Mountain View High School Needs Leadership

This websites get’s more than 11,000 visits per month, and at first I hesitated to vent my frustration publicly. But after more than a week of people asking me questions that I cannot answer, I decided it was time to put the spotlight on issues that are affecting every child at Mountain View High School. The problem is simply a lack of leadership and character by the the school’s leader and Principle of Mountain View School. When you have a lack of leadership at the top, that eventually affects other areas of the school. Another prime example is the current Football Coach ( use that term loosely) Matt Sullivan. I’ll save that post for another time though.

I go could on and on about both these men, but that’s hardly needed. Instead I’m going to just tell you the story, and then I’ll let you judge for yourself. I rant, you decide

First Baseball Scholarship in 16 Years

If you read this weeks edition of the Stone County Leader, then you probably saw that Tyler Callahan signed with Williams Baptist College to play baseball next year. This is a great achievement for any young man, as we all know only a select few have the talent to play college sports. Combine that fact, with the fact that is is the first Mountain View High school Student to receive a baseball scholarship since 1996, that makes it even more impressive. If you add in the fact that Tyler was also rated in the top 25 of Arkansas High school Football players, then you realize he is a talented young man.

This all sounds great right? What could possible have me so upset at the school and their leadership? Ah I’m glad you asked, let me explain

Why Principle Mark Mallet Should Resign & be ashamed of himself

As I mentioned above, last week Mountain View saw one of its own sign to play college sports. That’s a big deal right?? One would think so, unless you are Principle MarkMallet. Mallet was certainly not impressed, and even though the Local Papers were going to be present to witness and report on Tyler C signing his letter of intent and confirming his scholarship, Principle Mallet refused to allow an assembly so that the school could recognize the event, and he said and I quote

“We only acknowledge players signing with Division 1 Schools by having an assembly. I can not justify letting the high school kids out of class to watch a student sign to play college sports unless it is a division 1 college the student is signing with”.

He finally agreed to let the baseball team be present along with the local newspaper, but he did not want this to be a big event. He did not even attend the signing. The assistant principle did attend, and he is a great guy.

Now if that has always been the policy of Mountain View School District, then even though I think its extremely stupid and counter productive, then I could understand. But wait! In the last few years, Principle Mallet has scheduled school wide Assembly’s for students Walking On to play sports at various colleges. Yes, you read that correct. Some of these students were not recruited, were not given an athletic scholarship, they were  WALKING ON to a college team.  Seem odd??

Or just the Status Quo in a town where going to the right church is more important than actually acting like a Christian.

Not let’s pretend that Principle Mallet for some unknown reason is confused, and thinks the school should only honor students signing to Division 1 schools. What kind of message is that to send the kids? To me it says “We only care if its a BIG college” – “If it’s not a big college, it doesn’t matter” – Is that the philosophy we want our kids exposed to on a daily basis? Do we want our kids being overseen by men of such little character? I certainly do not.

Overall it’s apparent that our schools leadership is inept at best, and dangerously incompetent at worst. So Principle Mallet seems to think that showing other students would be of no value to other students seeing a fellow student signing for a baseball scholarship, because it’s not a Division 1 school?

Since I know Tyler personally, I can tell you Tyler hasn’t always been the fastest runner, the biggest athlete, or the best student. Tyler has struggled and fought to become a good athlete, and that hard work has finally paid off. People just like Principle Mallet have written Tyler off, and told him he wasn’t good enough. But that made Tyler want it more! But Principle Mallet thinks it’s not worthy of recognition, and for that he should be ashamed.

Is this the type of message we want to send to our children going to this school? More importantly, is this the type of leadership we want for our School District?

I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. So please post them in the comments section. Stay tuned for Part 2, where I reveal why Coach Matt Sullivan should resign and never coach again.