Our Featured Editor's Notebook Column

---

 © Copyright Crusader Communications Network Inc.

=============================================

This Editor's Notebook is a transcript of Executive Editor Mike Killbreath's rant today on The Morning Gazette Radio Show about an hour ago that has generated hundreds of phone calls to the CCN Office. Our Hot Line number is (810) 771-8421 if you want to add your comments but please wait until after 5 pm. Our staff currently can't get any work done.

=============================================

Wednesday, May 27, 2025

The Swartz Creek Board of Education members have a chance to "right a wrong" tonight, or soon.

Rumor has it that Athletic Director  Adrian Trzebiatowski is bringing forth a proposed new basketball coach for the district's varsity program. It's my understanding that a Superintendent generally approves such a request after a high school principal puts his or her stamp of approval on the AD's choice. All this usually happens after candidates are interviewed and screened by a committee.

In fact, I've been a journalist for more than 50 years in this community and I've never seen a school board pooh pooh an AD's choice.

But hey, Swartz Creek seems to have a different set of rules on just about everything. They don't follow laws, let alone district policies so it's anybody's guess what they may do tonight. 

My guess is that AD Adrian will sit this one out tonight after what I'm gonna say on my radio show this morning. And on a few shows last week. We will get to that a bit later, so stick with me here.

Lets just say public corruption allegations have been more common in this district over the past few decades than winning basketball games.

But the Board of Education is where complaints about basketball coaches go.

It happened last winter in Swartz Creek to Kevin Root. A daddy and his supporters voiced concerns at one board meeting over how cuts on the team were handled by Root.

A few board members questioned why Root cut a certain player who had been on the team before, and it became a huge issue of debate. Don't you hire a coach to coach the team? Board members who essentially sided with calls for the coach's head should be barred from participating in any future discussion regarding the future of the basketball program, sports program or the AD's future. They simply don't understand how sports offer so many lessons for life.

Nothing if fair in fitting into what a coach wants from a team member. Just like nothing is fair in life. Learn to deal with it and overcome it, and I'll show you a super successful person.

 Complaining parents should have been shown the door. Let their kid learn to deal with disappointments.

I cringe how the poor kid had to walk the hallways of his school after daddy did that. Maybe things have changed since I was walking high school hallways but it's my guess kids can still be cruel.

If my mommy or daddy had done that in my day, I would have had to switch schools. Maybe move to another state.

But so many kids today don't seem to wanna dedicate themselves to obtaining a goal or working hard to excel. Let daddy go yell and scream to get me what I want? It didn't work that way in my day.

It wasn't the only time Swartz Creek's sports program became a hot topic at a school board meeting last winter. They packed the place to sound off to board members another time, too.

And it oddly seems to me that maybe AD Adrian may have had something to do with it because everyone seemed to echo her sentiments. Well full disclosure on that subject? A few admitted to me that she asked them to speak and got them riled up about her complaints.

What kind of district administrator siccs residents on school board members? If it's true?

Swartz Creek is a community full of supportive people for the sports program. Any school program. They are honest, hard-working folks in this western Genesee County town. 

Some jokingly tell me that maybe that comes from a tradition of good sportsmanship while being "good losers" on most of the district's sports teams.

I don't understand that kind of thinking. Folks ask me if I'm a good loser and I tell 'em matter of factly that I don't know because I've never tried it.  I have five state championships in my DNA as a coach. I've coached more than 100 kids who became college athletes who were recruited by me during my days as an assistant collegiate baseball coach.  I've had the thrill of seeing my kids move on to the pro ranks. But most satisfying ls how many successful former baseball, hockey, basketball and football players own titles such as doctor, lawyer, Principal, Superintendent, politician (hey, I failed a few times at motivating them to be respected), business owner  

The school has NEVER won an all-sports trophy during its time in the Metro League, over to the Big Nine Conference for a few decades and then back to the Metro League because they were nearly dead last in just above every sport and couldn't be competitive there any more. Swartz Creek's only Metro League football championships came in 1970 and 1972 — more than a half century ago.

Investigating lots of items in Swartz Creek during the past few months has given me a pretty good idea why Swartz Creek's sports teams have been traditionally regarded as perennial doormats in most sports, most of the time, for decades. A few down seasons can be viewed as rebuilding. But what Swartz Creek's program has done? Just label it as a culture that lives with a "losing tradition" tolerated by administrators and school board members.

Maybe that's why all those community members packed a board meeting last winter. Talking with lots of residents gives me resounding evidence that they don't like it one bit how their sports teams fare in just about every sport. They blame the district leaders. Rightfully so I've determined.

They have some of the worst test scores of any suburban school district in the Metro Flint regional area, so they don't do a very good job at the education game  either in this district.

Let's hope this new Superintendent they've hired will turn things around.

I think he can start by sending a strong message that corruption is over. No more politics and favoritism in hiring staff. Do it and you're gone, not to mention breaking the law by ignoring legal requirements for employers and putting the district at risk of a costly lawsuit if anybody catches on to what they're doing. Oh wait, I just exposed it.

AD Adrian should be the first to go, if everything I'm being told is true.

Adrian is a big girl and must live with her actions of picking a "favorite" candidate instead of going with the most qualified person on the list of 25 applicants. I'm told she was "forced" to fire another coach in 2022. She was an interim AD then and hoping to get the job over lots of well qualified candidates. Better qualified candidates.

Did "dirty politics:" catapult her above everyone else in the pack?

Was there even much of a search to find someone else? Or did a certain someone with a name that rhymes with Rod Hetherington happen to like her best despite her credentials, or lack thereof of better qualifications of so many others in a very competitive field.

