The Ludington Area School District (LASD) had a lot of things happen this last Sunday, November 7th.  They posted a letter to parents indicating that district students and staff would need face coverings due to test positivity rate being reported as nearly twice the 10% rate which is the cutoff line for mask usage.  They then indicated that school would be closed Monday due to staff shortages, and that may be extended if those problems continue.  They would close also for Tuesday, and later that night, announce they would be closed all week (making the first letter moot).

But they also received a real drama killer, as one of the two finalists for the superintendent position, Jason Misner, had dropped out of the running for some reason.  The school board had a special board meeting scheduled beginning at 5 PM on Monday afternoon to do another 75 minute interview with Misner and Kyle Corlett (pictured below).  This turned into one last hour-long test of Mr. Corlett's ability to keep the board interested in him, so that they would not restart the process.

The special meeting was well-attended at the district's business office, but the complexion of the audience looked packed more with school staff and personnel rather than parents.  They would listen along with the board as Kyle Corlett reintroduced himself and gave a power point presentation of his 90 day plan to hit the ground of Ludington running.  

This included the usual pedantic listing of goals, objectives, and ideals along with the high-minded considerations of focusing on needs, engaging the community, and energizing the curriculum.  Once the 15 minute presentation was completed, the board did another half hour of questions which were handled admirably and risk-aversely by the remaining candidate.  The last 15 minutes had all seven board members answering Mr. Corlett's question about why they each decided to join up with school board and what were they hoping to accomplish.  I noticed that the board's verbal autobiographies presented told me a lot about each member.  

Before I offer that revelation, however, it should be noted that I had to leave as the board adjourned for a five minute break, after which they would offer Corlett a contract to be the next superintendent of LASD.  This was mostly anticlimactic, being that he was the only one left and that he nailed both interviews-- even from my perception.  If you haven't seen or heard Kyle Corlett, think of the prior superintendent, Jason Kennedy.  Retain the beard, the baldness, the voice, but go from an endomorph to an ectomorph, and you have a good picture.

I would be the only citizen to speak this night and I kept to the usual theme, and introduced a theory of why the school may be experiencing staff shortages.  The school board has to be constantly reminded that most of the people in the district would prefer a mitigation plan that allowed parents to make their children's medical choice, rather than four members on a school board.  The comment follows:

XLFD:  "The public has been told that today's indefinite closure of Ludington schools is due to a staff shortage, but a definitive statement on the causation of that shortage has yet to be disclosed.  I would dare say that the staff shortage is due to the shortsightedness of a majority of this school board who have decided to adopt an untenable mask mandate while the rest of our area schools and society in general are getting over the viral hysteria.  

Consider that the August 30th special meeting of this body had no fewer than 26 people speak out against the policy, predominantly the mask mandate, and that this concerned group of people did not only include parents and students, but several staff members claiming that masks interfere with their ability to effectively do their jobs, in one way or another.  

When the school board adopts an illogical policy and ignores multiple concerns of parents and students who have to deal with that policy, those people begin to consider alternatives to attending Ludington schools.  One would have to believe that school staff would consider similar alternatives when their ability to provide quality education is hampered by an unproven prophylactic. 

My advice to the school board is to respect the medical decisions of parents, students, and staff, and follow the advice of the local health department, along with the policies of all other schools across this county, and strongly recommend the wearing of masks, but do not impose mandates.  You may find that staff and morale shortages might be averted in the future. [END Comment]"

And what did the school board members reveal to me in their monologs about themselves?  The four members that voted to take away your rights to decide what your child wears (or not wears) to school all seemed to have an inflated opinion about their motives and their ideals, one might define as elitism.  The three who voted to protect parental rights offered three stories of mostly selfless dedication to their fellow citizens and children.  I guess this shouldn't be too surprising. 

Views: 386

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Congratulations to Mr. Corlett. I wonder if he understands that he is walking into a buzz saw. I checked his current school districts web page, Delton Kellogg Schools and found that masks are optional. I wonder if he will be able to or even want to  convince LASD school board to do the same. Good luck to him. Thanks X for your continued vigilance of this situation. 

The statistics on the DKSD that Corlett now manages is not very positive. That could be the reason he is seeking greener pastures.

I doubt whether Corlett will invest his capital in trying to get the board to change their minds, even if he is a believer in freeing faces.  The board allowed the public to ask candidates through them questions that they found relevant.  I submitted one about the district's mitigation plan, and it was never asked, so it seems the board is not interested in having their superintendent address that issue, just follow their doctrine.  

The four members of the board who are for covering our children's faces, are not likely to change their own elite and misguided thinking, so Mr. Corlett won't gain anything from advocating for making masks optional.  The plate he's being given is already too full of crap.

RSS

© 2024   Created by XLFD.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service