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Columbus School Board and bussing · Chuck Douglas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got in this building and this here ihearten megaplex
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in clubs. We've got lots of different businesses. We are
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a tenant in the building, and one of the businesses
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  Speaker 1: we have is a they do CPR training. Do you
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  Speaker 1: know what the name of the place is? By chance?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, CPR training?
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  Speaker 1: Is that what it's called?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, but I know they do it right now.
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  Speaker 1: Like once a month they have training over there. And
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: people walk in and they're all confused about how to
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  Speaker 1: get there, and they try to come up in the
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  Speaker 1: elevator that comes to the radio station. That won't take
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: them there. And so I'm going down and go to
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  Speaker 1: have my pre show Nicotine, and there's a girl look
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  Speaker 1: at and she's looking lost and can't I said, you're
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  Speaker 1: looking for CPR. She said yes. I said, okay, you
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  Speaker 1: go down here. You go through those double class doors.
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  Speaker 1: Turn to your right, there's stairs. There's also an elevator.
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  Speaker 1: Either way you go to the second floor. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as you get off the elevator or reach the top
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  Speaker 1: of the step, CPR places right there. Okay, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: I go outside. I'm looking back inside the build and
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  Speaker 1: she's like walking in circles like a lost puppy cannot
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  Speaker 1: figure out how to get up there. And then as
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  Speaker 1: I'm outside, there's a woman. She's on the phone, and
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  Speaker 1: I thought she was waiting on an uber driver or something,
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  Speaker 1: but she was waiting on somebody else who was going
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  Speaker 1: to attend the CPR class with her tonight. And she's
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  Speaker 1: explaining to him how to get here, and she keeps going, no,
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  Speaker 1: you're crossing railroad tracks, are you? And so I jumped
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  Speaker 1: in and tried to help and guide the guy in,
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  Speaker 1: and she's the building says twenty three twenty three on it.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It's a big twenty three twenty three. You can't miss it.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm right at those doors and there's an iHeartMedia
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  Speaker 1: sign right outside the door, and she was just having
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  Speaker 1: fits trying to get him in here. So I spent
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  Speaker 1: my little break there between shows giving directions on trying
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: to get people here.
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  Speaker 2: Did the guy not have GPS? And did the girl
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: ever find? You know? It sounds like the girl needs GPS.
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  Speaker 1: It's an excellent Yeah, it's an excellent question. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if he didn't have the GPS or what, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, let me help you. And so I
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  Speaker 1: think I got him guided in before I had to
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  Speaker 1: come back in here, and then I was looking at
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Marshall's forecast. I'm all depressed over that. Tomorrow tomorrow when
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be cold again. But I gotta go
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: get stuff out of storage. You got a storage unit,
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  Speaker 1: No I do not. Okay, I got a storage Actually
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  Speaker 1: now I have to because I'm moving stuff from the
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  Speaker 1: old storage unit to a new storage unit which is
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  Speaker 1: closer to home that I can actually get to. And
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  Speaker 1: here's the problem. Okay, the lady who runs the storage
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  Speaker 1: place where I've been paying for storage forever, she's very nice,
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  Speaker 1: she really is. She is a very nice woman. However,
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  Speaker 1: they've got this one tenant in there who apparently thinks
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  Speaker 1: he owns the place. And every time I go in
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  Speaker 1: and attempt to get to my storage unit to put
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  Speaker 1: stuff in or take stuff out. We want holiday decorations,
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  Speaker 1: want summers or whatever, I can never get to it
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  Speaker 1: because he's got four hundred and seventy five thousand vehicles
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  Speaker 1: that are all parked out there and constantly blocking getting
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  Speaker 1: And she's, you know, just as nice as well. If
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  Speaker 1: you tell me when you're going to be coming, I'll
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  Speaker 1: let him no. See, this is I'm paying full freight.
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  Speaker 1: You expect me to pay every I should not have
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  Speaker 1: to call you to call another guy to get his
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  Speaker 1: crap out of the way so I can get to
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  Speaker 1: my storage unit. This is why I have to go elsewhere.
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  Speaker 1: As nice as you are, this is ridiculously inconvenient. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to pay for December for a story
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  Speaker 1: uit that I can't use. I told her to get
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  Speaker 1: it out by the end of the week. And Thursday's
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  Speaker 1: really my only day because Friday is busy, and saturday's
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the toy drive and I'm just so tomorrow I'm gonna
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: be freezing my mind. But it took us off out
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  Speaker 1: there getting so Zach. If you're not busy, feel free
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  Speaker 1: just say it.
