Ludington, MCC School Board Meetings, October 21, 2024: Jeers and Cheers

[XLFD]

For the last school board meetings of the Ludington Area School District (LASD) and Mason County Central (MCC) District before what will be an election that will have ten candidates looking to fill five board seats, the affairs turned out to be non-controversial and apolitical.  Half of the candidates did not even show up and those that did, incumbent or not, did nothing to promote their causes or themselves.  

Ludington

The agenda packet showed a modest amount of four action items with nothing very controversial among them.  The meeting started off introducing the student's new mayor, Kylie, who recapped the last month from her standpoint, then segued to a presentation made by Spanish teacher Tim Keith about his class trip down to South America, with about ten of his students attending and giving their own highlights.  Coincidentally, one of the action items was to approve next year's class trip to Spain and Morocco, which was passed.

Jason Wolven led off public participation by asking about one of his pet issues of sidewalks leading out to the school being constructed.  The Ludington Torch has stressed that meaningful pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure on Jebavy and particularly Bryand Roads should have been in place on day one of the new elementary school's opening, but like many other traffic safety issues, it has been long in coming. 

Superintendent Kyle Corlett and some board members would later note that there have been talks with Heather Tykoski from the City of Ludington and a PM Township official (we would find out the next day at the PM Board meeting that it was Supervisor Kelly Smith) about sidewalks and a hoped-for grant from Safe Routes to School that hasn't been forthcoming.  It's unfortunate that this wasn't part of the $101 million bond project in the first place, but another agenda item would be, the $84,000 resurfacing of eight tennis courts at the Schoenherr Tennis Center which was approved without problem.  One has to believe this would be more than sidewalks on those two roads would cost.

I would follow with my own statement to elicit or provoke some form of response by the board and superintendent to discord amongst the district's staff.  But the two trustees mentioned ignored the invitation, as did the one candidate, Alan Neuschwander, who attended, but in his defense, mentioned the organic discontent among teachers at the recent candidate forum.

XLFD:  "Over the last month, I've published in three installments an early 2024 survey taken by 94 teachers in the Ludington School District.  This should be an excellent resource for the board and administrators to look at and learn from, as it points out a large degree of dissatisfaction among staff with the districts culture and climate while containing a lot of constructive observations and criticisms.  Although this has been available to board trustees and our highest administrators for over 6 months, I have seen nothing in the meetings over that time discussing any issues brought forth, or any actions by this board to try and alleviate the disharmony.  

While I can understand the reluctance of a school board to potentially air their dirty laundry at a public meeting, ignoring the voices of the people who actually do the work in this district is a definite way to make sure that teachers rate you all even lower on the scales of empathy, respect and communication skills on future surveys like this, and believe me if you haven't looked at the survey, you all are scoring low on those.  Improving these problem areas do not require financial commitments, but it will require a change of administrative policy or outlook.

Before the next regular board meeting, you will find out who will fill the seats currently occupied by Scott Foster and Leona Ashley.  It would be appreciated if these two trustees and any of the other three candidates hopefully in attendance tonight, would weigh in on how to regain the goodwill of the district's staff and put the district back on track.  I defer my full three minutes to allow time for this. [END comment]

They would recognize support staff Beth Gunsell and Michelle Kiessel as the month's Soaring Orioles, and the superintendent gave the latest enrollment figures (an increase of 7 students, when a loss of 21 was earlier expected).  The first reading of new NEOLA policies was done, notably one that would implement the recent tweak onto Title IX which would allow gender identity to be a protected class, and which would ultimately allow biological boys to play in girls' sports and use their gender-specific facilities.  Ludington currently is a district where an injunction prevents this from happening.

The board would approve a bond payment of $1.26 million and approve a three-year snow plowing contract with Larsen's Landscaping (the amount was undisclosed).

Mason County Central

MCC Superintendent Jeff Mount seemed impressed that this reporter had made it to the meeting by 6:55 PM and we good-naturedly joked about Ludington needing to make its meetings last longer.  He also noticed my collared dress shirt was hiding a MCC Spartan shirt underneath and suggested I wear that without covering it to future LASD meetings to reflect how well MCC is doing, beating Ludington in football and volleyball this year.  I figure that I may just do that if MCC bests Ludington again during the basketball season (December 6 for boys, January 14 for girls).

While I had a comment prepared for the meeting, I deferred it over both comment times because I saw that there was a contingent of about ten attendees to the meeting that appeared to have their own agenda to promote.  When they made that known during the second comment, I figured my issue could wait for a better time.  The agenda packet had a few contents, but the board's actions would amount to hiring two coaches, approving a band trip to Ford Field and moving the November board meeting back one week.

Two members of the board would acknowledge the success of the football team and the increased school spirit and attendance at games.  Superintendent Mount would acknowledge an article in EdSurge that recognized MCC teacher/coach Miguel Quinteros and acknowledge a loss in fall enrollment figures of 27 students (down to 1132 students), mostly due to a small Kindergarten class.  The principals (other than Kevin Kimes who was absent) gave their reports (included in the packet).

Mount would relate being woke up in the middle of the night in the middle of the week due to the school's ZeroEyes system.  The sheriff's department was conducting approved field training inside one of MCC's buildings and it caught the eye of this security system in the school which is meant to pick up guns and alert the folks who need to be.  The problem was quickly determined to not be an emergency, and he was able to resume sleeping.  

In actions, the board would move back their November meeting to the 25th.  They would hire basketball-playing alumnus Jeff Carrier to be the new JV Basketball coach and hire teacher Mike Weinert as the boys' basketball coach for the 7th grade.  They approved an overnight trip to Ford Field for the MCC band for an exhibition of marching bands on November 1st, funded by the band program, boosters, and students.

The most interesting part of the meeting, however, was the second comment period where about half a dozen students got up before the board, indicating that they were members of the sideline cheer club and were hoping for their club to become a sport, they were also supported by their cheer leader, Brandee Lathers.  MCC has recently revived their sideline cheer program after 15 years of dormancy, this would be the next step towards recovery of the program.  

With winning sports programs, the board and Principal Tuka saw that this would be a good thing to pursue after these well-spoken young ladies respectfully made their case for it.  One hopes that the athletic director can attend next month's late meeting in five weeks to give an update on the district's progress in making this dream a reality.