The M in MUSD Doesn’t Stand for Mendocino

Mark Twain once said “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” Twain’s wisdom received a stunning confirmation last week on March 10th, 2022 with the display put on by the Mendocino school board during its consideration of what to do with Covid 19 face mask mandates that were established when in-person school attendance resumed last year.

As you’re no doubt aware, the state of California and county of Mendocino have relaxed their face mask guidelines from mandatory to strongly advised when indoors. This isn’t to say that the danger from Covid has passed, but rather a recognition of the public’s weariness with the pandemic and desire to return to what passes for normal in California. This is in the face of troubling indicators of a resurgence in Covid in a large parts of the country.

Going into this meeting, I felt it was going to be an easy decision. Strongly advised is a long way from All’s clear and one would think that public schools are the wrong place to lead with your chin. The five largest school districts in California are not relaxing their mask mandates, wisely deciding that we’ve been so good for so long that exercising a bit of caution and prudence will allow us to pilot to a safe landing. It’s the least one could do in the name of your students’ and staffs’ health, don’t you think?

I was going to spend some ink fact checking the worst of the fact-free barrage of Facebook and Fox “News” misinformation regurgitated from the more gullible of Mendocino’s citizens during the citizen comments part of the meeting, but why bother? The Morons who spouted it have long stopped listening to reason. It was telling that most of the anti-mask crowd admitted they had already contracted Covid. Perhaps if they could rub two brain cells together they would make the connection, eh? It’s because of them that we must have laws that require behavior such as mandatory masking that anyone with half a brain would want to voluntarily practice. Rather, I’ll spend my ink on the decision making body that on this day relaxed the mask mandate for the Mendocino School District.

Once board discussion began, it was clear the trustees were not prepared. Some of the blame falls on the district’s staff. Union Rep Dominguez and Principal Humrichouse both presented pie charts of teacher and staff opinions on the mask mandate issue, and all of these pie charts inadvertently looked like they were taken from the book How to lie with Statistics. Apparently the questionnaires behind these charts had multiple choices to indicate that one wanted mandatory masks in some form but only one way to choose to make masks optional. So the board saw lots of little pie slices for the nuances of mandate masks alongside one fat mask optional slice. Even though mask optional was a minority opinion, the board only saw the largest pie and made an erroneous conclusion. This was exemplified by board president Trustee Schaeffer’s observation “Since the opinions are scattered…” – It’s ok, Michael, we know arithmetic is hard for those in management.

However, more blame lies in Superintendent Morse’s lap. In past meetings I’ve seen Jason immediately correct misinformation and provide the board with the materials to intelligently consider the issues in front of them, but I saw none of that on Thursday’s meeting. I asked some of my low level friends inside the district why didn’t Jason act as usual, and they’ve informed me that Jason has stated he doesn’t have the bandwidth to read through all the Covid protocols, much less investigate trends and research on where the pandemic is going.

“Doesn’t have the bandwidth”?!

I’ve run a few companies in my time, and those are words that just don’t come out of my mouth. Much to my wife’s chagrin I’ve sacrificed more than a few nights and weekends to work on issues I couldn’t during the 9 to 5. Or, Jason, you could delegate. You know you have a trained scientist on your staff. Hell, I’m more than happy to help you plow through the bureaucratic morass the state can throw up on these matters. I’ll even bring my Stupid Stick™ to whack members of the public when they’re spouting blatantly false garbage at meetings. Just be aware that more than one trustee would have gotten a stickwhack between the eyes during last Thursday’s performance. 

About that. It’s no secret to the board that I’m less than approving of many of their actions, but the discussion on mask policy was a truly tortured process and a sight to behold. Trustee Aum deserves special mention for stating he would have never required masks at all in our schools, and that he has research that proves masks are harmful. I’m actually quite curious on which Russian-funded website he got that from. Sure wasn’t any reputable, peer-reviewed agency, university or lab. Also, nearly a thousand children in the US have died of Covid, despite his claim that Covid doesn’t kill kids. Trustee Gay also deserves special commendation for agreeing with Trustee Aum. To deny the mandate of masking, the only tool we had to defend ourselves during much of the pandemic is simply astounding. Gentlemen, neither of you deserve to be anywhere near the levers of power where you can hurt people.

Trustee Schaeffer’s performance was actually pretty typical for him. Michael has always enjoyed listening to himself talk, but this evening’s ramblings were especially content free. You know, when I’m on a board and don’t have anything intelligent to say, I ask questions or STFU. If I don’t know the right answer, I abstain. Both are skills Trustee Schaeffer should learn. Sure would make the board meetings go faster.

