Columbus City School Board

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sorry, clarify yourself or clarify their self, because I don't know,
you said. You guy calls people saying that Dolly's husband
died in March. What what does that have to do
with the fact that she's okay and not dead. I'm
still trying to grasp this, but people wanted you to
know because I don't. I don't know. I didn't go that.
Like I said, what was his name? You know his name,

(00:21):
Bob Parton? Yeah, no, it wasn't. You don't know. What
do you look like? Tell me what to look like?
You don't know. That's my point. They were married nearly
sixty years. The guy kept staying in his lane and
let Dolly be Dolly, and that's a wonderful thing. Good
for him and good for her being married to him
for almost sixty years. And and you know, all the
stuff people said was going on or they thought was

(00:41):
going on, wasn't going on. Well it was, So why
did what's that guy to do with the fact he died?
I just said, it's a frustration because people call Zach
and like they'll say, oh, I don't want to talk
to Chuck, Well, then why are you calling? Put slip
something into mail. What's a postage stant now thirty forty
five dollars something like that, just stepping it in the
mail and send it to me. I'm not sure why

(01:03):
you were calling, and that makes me nuts because then
I sit here like this, going, Zach, what are you talking?
What do you mean? And he doesn't know, he can't
tell me. Then I get frustrated. When I get frustrated,
I turned into the incredible Hulk, doming me angry. You
wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Bill Dixby was so awesome.
He's dead too, by the way, just like Dolly's husband.

(01:26):
I forgot to tell you about George Jones' wife the
old Boston. She had a boyfriend. Well, I mean, George's
been dead for a while, so it's I mean, it's
understandable you want a little companionship, little company whatever. And
and her her name's Nancy. She said she put all
of her trust in her boyfriend, Kirk West. Then she
found out apparently he stole over ten million dollars in

(01:47):
cash and cryptocurrency from her court hearing, who was in
Tennessee on October seventh. Nancy Jones took them the stand
at the preliminary hearing for the theft case against mister
West and Williamson County Court. The studying case erupted into
the public this summer when West was arrested at the
Nashville Airport, saying, out of Dodge with a one way

(02:09):
ticket to the Philippines. Yeah, I'm getting out of here.
A few weeks prior, Nancy had kicked them out of
their house. It wasn't hit their house, it was her
house because it was George's house. He said, I love you,
did not die. So she kicked him out of a
house after discovering it he been having an affair. Discovery

(02:30):
let her realize that he had also stolen about four
hundred thousand dollars in cash from her and a ledger
containing eleven point six million in crypto currency. Uh, he
took care of everything, she said she met him in
twenty thirteen. I didn't take care of nothing, she said,
of nothing. That's what the quote is. Prosecutors ask if
she trusted West, and she replied one hundred percent. You

(02:52):
see what that got you, don't you. George Jones, back
when I was working for a station is no longer
a country state. But we flipped formats right, and we
were what they call adult contemporary, and so we were
playing you know, Neil Diamond and stuff and uh and

(03:13):
so they get a new owner station cells, we get
a new owner, they flip us to country. Twelve midnight
is when the format change happened. The last song that
we played as the station that we were was nat
King Cole and that Natalie Cole's Unforgettable duet Dave Leech

(03:37):
was on the air and h and dedicated that song
to our owners, the station owners for making our time.
They're so unforgettable. So there you go. Okay, so the
song's over and at midnight, all the laser beam them's lasers,
all the laser beams, sound effects and stuff. This is Columbus.

(03:58):
Columbus is new new country station. We bring you the hot, hot,
new hot new country. He said, I love you. They
started with George really really, you cannot have a big
opening like that, and and it's like when the frog

(04:21):
on the Warner Brothers cartoon, the curtain opens, it goes
That's exactly what it felt like, this big, grandiose opening.
And you're expecting, because this was the age of Travis
Tritt and Garth Brooks and you know country was coming
alive was a new country and uh you would expect

(04:42):
something diamond rio and uh, something with some some kick
to it, and they play he Stopped Loving Her Today
is the first song after all that introduction. That was
one of the most terrible station kickoffs I've ever heard.
We're all standing in the studio. The whole air staff

(05:03):
had gathered because it was our last night, and we're
all standing in the studio and we didn't know what
was coming because you know, as I said, we changed ownership.
In for minutes, we all just looked at each other.
I mean there's like nine of us from the air
staff looking at each other. Really, this is it, and

(05:24):
it was an odd beginning to a strange situation. Columbus
City Schools in the news in the last twenty four
hours after taking a vote to change the bussing situation,
which I just I continue to say, this is ridiculous
or shouldn't be bussing neighborhood schools. We got enough neighborhood

