Editorial: Students, staff, parents plan to keep coming back

It wasn’t long ago that the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education was patting itself on the back for having no controversy in its meetings, although other school board were having crowds that complained about things.
All the VBPS board meetings had unanimous votes on everything and people only occasionally complained during public comment.
At last week’s school board meeting, however, that changed. A crowd of about 30 showed up to protest the decision to move all three high school conselors to positions in the elementary schools. This had never been announced by the administration at a board meeting and members of the audience asked it to be explained. The answer “We’re going in a new direction” just doesn’t cut it.
That issue has grown since the June 9 meeting and there are other school issues being discussed on social media. We’ve been informed that some parents and staff that showed up to that meeting, plan to come back and push for answers.
A local grandfather also is pushing for information on the recruiting of students from schools in Detroit to beef up the high school football team through the schools of choice program. He wants to know is having a top sports team more important than having high academic scores so the students know something? And then there’s the speeding bus drivers. No more quiet board meetings for a while.