School Board Meeting!

Last night, there was a "special" board meeting called for Greater Clark County Schools, my Mother-in-law Teresa called and told me about what was happening, I had to get involved, I prepared and speech and spoke from my heart, I may have cried a wee bit, but I got my point across, I think the meeting went well, there were over 300 people there, including my BFF Molly, she was my support system!

Teresa means the world to me I may have divorced her son, but I didn't divorce her and her family! they are wonderful people and for all that they have done for me and Maggie, I will gladly do anything and everything I ever can to help them! And trust me if you have a child riding a school bus, you would want the driver to be as loving and caring as she....

The room was packed, people were standing in the doorways and sitting on the floor! I have trust in the Board that they will do what is right... after the meeting, I ran into some Board member and the Chairman at tumbleweed they all approached me and made me feel confident that the meeting was successful! I hope so and I hope that they make me proud!

Everyone that spoke did a wonderful job, Teresa and Donna were very informative! I really enjoyed listening to them speak! All the bus drivers were there and lots of parents spoke out, Chrissy Yager ( jones) had poster boards to hold up, Small kids had t-shirts printed saying they supported their bus drivers. It was an awesome turn out and it blesses my heart to see how import and our community and our kids are to the public!

As I was speaking, Vicky was hiding from me, she's so sweet. ;-)

Here's a copy of my speech that I KINDA read! ;-)

May 1st School Board Meeting


On February 18, 1988 there was a murder in southern Indiana that shook the community to it’s very core. During the trial, a local bus driver from New Washington, Ms. Burgin, testified, “I’ve been driving this route everyday twice a day for year, I know when I see something that looks suspicious.” She told the jury that she saw the victims car and a young man walking from it on foot, that she had ever seen before. This identification and testimony led to the conviction of that young man, who was subsequently sentenced to 182 consecutive years for the murder of my 27-year-old mother and 3-year-old sister.

After the trial, my dad and I moved to Charlestown. I was 5, and the possibility of leaving for school only to come home to no one was a very real fear in my small world. The first few weeks of 1st grade my aunt took me to school. Soon, though, my grandma asked me if I wanted to ride the bus. She told me of Vicky, my daddy’s barber’s wife. She was going to be my new bus driver. I figured she had to be okay if she was married to my daddy’s barber. That sense of community and family is what made me brave enough to give it a shot. The first time I boarded that bus and rode to school, I cried the whole time. Thankfully, I had a decent, patient, and loving bus driver who honestly cared about me. She allowed me to cry on her shoulder and made me feel as if I mattered to her. She asked an older kid that she knew if he would sit by me until I got to school. He and I struck up a friendship that formed such lasting bonds that, 16 years later, I named my child after that boy. Vicky took my fears of riding the bus and turned it into something that I actually looked forward to. My family, already nervous about putting my life in someone else’s hands for 35 minutes twice a day, felt tremendous relief knowing that I had a warm and kind bus driver who did her best to calm my fears and comfort my anxiety. Vicky will never know how much it meant to me that she took the time to care about me, when I was just another kid on her bus.

Me moving past my fear and the help to convict the person responsible for my mothers death was only possible because I had wonderful bus drivers who took pride in their routes and children. I just ask that the school board see how one Child’s life has been affected by our local bus drivers, and to please consider how many more can be. We as parents need to be able to trust our drivers with the lives of our children. Who better to trust with that precious responsibility than the people with whom we’ve grown up…other members of the community?

I also ask that the school board take into account the members of our community who depend on their buses for their livelihood. Having the same driver for years and even generations has been a tradition for our communities. My Grandmother put her children on Mrs. Webb’s bus. Years later, those children, now grown, waved from the driveway as Mrs. Webb greeted their own little ones on their way to their first day of school. There was never a question of who their bus driver was going to be…for as long as Mrs. Webb decided she needed to work, these families trusted her with their children. Why would we want to do away with that? Why would we want to bring strangers into our communities when it requires loosing our neighbors as drivers?

After speaking a man shook my hand and said good job, my name is Charlie Burgin people call me Chief, he is the husband of the buss driver that testified in my mom's trial, I thanked him and told him he should be proud of her legacy! As he should!

Also... here is the link to the Courier Journal coverage of the meeting

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/NEWS02/705021191

And here is the Evening News'

http://www.news-tribune.net/cnhi/newstribune/homepage/local_story_122112349.html?start:int=15

I urge everyone to get involved! Happy Wednesday!

Happy Birthday Isabella! ;-)