(05:45):
schools and enough neighborhoods that you don't need the bussing.
Save a fortune, not operating buses, not paying bus drivers,
not having maintenance performed on buses, not paying for fuel
for buses, not paying for any insurance for buses. We
wouldn't have to do any of that. We'd save a
whole bunch of money just in the kids the school
down the street. Columbus City Schools Board of Education voted
on Tuesday to remove requirements for the district to bus

(06:07):
high school students, a move that officials say could save
the district millions in the future as it wrestles with
looming budget shortfalls. Okay, here's my first problem with this,
high school students. Have you ever seen kids at the
bus stop waiting the high school students at the bus
stopping Columbus in the winter. No, they're out there sometimes

(06:28):
like six fifteen in the morning catching a bus. So
if using your transportation, they need six point fifteen to
catch a school bus, how how early are they going
to have to leave to get there without your transportation.

(06:49):
I'm just saying that's the first stupid thing. In a vote,
all but one among the board members present approved changing
the district's policy language from shall to may, so that
grades nine through twelve would no longer have to be
guarantee transportation. Instead, the board may choose to provide it

(07:10):
or may not. What are their solutions is for students
who need it? What maybe we can work out a
deal with CODA given CODA bus passes. Yeah, I know.
Here's the quote. What we're doing now is just changing
the language is so that it grades so grades nine
through twelve. The language would say the board may transport
students choosing the option for the board to make that

(07:31):
decision in the future if it so chooses, said board
member Sarah Ingles. Unless you anticipate making that change, there's
no reason to make that change. So they're going to
do it, you know that, one board member. The story
continues from the ten TV website. Doctor teen appears voted
against the change, after previously questioning its potential shortfalls. Supporters

(07:56):
say that the move gives the district flexibility to adapt
to financial pressures, would so would not bussing kids. Opponents
argue it could pose a barrier for students who lacks safe,
reliable transportation alternatives and could contribute to chronic absenteeism that

(08:16):
if correct it ultimately adopted, or if ultimately adopted, the
change would not take effect until next school year, but
the board is signaling with this policy shift that's laying
the groundwork for tougher decisions ahead. This board, by the way,
won't be there, is it. All of them, all of
them decided they weren't running again, like or like five

(08:40):
have decided they're not running again. So there are terms
in this year and they're so they're they're kicking this
can down the road to the next board. Superintendent Angela
Chapman works to identify fifty million dollars in cuts to
the district's annual budget. Officials say eliminating mandatory high school
bussing could to trim approximately seven million dollars per year.

(09:04):
Doctor Chapman, how much would just sending kids to school
in their neighborhood trim? Just wanting Board President Michael Cole
urged caution and community input as the process moves forward.
Good for you, Michael, I mean he's saying the right thing.
This this arbitrary we're just going to do this stuff

(09:25):
is it doesn't fly with people anymore. But when you've
got some kid that's you know, he's going twelve fourteen
miles from home to high school because you're having him
catch a bus at six fifteen in the morning, and
then of course they've got to make arrangements to get
it home, because if he's in the marching band or
on the football team or the soccer team or the

(09:47):
basketball team or whatever it has, you know, he's after school,
there's there's rehearsals, there's practice and that kind of thing.
Then they got to find a way to get him
home because I don't think those activity buses, I don't
think those run for everything. Those are those are kind
of few and far between these days. Now. If the
kid went to school in their own neighborhood, to their

(10:09):
own school, and they were on the football team or
the marching band, or the soccer team or the basketball team,
and stayed after school for practice or whatever, they then
they could just walk home because it's like four blocks
that would make That would make perfect sense and it
wouldn't cost the schools anything. And if students want to
go to a school outside of their their uh you

(10:33):
know signs, then fine arrange for transportation. I mean them,
not the schools. If you live on the east side,
but you want to go to a school on the
west side, okay, you can do that. You're in Columbus,
so go ahead and pick your school, but you have
to get there. You're making that choice, and there may
be a reason for that. You know, maybe you want

(10:56):
to be you know, West High School is that they're
making a gangbuster moves when it comes to STEM programs
over there. Maybe you're you want to be at West
High School because of that. Okay, maybe East High School
has a great looking football program, a coach that's just
rip roaring everywhere. And you live on the South side,
but you you want to be an East High Tiger. Fine,

(11:18):
you live in the district. You can go there instead
of South High School, but you got to arrange for
your own transportation. I don't know. Choice and responsibility is
that out of the question. I realize it's twenty twenty five,
But shouldn't you be able to do that? I would
think so, And I think frankly, that would save a
fortune from the Columbus School's budget. I also think that

(11:42):
it would enhance the academic progress, increase the graduation rate
and the retention rate because kids in the district would
be able to go to the schools they want to
go to for the reasons that make sense in their life.
Clone me and let the other me run for a

(12:02):
school board be cause I have no interest in doing it,
but I wish somebody