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  Speaker 2: What time I'm busy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I figure I have to do.
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  Speaker 2: If you need help, just let Mark know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll let Mark know and he'll tell somebody about it.
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  Speaker 1: So anyway, that's yeah, that's where my brain is right now.
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  Speaker 1: Before I even get into the school, somebody's on the
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  Speaker 1: phone about the school. So let's get him on here. Doug.
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  Speaker 1: You're on six ten up of the e TV, and
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  Speaker 1: we you get thinking.
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  Speaker 3: I got a questions right, what year? What year did
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  Speaker 3: you graduate from West High School?
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  Speaker 1: The year nineteen hundred and eighty three.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, I was in the class of sixty seven when
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: you had when you had.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Your dude, you're ancient, you're old? How could you even talk?
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  Speaker 1: Does your jaw work?
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  Speaker 2: Did you have?
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  Speaker 3: Did you have your graduation at the school or where
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  Speaker 3: did you have it?
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  Speaker 1: We had our graduation at Veterans Memorial?
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  Speaker 3: Who paid the bill for it? Did your parents have
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  Speaker 3: to get deep down.
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  Speaker 4: In their pockets to come up with case? I don't
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  Speaker 4: believe so public school is paying for it.
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  Speaker 1: I think the schools paid for it because we didn't.
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  Speaker 1: We didn't have to pay for it.
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  Speaker 4: In nineteen sixty seven, we had our graduation at the high.
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  Speaker 1: School, right, I remember I had a sister in that class.
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  Speaker 4: Don't you think they would turn around and that would
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  Speaker 4: be one of their cuts that put the graduations back
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  Speaker 4: in the high school. Well, plus we had the graduation
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  Speaker 4: was in the school, and then they had a church
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  Speaker 4: program thing in the auditorium the Sunday before we graduated.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure it's costing a pretty penny to rent out
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the Ohio Theater, which is where they the last graduation
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  Speaker 1: I went to was at the Ohio Theater, and they
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  Speaker 1: just cycle the schools through, like you know, West High
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  Speaker 1: School will be at ten am, and the East High
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  Speaker 1: School will be at eleven thirty am, and South High
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  Speaker 1: School will be at two o'clock. They just cycle them through.
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  Speaker 1: And it was quite frankly one of the least enjoyable
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  Speaker 1: experiences of the last decade for me, because the people
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  Speaker 1: were were just ridiculous that everybody's yacking and talking and
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  Speaker 1: there was no dignity to it whatsoever and uh, completely impersonal,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: which I didn't like at all.
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  Speaker 3: They just they all the money they'd be saving if
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  Speaker 3: they go back to the schools again.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I can't disagree with you there. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know how big I know.
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  Speaker 3: I remember I remember one year West High School their graduation.
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  Speaker 4: They had enough people.
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  Speaker 3: They didn't even go inside. They were out at the
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  Speaker 3: old vets. They were up on that balcony up there
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  Speaker 3: on the upper level.
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  Speaker 4: Where he went up.
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  Speaker 3: That's where they had the graduation.
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  Speaker 1: And West could probably host, like for all the schools
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  Speaker 1: this side of High Street. West could probably host because
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  Speaker 1: it's the fourth largest auditorium in Franklin County. So the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: other schools could. Probably that's not a bad idea. I
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: don't know how much it'd saved, but it's not a
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  Speaker 1: bad idea at all. I just again, they didn't put it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: They didn't put the kaibash on the bussing. And I've
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: been saying this since this conversation began. We have to spend,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: say fifty million dollars in spending, stop the buses. It's
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: it's pretty simple. And I said, I'm seeing that would
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  Speaker 1: make my life difficult, but it's practic goal. There is
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  Speaker 1: no need for bussing. In twenty twenty five, the whole
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  Speaker 1: desegregation thing that started it has gone out the window.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't a fix to begin with. It was a
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  Speaker 1: band aid on a bullet hole, as I have been
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: saying since I was a kid. And suddenly a member
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of Congress has picked up that phrase that Maxine Waters.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I think she's the one that said that. The end.
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, man, that's mine. I've been saying that
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  Speaker 1: for years.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think Maxine Waters coped?
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  Speaker 1: She probably did. She probably did. She takes her words
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  Speaker 1: from me and her appearance from from the crypt keeper,
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  Speaker 1: and so the uh, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: What you're talking. She's a very good looking woman.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: She's very good looking, and oh, my gosh, is that
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  Speaker 1: a real person kind of way?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Is she?