Trustee Grinberg’s vote to make masks optional was probably the most disappointing of all. As a medical professional she knows the Covid pandemic is not over. She knows that vaccinated and symptom-free people can spread the virus around. She knows the vaccine is the least effective for five to eight year olds, and that those kids tend to have younger unvaccinated siblings. She knows that Covid is a blood disease that can leave lifelong scars even in mild cases. She knows that the pandemic has left over a million Americans dead. She knows that every person who contracts Covid, whether they are symptomatic or not, serves as yet another petri dish where Covid can mutate, and that we’re only a few handfuls of mutations away from Station Eleven.

Kudos to Trustee Morton, the only keep-the-mandate vote. He listened to the district’s principals Humrichouse and Hahn that were asking for more time. He considered that maybe the largest school districts in California that are preserving their mask mandates have the resources to know some things our meager little district doesn’t. He placed staff and student health, and that of our community, above some delusional ideology.

So, yeah, 4-1 to relax and make masks optional. The mask policy the board approved is actually less stringent than the county’s. Mendocino county requires masks on all public transportation, but guess what? School busses aren’t categorized as public transportation! It’s a good thing the district’s busses always break down and the drivers are constantly AWOL; otherwise, the bussed students would be subjected to even more Covid exposure than they already are.

In all honestly, it’s not too surprising the school board has such difficulty reaching decisions as it’s not a democratically elected body. “Wait!”, you say, “They have elections every few years, don’t they?” Indeed, they do: elections where the race for a board seat has at most a single candidate – the incumbent. In a dazzling display of apathy, the good people of the coast can’t be bothered to file papers to offer us alternatives to the current board. Only one member of the board has ever won a competitive race for their seat when as an eight year incumbent Trustee Schaffer defeated my upstart campaign nearly a decade ago. All other board members initially obtained their seats through appointment by the board itself.

The process goes like this. When a board seat becomes empty, the district holds an election where no one files papers to run. With no elected trustee, the board is then tasked with finding a warm body to fill the seat and puts out a notice to that effect. All of a sudden those who couldn’t be bothered to file with the county are now interested in serving on the board. Interviews are held and the one whom the board deems as most likely to fit in is chosen. Thus, our district’s school board is almost entirely self selected.

It’s laughable to watch the board contort itself to get seats filled with those it deems acceptable. Oftentimes only a single person steps forward to fill the seat, and if that person grates the board the wrong way the board then extends the deadline for applications again and again until they finally convince someone they can stomach to apply. The whole process is profoundly undemocratic, yet completely legal.

Now, you can say the good people of the coast are simply getting the school board they deserve, but you really can’t blame them. As yet another example of America’s broken democracy, the design of how board elections are conducted makes it impossible to defeat an incumbent. You see, the Mendocino Unified School District was formed in 1960 as a union of the Mendocino school district with all the little districts around it. Those outlying districts, worried that they would lose their little country schools in some future board vote, insisted as part of the deal that each member of this union has a board seat allocated to them and only candidates that live in that little geographical area can serve in that seat. However, in the original sin of the union’s formation, all voters in MUSD can vote for all candidates, even those outside of their home district. Given that 70% of all MUSD voters are clustered in and around the Village of Mendocino, all an incumbent has to do to remain in power is during their term make sure the Village gets lots of happy glad-handing and liberally spread pork, keep the local branch of the League of Women Voters firmly in your hip pocket, and voila!, you are now invincible. Even if an outlying district hated their trustee’s guts, the voters there are powerless to remove them.

So our school board, a product of a broken system and taking advice from a parade of Morons, has decided to play a high risk game of Russian roulette, but the revolver isn’t pointed at their heads but rather at those of the students and staff of the school district. I truly hope my worries are in vain and the next chamber is empty, but indications in this first week after the vote are not good. As easily predicted, a mask strongly recommended policy has in practice turned into hardly anyone wears a mask. In fact, on the high school campus masks have turned quite literally into a 21^st century Scarlet Letter, with only the “A” students wearing them. Unfortunate, as the high school by midweek has, outside of the basketball tournament super spreader event, matched its previous weekly Covid positive high. And the week isn’t even over yet! At this rate, you can be sure the virus will be efficiently spread throughout the coast.

As for me, I’m thankful my youngest daughter is a Junior at the high school. This means I need only suffer this infernal system one more year and then I can wash my hands of it all. It’s a shame, really, as all of us in society benefit from an enlightened and educated youth, and all the enrichment a well functioning school system brings to a community. Perhaps some day we’ll get there.