A preliminary review of offers to purchase or lease shall include: source of offer, date of offer, expiration date of offer, and intended use of property.  Written offers shall be referred to the Board Finance Committee for review and recommendations."

Ideally, the one announced offer for the Foster School property was discussed at the November 11 Finance Committee meeting, but the public doesn't know this because neither an agenda or minutes have been shared with the public of that meeting.  The agenda packet fails to share a preliminary review of the particulars of this offer, nor does it provide any idea of how the finance committee review went, or whether they provided a recommendation or not.  The school board is failing in providing transparency to the public, and I could go back and find multiple instances where the board has decided to operate out of the public purview.

You people have to remember who the masters are in this school district, the ones who pay your bills and supply you the raw materials that you work with for up to 13 years and hopefully end up with an acceptable finished product.  The parents and taxpayers of this district.  This board should be supplying every one of their masters with the information that each of you get to figure out the ultimate decisions that you make at these board meetings.  Remember, you may have the power to choose a new superintendent, but your power is totally dependent on your masters choosing you to serve on the board..."

At the meeting, it was publicly revealed for the first time that 6 people expressed interest in the Foster School property enough to take a tour of it, but only one would make an offer, and that offer was $20,000.  Datum Point Real Estate Development made this small offer, claiming that they will invest $5 million into building 25 townhouse units in the block after tearing the 96 year old iconic landmark school down.  The five board members present (Reed and Snyder were absent) voted unanimously to accept this proposal after hearing from the developer and City Manager Mitch Foster who neutrally explained the full process that would need to make the developer's dream a reality.

The school board made this transaction without adequate notification of the public according to their own bylaws which is incredibly deceitful-- as noted they did an end-around to pass this sale without arousing the potential outrage that would be reasonable when selling the cow for a 'magic bean'.  FYI, for the community to get back the $101 million they spent in building a new school and modifying another, they would have to sell 5050 Foster school blocks (actually a block and a half when you consider the playground).   The public isn't even given a good reason for why an existing building in good shape and with historical value has to be torn down three years before its centennial. 

A final note, in the Datum Point link above, this LLC was created earlier this year, so they have no record of fulfilling their obligations coming into this acquisition.  

Manipulation-- the continuing senseless mask mandate that the district doesn't enforce

On August 30th, the board adopted a mask mandate that required masks whenever the prior week had a local test positivity rate (TPR) of 10 or better.  According to the school, that hasn't happened yet even though the CDC's records show plainly that local TPR was far below 10% for a week in September and October.  

However, as recently noted following my receiving of 330 mask exemption forms, the district has approved exemptions even for those 17 students and staff that offered no reason.  Effectively, the school's policy, unwritten, is that it actually is parental choice-- as long as you submit a dated form with your name and signature on it.  To bolster their own credibility and integrity, the board should admit their policy is a paper tiger policy and rescind it to show they respect the choices of the district's parents-- after all, those still having their kids attending have made the choice to keep them there.  I addressed the issue once again in the second half of my comment, noting that once again they are violating their own laws:

"... What kind of arrogant public servant would try to wrest their master's sovereign right to make the medical decisions for the master's children?  Perhaps by dint of their wealth or the status of their other occupations, four members of this board have decided they have that authority, when their own bylaws contradict that conceit.  Section 8450.01 says mask use policy must fall "in alignment with public health officials and/or in accordance with government edicts".  There is no government edict or public health officials calling for mask mandates at this time, so why do four uppity school board members feel they have the power to create one themselves, depriving their master's of that choice?  They do not have that power, so consult with your Thrun law firm and afterwards do the right thing and rescind your tyranny upon your masters."

Conclusion:  The Ludington School Board exhibited manipulation without capitulation, deceit with conceit, and lack of empathy plus a surplus of apathy in regard to the general public.  They are guilty of institutional sociopathy and they require counseling that only an energized public can give them.

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks, x, for the concise multifaceted synopsis of a huge barnful of horsesh.t  flowing from the LASD. Their finance committee appears to be violating OMA. And who wouldn't be surprised if there is some sinister connection with the developer of the Foster and Lakeview Schools?  Mitch Foster should follow Kennedy to Fruitport with that sales pitch.  My guess is that all 25 new townhomes will do is pad the city budget and provide for more city raises.  Shameful deal.

The lack of gyms situation is a deplorable oversight in the development with the consolidation.  Kind of serves the LASD and the fools who voted for the school consolidation right to get a bunch of negative feedback.  I hope it realltbitesrhem in the butts.  So much for attracting new young families to Ludington with a wonderful new school.  No wonder Kennedy skipped town after screwing the taxpayers.

[Willy]

The coaches have only themselves to blame for the lack of gym space. Why didn't they notice this situation when the building was in the planning stages? It would be like the Pebble Beach Golf Course being rebuilt and none of the pro's noticing it was rebuilt with only 4 holes instead of 18 until it was finished. Also, why didn't the supporters of this multi million dollar waste of money notice the lack of gym space. Supporters of this new school project were so blinded by the glitter of a brand new building they failed to notice "minor" defects in it's design. What else have they failed to notice?

$20,000 for the beautiful old Foster School building. What a shame. i wonder what the appraised value is on the building and property? I can guarantee it's considerably more than 20 thousand. I'm sure the folks who live near the school  will be happy as clams to have all of those townhouses, squeezed into their neighborhood. By the way, if this does happen, look for those townhouses to be low income housing, subsidized with our tax dollars.

I wonder if the board has also approved the teaching of Critical Race theory but they just forgot to inform the public. Who knows what these pro-maskers are up to.

Well written article X. The citizens now know they cannot trust the majority of the LASD school board.

[Willy]

Good points FS and LL. The main thing to keep in mind is that the school board is made up of elected officials and the $101,000,000 for the new school and offices was put on the ballot and approved by the voters. When the voters keep screwing themselves and others by voting to approve bad polices and officials there's not much that can be done. As long as we have a majority of foolish people willing to hand over responsibilities to incompetent people, I'm afraid this kind of insanity will continue.