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  Speaker 1: Three hundred and seven? Right, Maxine Waters. If you take
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  Speaker 1: that phonetically, break it down and translate it into the
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  Speaker 1: old Hebrew, it's medusa.
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  Speaker 2: I don't so what necrocomicon book.
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  Speaker 1: It'll come back. She's yeah, so anyway, Yeah. Bussing was
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  Speaker 1: a ridiculous, a ridiculous concept, and it was a stupid
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  Speaker 1: way to fix the alleged racial disparities in City of
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  Speaker 1: Columbus schools back in nineteen seventy eight was it seventy
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  Speaker 1: seven seventy eight when Judge Robert Duncan handed down the
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  Speaker 1: order saying the Columbus City schools were segregated the schools.
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  Speaker 1: The schools were not segregated. Life was segregated neighborhood schools.
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  Speaker 1: If you were in a neighborhood where predominantly white people lived,
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  Speaker 1: the school was going to have a predominantly white student body.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't about the school being segregated, it was about
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  Speaker 1: the world being segregated, and busing kids in Columbus City
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  Speaker 1: schools did nothing to fix that, And now there's everybody's everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody you know, is there. I'm trying to think, is
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  Speaker 1: there anything I would call within the city of Columbus proper,
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  Speaker 1: anything that I would call a white neighborhood or a
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  Speaker 1: black neighborhood, or I don't think so. I've grown up
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  Speaker 1: here my whole life. There's nothing at this point that
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  Speaker 1: I would say is one particular race. So the whole
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  Speaker 1: concept is just out the window. And yet we are
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  Speaker 1: spending all this money each and every school day to
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  Speaker 1: run these buses. I was I passed buses the other
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  Speaker 1: day going past my beloved West High School, and there
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  Speaker 1: were three busses sitting out there running because it was cold,
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  Speaker 1: so they want to keep the buses warm. Three buses
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  Speaker 1: sitting out there running. It was like eight minutes before
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  Speaker 1: two o'clock. School lets out at two thirty, so for
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: thirty two minutes, those buses were going to run before
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  Speaker 1: the kids even got out, burning fuel. You're paying for
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: the fuel. You're paying for the driver's salary or benefits
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: if they're full time drivers. You're paying for the wear
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  Speaker 1: and tear on the buses, the regular routine maintenance on
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  Speaker 1: the buses, replacement of headlights and tail lights, and you know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: oil changes and such. You're paying for tires on the buses.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they pay for insurance or not.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Because you're not over five vehicles, I think it is
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: you're considered a fleet. You could be self insured, so
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's costing them for insurance. However,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I have to assume there's some sort of property damage
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: insurance just in case somebody breaks into the bus center
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  Speaker 1: and vandalizes the buses or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: Did you just not get to ride the bus as
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  Speaker 2: a school and you're just upset about it?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, I got to take a bus to school in
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: junior high school. Yeah, when desegregation first started, I had
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to take a bus. They hit I was a Hiltonia student,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: but they moved me to Westmore as part of the desegregation.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: How long was the bus ride?
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  Speaker 1: No, it was like fifteen minutes. It wasn't a big deal.
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  Speaker 1: And seriously, Hiltonia and West Moore are about equal distances
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: from my house where I grew up.
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  Speaker 2: So they just made you, they forced you to go
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  Speaker 2: to one.
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  Speaker 1: So they sent me to wes Moore and put me
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: on a bus. Yeah, and then they sent me to
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  Speaker 1: West High School, which was sixteen blocks from my house,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: which we walked in the morning and until my senior year.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I drove in my senior year, but you know, it
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't uphill both ways and all that kind of stuff.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It was just walking to school. West High School was
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: my high school. That's where I went to school. Why
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  Speaker 1: can't we send kids to school down the street from
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  Speaker 1: where they live and quit spending money on all those buses.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody from the board is listening.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know if any Maybe they've got people to
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: listen just to see what they can gripe about tomorrow.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: But if a member of the board or or you know,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: somebody who works in the superintendent's office, I'd love to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: see in accounting exactly between the salaries, the maintenance, the fuel,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the insurance cost, and anything associated with the buses, what
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: are we spending in the school district out of that
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: one point seven billion dollars or whatever it is of
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: our budget, what are we spending each year on buses?
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I think it's a reasonable question. I'll never get an
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: answer to it, but I think it's a reasonable question.