Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Decaturites - The Bus Drivers Need Your Help

Tonight, the MSD Decatur Township school board will vote on a new transportation plan that has the aim of pushing out our longest serving and most experienced bus drivers.

The agenda  (abysmal in its lack of detail, as always) notes the item as "4.05 Approval of Transportation Restructuring Plan -- Mr. Stinson".  Don't know what the transportation restructuring plan is?  That's what they want - nobody in the public has access to the exact plan without filing an open records request and hope to get it by tonight. 

This administration is putting out different information to different people - some of it simple falsehoods to keep the fires low. 

The bus drivers have been told that on May 27 they will be "technically unemployed".  They have been required to fill out a job application, including submitting references.  They have been told that they will be evaluated on a points system that has secretly been in place all year.  They have been told that the secret points system includes giving a demerit for using sick leave.  When asked to provide the drivers with the criteria for the point system, they were told that they could not see it.  When asked for the criteria for re-hiring, they are told that nothing exists to show them. 

The press is being told that property tax caps and school funding cuts are the cause of the districts transportation budget woes.  Even though the district knew last year, that the budget for transportation would be $2 million, they are spending almost twice that on a transportation scheme that was tried and failed in Perry Township earlier.  Even though they bought more buses and hired more drivers, this administration supposedly thought they would save money, not spend more money.  This is exhibit A in how very incompetent the Stinson administration and this rubber stamping school board are.

Some people have been told that the bus drivers have only been asked to indicate their intent to return to work next year.  This is a lie.

This administration has a clear pattern of keeping as much of the community in the dark as possible.  The agenda is uninformative.  Unlike any number of other school districts whose agendas are posted online with the underlying documents easily accessible, our district continues to keep the agenda limited to pablum. 

If you go to a meeting, you cannot tell what is being discussed because there is never full disclosure of the information, even at the meeting.  It is as if you walked into a private conversation if you go to a board meeting - which is pretty much the reality.  Community input is only a hindrence to these people.

Stinson and the rubber stamping school board just bought 134 acres of land.  The district has so much debt, that property taxes will not cover the payments and they had to let teachers go just last year to make ends meet.  Yet, their greed knows no bounds and they bought land they actually have no idea how they will use.  They already own over 100 acres; some of which was purchased without following the law for appraisals and some land for which they paid half again as much as it was worth.  They already own the old Concentra Building on Kentucky Avenue and refuse to sell it.  Our debt payments could be much lower if they showed any fiscal responsibility.  Yet, they buy even more property. 

So, there is enough money to buy unneeded property, but not enough money to safely and efficiently transport Decatur's children to school. 

Meanwhile, the bus drivers are our neighbors.  They are among the handful of employees who actually live in Decatur.  Go figure -- your tax dollars are going to pay outrageous salaries to administrators who refuse to live with us.  But, most of the drivers are from our community.  They know your children.  They care for your children.  They will call you if your child is not where they were supposed to be or if you are not home when they go to drop your child off.

Stinson gets an obscene amount of money for a Superintendent of a small district.  He gives administrators unusually high salaries and benefits - plus has implemented an unfunded liability in promised future payments for retirement packages that will haunt our budget for the next generation. 

The bus drivers' sin is that they do not matter to Don Stinson.  Stinson told the drivers that all employees had to share in the pain.  When asked what he was giving up, he said, : "If you don't like it, quit."

This community ought to tell Stinson and the rubber stamping school board that they need to cut administrator salaries and positions (as they promised to do, but have not done), and if they don't like it, they can quit.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

HEI:

Thank You for a well written statement of facts. The bus drivers might want to ask all of their neighbors to also stand up and be counted!!! Stinson may assume that people just don't care but they do care.

Anonymous said...

Any one who reads this. Please tell your friends and family. Your neighbors..We need to make a stand for our children! Safety used to be an issue on the school buses. But, no longer. On every bus. There used to be a tag with the number of the most children who could fit on the bus safely...Now, those have been blacked out.

Anonymous said...

This is pretty typical for what this Board has done. You WON'T know what they're voting YES on. You WON'T know what it's all about. They've done it for years and will continue doing it. It's like the year round school; it's already decided. Another fail in the making. Discussion? NAW we don't need any discussion.

REMEMBER...YOU ELECTED THEM and you KEEP ELECTING THEM. Easy to talk about it but harder to do something about it.

Anonymous said...

I keep hearing that "kathy wisman doesnt live in decatur". if she didnt live in decatur then could she still be on the school board? how hard could it be to find this out? all someone gotta do is ask

Anonymous said...

if you don't have to live in district to be on school board i guess you can run for any seat next year no matter where you live

Anonymous said...

