Good morning,
Congratulations to four of you for accomplishing what so many in Louisville have wanted all along. Neighborhood schools, segregation, and enough overall dysfunction being demonstrated by both the board and its administration to make pretty much everyone in the city and state want to have SOMETHING.... ANYTHING.... done.
The board screwed up when you trusted Marty Pollio and his team that said we needed a ridiculously convoluted plan to fix transportation. And I get it. Maybe, like me, you thought his heart and head were in the right place. But it should have been obvious from the first day that he was not up to the task, nor was his team.
I'm honestly not sure if Alpharoute was hired to fix things, or simply share the blame for destroying them. Because again, the people that have long sought to destroy what 1975 brought us are finally getting their wish.
And after paying hundreds of thousands to Alpharoute, we hired another company to tell us how Alpharoute and JCPS screwed up. They did, in ways that seemed to withstand scrutiny.
So what did you do? You tried to rush a vote. You did so in a meeting where you didn't open an overflow room until the meeting was underway, and you left at least 100 people out in the rain. You knew it would be controversial. You didn't care. But you did decide to table the vote for a bit after receiving the auditor's report and hearing the thoughts of the auditor.
In that time, you would think that the district would be trying to figure out a plan B. Or at least better justifying the fact that there were not better alternatives.
Rather than wait for the next scheduled board meeting, you called one with 24 hours notice. You provided no opportunity for speakers prior to the meeting. Again more people were left out in the rain. I guess some of you were tired of hearing feedback when your mind was made up. You went into another meeting where you were given three not great options. And when you questioned those who brought the plan to you, you found out that as the auditors had told you, departments weren't coordinating on feedback for the new plan.
In the meantime, the voices of the people who will be impacted most are ignored.
You bought the transportation department less than a week. You didn't demand accountability from Marty Pollio and the team that brought you this disaster. You didn't demand a plan for the flaws found by the auditors. You didn't demand an explanation for how this new plan will work.
We have five months. We had far longer than that previously, and still Pollio and his team blew everything up. Ignoring the consequence to students, do you think that pulling transportation from magnets is NOT going to have a ripple effect on schools and transportation for next year? Parents are going to be demanding answers, looking for transfers, and seeking to make major changes to their enrollment. The schools currently have no real idea how these changes will impact their enrollment, class sizes, car rider lines, bus crowding, and more. Will staffing need to shift to accommodate more students at school X vs school Y? Will teachers decide to quit, retire, or transfer? Does anyone know? Is there anything beyond an 8 page Powerpoint with a few sentences to provide a roadmap?
Maybe you had no choice. Maybe you're tired of hearing about it and want to move on. But I would have hoped that getting played by the administration would have made all of you a little more angry and wanting accountability than you have been.
Three of you made the right vote last night. But all of you should have been publicly demanding more from a Superintendent who appears in every meeting like he's simply counting the days until you push him into retirement, and an administration that seems to be so overwhelmed by everything that's happened that nobody can coordinate a true crisis response that gets all the right people on board, despite having months to do so.
You all have a tough job. Certainly one tougher than the legislators who are now laughing about this have, and one with a hell of a lot more public input and accountability than true clowns like Jason Nemes, Lindsey Tichenor, Ken Fleming, and the other parade of JCPS critics in Frankfort. But last night made all of us who believed in this board and this superintendent look like fools, and that same crowd in Frankfort is gleefully celebrating.
Perhaps I should just be happy my family got what we wanted and let it go. That's what everyone who voted for this seems to want out of the community. Forgive me if it all makes me a little sick to my stomach.
The man that you hired and gave a nice fat raise to failed you and this community. His response was to pass the buck to others who clearly are exhausted and not up to the task.
Last night you decided to approve that failure with your vote, conspicuously split by a clear racial divide that once again leaves black voices out in the cold. The forces that have hated busing, desegregation, and a school system that makes it harder to sell real estate are celebrating today.
Bravo.
Rob Mattheu
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