Recent reports, both those confirmed and those unconfirmed has raised a plethora of questions regarding the abilities of the Calhoun Board of Education to properly oversee the faculty and students of Calhoun County Schools.
A very lengthy report from the National Transportation Safety Board regarding the Jeffrey Brannon Bus Accident of 2024 continues to shed light on unacceptable oversight by Administration over several years including nine (9) federal violations against the Calhoun County Board of Education.
NTSB cited the board for numerous violations, including:
- 383.37(a): Allowing Defendant Brannon to operate a CMV without the proper CDL endorsements (acute violation).
- 382.105: Conducting unauthorized drug/alcohol testing following a crash on January 10, 2024.
- 382.305(j)(2) & (k)(2): Improperly administering random drug testing (not ensuring covered employees were included and failing to spread testing dates evenly).
- 382.403(a): Failing to prepare the required annual MIS drug-testing summary.
- 382.603: Failing to designate a person qualified to order “reasonable suspicion” drug tests.
- CDL Withdrawals: Mr. Brannon had four separate suspensions between 1990-1994, including one for driving with a BAC above .08
- Rule 19.6 requires random drug testing to be conducted and evenly distributed each year. Records show that Brannon was not tested at all in 2018, 2021, 2022, or 2023.
- The NTSB also found that the Board allowed Brannon to operate without the proper CDL endorsements, in direct violation of rule 17.2.1
An inquiry of recent reports of dismissed faculty has gone unanswered for Ridgeview News who has tried to be a staunch supporter of the school as an alumni, having two daughters and two grandsons who have graduated from CMHS and multiple grandchildren currently attending and very active in the school. A continued complaint for Calhoun Middle School specifically has been the inability for parents to feel welcome by the school to participate in their children’s education. While volunteering is permitted, there is a difference between permission, and welcomed.
While the parental issue would appear to have nothing to do with the Jeffrey Brannon issue (and rightfully correct) it does however have to do with a lack of accountability that is present when the community cannot have oversight or choses not to oversee the operations of the school including participation in School Board Meetings and failure to report concerns. I believe both are true.
I believe that we as a community have given into the school’s desires of no parental awareness by allowing our frustrations with the administration’s behaviors to deter us from our involvement.
Color me guilty, until the last few years…
I receive multiple reports from multiple parents each month regarding their frustrations with faculty and administration and the fear of retaliation as their answers for why they do not bring the problems to the school. This is not to say that every apple in our basket is bad. There are some amazing teachers at Calhoun Middle High School that you will not hear much about. Because they do their job and more and go home to their families. But there are those that we know are not worth the paper their check is written on, and that is a hard, harsh statement. But if we allow complaints to go un-investigated, questions to go unanswered, or if the teacher and administration are not held to the same accountability and standards that they expect of their students; if they are allowed to make mistakes and not be called on them or have action taken, why then should students listen to those who try to do good in the school?
The School Board will meet on October 14th, 2025 at the Arnoldsburg Elementary School at 5:30 p.m.
I have in times past requested families and concerned community members to come to a school board meeting and make their concerns known. (But very few attended). And those who did left defeated.
You have another chance to prove you’re concerned. And if not, the school attendance will continue to decline because the parents who will removed their children from the public school system that didn’t care.