Channel 13 news is in our neighborhood today wanting residents to speak on camera regarding the new bus situation.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:49: Why don't they care about the rest of the corruption in the township? Tell them about stinson making 1300 bucks a day. Tell them about the board junkets. tell them about wiseman not living in the township. that's the tip of the iceburg...

Anonymous said...

I saw Diamond Don on Fox News today blaming the governor's tax caps and budget shortfalls for the, uh, unfortunate need to lay off all the bus drivers who live in this township. He amazingly was able to say it all with a straight face. I guess Robin doesn't have enough practice yet to do that. Stinson knew YEARS ago that his spending habits would run this township into the ditch in short order, but he didn't give a damn about anything but fleecing the kids to fund his retirement on a sunny beach in Florida. Stinson and Susan Adams will have this pony rode to death within a year or so, and there won't be any money left to funnel into their salaries and perks, or for all-expense-paid party cruises for themselves and their cronies on the school board. They can all bail out then and leave the kids holding the bag. Sweet.

Anonymous said...

Are last year's retirees - Rather, Jones, and Candace Baer going to be paid as consultants next year when 20 bus drivers lose their jobs????? What was the result of DUI Don's DUI hearing????

Anonymous said...

Just use the money you saved from property tax caps for childcare and quit complaining.

Had Enough Indy? said...

anon 12:55 -- spoken like someone who lives off the public's dime. Even Cathy Wiseman lost her house because property taxes were too high.

Anonymous said...

i have heard the high schooler's and elementary kids will be riding the bus together next year. any truth to that?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post. I am a bus driver for Decatur Township and love my job. I have seen drivers over the years go above and beyond the call of duty to protect and keep children safe. It is these very drivers that I fear will be left without a job next year. At our meeting with Mr. Stinson, Susan Adams and Kirk Farmer, I was sick to my stomach and brought to tears, not for myself, but for the drivers who have been great employees and influences in the lives of the children we service everyday and for those who truly rely on this income for survival. I was told by one administrator (who does not reside in the township) recently that he had worked for the district 30+ years and deserved every perk and $$ he was paid. Unfortunately, this same way of thinking does not hold true for the bus drivers who have been "loyal and true" to this township for 30+ years...who live here, went to school here, raised their families here, etc.

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:08: YOU Voted for this school board! YOU keep electing them! YOU won't or don't help elect anyone else. I honestly say that NO ONE has the right to complain because you've had the chance to change things ever couple of years. You think Huffman will lose his reelection bid? I THINK NOT! DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!

Anonymous said...

Wow....REALLY regretting that we made the decision to remain in Decatur.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

You know something, firing bus drivers, now hiring family. Last some of us have heard Stinson's nephew is working around the schools.....Hmmmm somewhere like Vally Mills?

Anonymous said...

THIS IS THE LAST STRAW. FIRING BUS DRIVERS, WHILE HIRING RELATIVES.THESE WERE VERY DEDICATED DRIVERS. WOULD LOVE TO KNOW HOW THEY PICKED THE ONES THEY FIRED, AT LEAST THREE OF THEM HAD BETWEEN 25-30 YEARS SERVICE, WERE ALWAYS ON TIME, NEVER OFF WORK AND HAD SPOTLESS BUSES.BETWEEN THESE FIRINGS AND SO MANY KIDS ON BUSSES NEXT YEAR AND 1ST.TO 6TH GRADERS AT GOLD ACADEMY ON BUS STOPS IN THE DARK THIS WINTER.I PLAN TO DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO SEE THAT THIS SCHOOLBOARD AND ADMINISTRATION
WILL BE GONE SOON!!!

Anonymous said...

Post 5:09 this will be removed I'm sure . It is all so true though.Too bad the public has no idea what goes on at Decatur

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else hear that Stinsons community service for DUI was working Relay For Life?

Had Enough Indy? said...

Yes, I did have to delete that one comment. We all know what a rat's nest and Peyton Place the Decatur Administration is. Let's just not name the names, please. I really don't want unfortunate spouses to find out these things from my blog.

Anonymous said...

george malley, who is a friend of mine, son who goes to valley mills elementary.
now He will have to go though great pains to drive him and his NEPHEW, CODY smith to the end of the road just to ride the bus. They both like to watch peter GRIFFIN on family guy, before they go to valley mills. just feel horrible about these hard working americans facing jobs loses, just very upseting.

Had Enough Indy? said...

Might that be Griffith? Custodian, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

George Malley said he's heard of that Griffith boy over there, Valley Mills that is, heard he ain't much of uh working boy, no Mamam, ain't had no learing in them jobs nor worked in them. Just taking a real working american jobs thanks to that uncle of his, uuuhhhh? whats his name? STINkey? no.. what uh something with SON at the end of his name....you know.