FOX 4 WFTX - Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples News, WeatherBus battle: School District wants board members to stay off the bus
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The warning goes out....across the school bus radios.
It's known as an all-call, and all the drivers heard the first one about 7:30am.
Transportation Director Charles Dailey tells all drivers to stop any school district employees who try to get on the bus without his permission or permission from Superintendent Browder.
The warning comes just a few hours after our story Wednesday night, where we explain how we plan to let two school board members ride on those extremely long bus rides so many Lee County kids face each day.
So why would the district want to stop its own school board members from getting on that bus?
Drivers call fox 4 right away. They tell us Transportation Director Charles Dailey made the call: saying school officials should not be allowed on any bus.
School board members Bob Chilmonik and Steven Teuber had already agreed to see what it's like to ride those 2 hour commutes kids face.
Rob: "We were already to come to your house at 5 o'clock this morning. Bob...what happened?"
Bob Chilmonik: “After talking with the super…he insisted on knowing the bus number before I would be allowed to go on the bus ride."
We'd actually canceled our test because we didn't want to tell the district which route.
Bob Chilmonik: "I'll respect the superintendent’s wishes but I still want to go out and ride."
Then comes word to our newsroom about the warnings: keep officials like Chilmonik and Teuber off any and all busses.
Bus drivers tell us Charles Dailey issues the warning over and over: 730 am, 8 am, 930 am. No rides for district officials.
We break the news to Chilmonik.
Bob Chilmonik: "I don't need permission from Mr. Dailey for anything...and I don't need permission from the superintendent".
Rob: "But you didn't know anything about it?"
Charles Dailey: Rob, I didn't have any idea of that situation taking place."
Dailey, who is a top official in school transportation, tells me he didn't try to keep the school board off the bus. He was just worried about strange predators trying to get on. He always issues a warning about those predators before Thanksgiving.
Charles Dailey: "Right around a week before we go to Thanksgiving..we always make an announcement especially with an increase in sexual predators being out there."
So, what exactly did the sexual predator warning say? "We announced that no school district employee…none should be allowed to ride buses."
Sexual predators or district employees? Who exactly are the bus drivers supposed to keep off the bus? Dailey is pretty sure he didn't mean school board members.
Charles Dailey: "I'm 99- 100 percent sure that all-call didn't say anything about any board member...it talked about school district employees".
There is a real simple way to cut through all this confusion.
Rob: "You know I was thinking since we are at the transportation department. we could probably just play the tapes of the announcement this morning and listen to them.
Dailey: “They aren't done here...”
Rob: “Where could we get them? We can listen now…”
Dailey: “They are done down south."
We immediately put in a public records request for those all-call tapes.
The district spokesman says we aren't being specific enough.
Rob: "Why is this such a big issue?
Bob Chilmonik: “I think it’s a big issue because there are other issues we don't even know about out there."
We aren't giving up on those audio tapes. We'll write our public records request again...and try to get it just right.
We'll keep trying to get those board members on that bus.
Rob Koebel
rkoebel@fox4now.com
Fox 4 In Your Corner
