by Travis Mateer
Yesterday I attended, and made public comment at, the VIRTUAL Missoula County School Board meeting. Frustrated parents were relegated to making GENERAL public comments about the mask mandate because these condescending policy zealots REFUSED to even put the mask mandate on the agenda.
The Zoom meeting even conspicuously omitted the images of parents so that we couldn’t see each other, or how many of us were virtually lining up to make comments. This is by design, by “inclusive” school board members like these.
Two of my three kids listened to the charade, keeping track of how the comments were breaking down on a piece of paper. The total: 15 comments AGAINST the mandate, and 1 comment supporting the continued political enforcement of this harmful policy.
I will also note that 3 mothers got audibly upset. It sounded like they were crying, but since their faces were kept hidden, I can’t verify that.
One comment I especially appreciated came from a teacher, Sue Rowe. She talked about the sadness many of her students have expressed to her when she’s talking to them one-on-one.
Another parent, a dad, said he was directing his kids to just stop complying. Right on.
There is no longer any valid scientific justification showing that the benefit of masking out-weighs the risk of harm.
The school board election is May 3rd.
I assume most of the parents left the virtual Zoom meeting after making public comments. I decided to stick it out in order to see all the important stuff that warranted a higher priority than the mask policy.
Pat McHugh, the Executive Director of Operations for MCPS, gave a mind-numbing report on financials. As I forced myself to listen, I found a few moments that inspired my virtual hand to shoot up, but then it would be put down by whoever was running the meeting.
I kept at it, though, and eventually, when Pat was done, I got my chance to make ANOTHER public comment, and this one was a blast.
I first explained to Pat and the school board members that I had taken off my “parent hat” and put on my “citizen journalist hat”. Then I proceeded to ask Pat McHugh about the cost of running a shadow government called the Missoula Redevelopment Agency and if he’s crunched any numbers on the cost to the school board of NOT allowing Urban Renewal Districts to sunset, something Ellen Buchanan and Martin “Gomer” Kidston don’t want you knowing about.
It was fun using those fancy words to signal I wasn’t one of those dumb members of the public that can be summarily dismissed by Missoula’s elitists when engaging in their financial schemes and scams. Less fun was listening to the droning response of Pat McHugh as he “answered” my question with a heap of gobbledygook.
After the meeting I discovered the existence of a survey at Engage Missoula about MRA’s funding priorities. When I went to the website, I was assured Missoula’s TIF wizard, Ellen Buchanan, would be listening.
Since I already had an account set up (which is a requirement for filling out the survey), I gleefully ENGAGED in this survey, which had questions like this one:
And this one:
While I found it somewhat satisfying to respond to these “questions”, it was the last one that allowed me the freedom to actually express myself satisfactorily. And it will be this one I will conclude this post with. Here it is:
That is all for now. Thanks for reading!
JC
The school district should follow the MRA’s lead; the problem isnt policy related – it is the public’s ignorance. If only MCPS would give 6 Pony $50K Ol’ Spidey could recommend that they hire a full time gas lighting publicist to better “inform” us (despite like the City, MCPS already has full time publicist). I would suspect that Grace Decker will be the “ideal”, “well qualified” applicant to settle into this newly created, yet redundant, position for a lowly $80K w/benefits. As they say ….stay tuned!
Wow man, c*vid is such a stupid farce. I can’t wait until we Make Missoula Great Again! My body, My choice! Don’t muzzle my kids!
I hope Grace and the rest of these cowards reflect on the fact that 3 mothers were brought to tears describing the harm their children are experiencing from their policy enforcement.
maybe, just maybe, the harm the kids are facing is due to parents constantly shouting at each other and making no attempt to come to any sort of compromise on any issue that we’re facing as a country/city/state? Apparently, you and everyone else already know everything about everything, and any info contradicting whatever opinion you’ve already formed has to be totally false! it’s fucking pathetic and we’re so doomed for it. No one actually gives a shit about kids, no one actually gives a shit about homeless people, no one actually gives a shit about anyone but themselves and their own ego.
The harm to kids is being caused by libral parents and conservative parents alike. You’re all to blame for how fucked up their upbringing is becoming and you all should be ashamed. Have any of you ever tried looking at yourself from the outside to see what the kids are seeing? It’s terrifying and their future is worse for it.
Maybe instead of stoking the fires and trying to be a red pill edge lord you could try to bring some semblance of civility to these conversations and try to bring people together to find real solutions?
Nah, why would you do that? Why would you ever self reflect on how you could improve your own voice to help find SOLUTIONS to our problems?!? It’s much more fun to live in a world that only validates what you’ve already decided!
It sucks that you have such horrible takes on covid and can’t do any basic statistical analysis on this issue when there’s troves of publicly available information supporting the vaccines effectiveness, etc…
I loved your film covering the TIF issue and watched the whole thing. I’ve been reading your blog off and on over the years and love when you call out the shitty developers and corrupt government in Missoula. Then I see takes like this one that are so lost in the sauce that it’s no wonder no one wants to be associated with a film that carries your name. It makes me (and likely many other rational people) question the validity of all your other work, which is a real shame.
Get your shit together and stop being such a reactionary whiner so you can be taken seriously enough in the broader community to have your good work shared with more people. And if you’re going to make claims stating that “covid vaccine bad!! mask bad!!” please link to some relevant research to back that shit up. Or stop calling yourself a “citizen journalist” and call yourself a “citizen reactionary blogger.”
How did you know my secret ambition of becoming a RED PILL EDGE LORD? Do you have access to my secret journals where I conspire with myself on how to discredit my otherwise stellar citizen journalism? I may have to rethink all my life choices with your very civil commentary. Muchas gracias!