Mt. Pleasant School Board approves staff termination, food worker pay increases

BY BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

Items related to school personnel were a topic of much discussion during Monday night?s regular Mt. Pleasant school board meeting with the termination of bus driver Jess Amos and the approval of pay increases for three school food service workers.

With business relating to Amos taking up much of the board?s attention, it was moved to terminate Amos? employment as a school bus driver. The decision came after what was considered to be an inappropriate discharge of a student from a school bus operated by Amos.

And while it is not common practice to hold such discussions in a public forum setting, it was requested by Amos to discuss a majority of his hearing as such.

?There are two reasons for bringing Mr. Amos? termination before the board,? said interim superintendent, Dr. John Roederer. ?One, is for an inappropriate discharge of a student from the bus and the second charge is for failure to contact the parents, the transportation director and the school superintendent following the incident... It?s an issue of child safety.?

According to reports, Amos wrongly discharged a student from his bus at an unauthorized stop and did not immediately report issues he was having with the student, as per proper school policy regulations. It was also made clear that at no point during these alleged actions did Amos touch the child in question.

The school district?s transportation director, Ted Carlson, was also in attendance during deliberations regarding the issue, and stated that although Amos had been told of his responsibilities with regard to the student, those responsibilities were not accurately carried out.

?What I expressed to Jess on how to handle this type of thing was not followed,? stated Carlson. ?I made it very clear on how we were going to deal with this student and it was not done.?

In addition, Carlson also indicated that the student in question had caused issues on the bus before, which is what prompted him to discuss the student with Amos personally.

?We had another incident before with this child and we came up with a plan to deal with this child. And that plan was not followed (by Amos),? Carlson said. ?I made it clear to him (Amos) before that we do not discharge students in the way that he did.?

In his defense, Amos insisted that he didn?t have the opportunity to timely contact the required school personnel when the child became too disruptive to travel with on his morning route.

?A bus driver is not allowed to talk on a cell phone while they are driving a bus. A bus driver is also not allowed to broadcast on the radio any confidential information or disciplinary action taken against a student when a bunch of other people or students could hear,? said Amos. ?So, my first opportunity to talk to the transportation director would have been when I got the bus back to the bus barn.?

Amos also stated that he could not leave the bus to make a call on his cell phone because he couldn?t rightfully leave students unattended on the bus.

According to Amos, by the time he had returned to the bus barn that morning to report the incident, Carlson had already been made aware of the situation through a separate party.

Amos also stated that he discharged the child at the same location that the child had been picked up at earlier that morning. He also insisted that he knew the child?s mother would be home to meet the child after the student was discharged from the bus.

?I figured the mother or the parent would be the best person to discipline their kid and teach them right from wrong, than for the bus driver to be doing that,? said Amos. ?The kid wasn?t in any danger. The parent was at home, they got the kid to school and the bus was safe for the rest of the students without that kid on the bus.?

And despite Amos? insistence that the entirety of his hearing be made public, the board did move to go into closed session to review a videotaped recording of the incident before making their decision.

Upon review of the situation, the board did move to terminate Amos with only board member Jennifer Crull abstaining from the vote, citing a prior work relationship with Amos.

And while he does have the option to appeal the decision, Amos gave no indication that he plans to do so, saying his work relationships at the school are now tarnished.

?We are at an impasse. There is some bad blood now, so there is just nothing left to be done,? he said in conclusion.

In other personnel-related news, the board approved temporary $.50/hour pay increases for three food service workers at the district. The increases in pay come after the resignation of food service director, Tessa Adcock. With the food service director?s exit, the three workers have had to take on added duties on top of their regular day-to-day work responsibilities.

According to Roederer, the workers? pay would be adjusted back to their original wages once a new food service director is hired.

For additional coverage of Monday night?s school board meeting, read tomorrow?s (Wed.) issue of the Mt. Pleasant News.

The next regular Mt. Pleasant School Board meeting will be held on Nov. 9, at 6 p.m., in the high school media center.