If it's true how I think she got the job after what my investigation uncovered with recordings of sources who all tell a similar tale? Well, every last one of the other applicants should be in a lawyer's office in the morning.

My sources say she felt badly by betraying someone who counted her as a friend, even cried when delivering the news to him that he was getting the ax. As I was told, it was an ax swung on orders from above if she wanted the "interim" removed from her "interim AD" tag at the time. She officially described it as simply "not renewing his contract" before Scottie Wright was pooped on by a district he dedicated his life for nine seasons to build a basketball program.

Again, I'll get back to that subject.

But when each of the other 24 applicants for the current basketball job opening learns how I think they didn't get a fair shot after what my investigation uncovered — each of them would be justified in contacting an attorney, too, over learning how so many say the deck was stacked on them. How else could I have delivered the news two weeks ago that  La'Quan Collins was the guy getting the job.

The other 24 applicants should sue the pants off Swartz Creek's troubled school district. Our country has laws about hiring practices and discriminating against applicants.

This should not happen anywhere, let alone at a public school district.

You don't hire a friend of a friend over better qualified people. Period.

Collins has won only a dozen league games in four seasons as varsity boss at Bentley High in Burton. Old Coach Kevin Root won the same number of league games in the last two seasons alone.

But although Root is the son of a legend —  Bob Root who led teams to greatness at both Flint Northern and Flint Carman-Ainsworth —  the Creek's Dragons had only one season with a winning record in his five campaigns since dirty politics led to his predecessor's exit from the job. 

We also broke the news that Kevin Root was out. The district officials posted the job opening and that's how we learned about it at Metro Flint News/Talk Radio. Reaching out to the Creek community sports supporters is how we found out Collins was one of three finalists who got an interview.  Joseph Fedorinchik got an interview despite finishing last place in his league last season at Oxford with an 0-10 record. Multiple sources say he pulled out his name before the interviews because he landed another opportunity. Creek's JV coach, Mason Redlich, was the other finalist.

I think old AD Adrian threw the JV coach in there to make it look good, as if there was a genuine effort to find the best possible candidate when picking Collins.

If you don't think I have a good idea what I'm talking about on all the allegations presented above, consider these facts:

1) Nobody at the district has said there was 25 applicants; and

2) Nobody at the district has revealed that only three finalists got interviews; and

3) Nobody at the district has admitted I was right two weeks ago when announcing  La'Quan Collins was getting the job.

Unless we can enter the newly-hired Superintendent (Ken Janczarek who brings impressive leadership credentials from roles in the Detroit area) wearing a Superman cape to stop this mess at the Creek.

Hopefully he can ignite a roar in the Dragons to get the sports program moving forward in the right direction in a new era without constant whispers of crooked deals, public corruption, lousy test scores by students on statewide evaluations of how they stack up against students in other districts, strange hirings of people who were not better qualified than other applicants and  hiding of information even from school board members trusted with the responsibility of looking out for the taxpayers.

If you are a loyal Dragon who is angered by what I've written so far or said on the radio, youmay be tempted to tell me to butt out of the Creek's business. But before you declare that I don't pay Swartz Creek taxes, consider that your district rakes in thousands of dollars from the federal government and state tax coffers. That makes me a stakeholder.

For starters, I don't like it one bit that my federal tax dollars are feeding every kid in your district a free breakfast and free lunch. Make their parents get jobs. In fact, I have a lead for them on a $20 per hour gig. An advertising campaign just rolled out on Indeed, this online daily newspaper and my four radio stations that features the leaders of a recall in Grand Blanc Township paying that much to gather signatures on petitions. Oh wait, that movement is to get rid of elected leaders accused of public corruption.

People who don't work can't be tempted to do something like that, even if they did get the urge to work a bit to feed their own kids. If they helped get the recall on the ballot, then the replacements in public office might start hollering like me to cut off all the free programs financed by my federal tax dollars. 

All the actions I've uncovered add up to an easy solution to the problem here for me: Fire her. 

Not in 50-plus years have I expressed such a bold opinion.

But my investigation has determined that this corrupt school district is not only lousy at teaching little kids to read and has all around bad test scores across the board in almost everything but jobs are handed out over friendships and illegal actions. I'll get to that part with more details later.

First off, multiple sources tell me Adrian has told them she "had to fire Scottie Wright" to get her job. She pulled the trigger for a boss. So was it legal? Not according to multiple lawyers I talked with during the past few weeks while sorting out the mess that is Swartz Creek's sports program.

Guess who was behind one school board meeting last winter where unhappy residents spoke out against the board. Multiple sources tell me it was an organized event by AD Adrian. Um, insert her denial here.

I'm sure she will say it ain't so and they are all liars that I talked to about her part in storming a school board meeting. 

But it gets worse. Stick with me here.

I'm not sure why she went through the motions of a search and an interview process to hire a new varsity basketball coach.  La'Quan Collins was the guy getting the job. We told you so on my radio show. A few times.

This morning, I made it official. Collins is getting the job if AD Adrian gets her way. I said so on my radio show rant about how Scottie Wright needs to be given back his program.

I don't like it one bit when politics creep into our sports world.

I speak out often about sports stars trying to play politics and express their views. My opinion? Dribble the damn basketball and keep your comments to yourself. I don't care what you think. Sports is a way to forget all our problems for a few hours.

But at the high school level?

Sports teach many lessons for life to young people. I still rattle off sayings from my coaches. They are role models for young people. They teach our children about setting goals, hard work, teamwork, determination, sportsmanship and dedication. 

Scottie Wright embodied everything a basketball coach is supposed to be in my book when it comes to leading young men.

Check out his resume and compare it to the other two dozen applicants.

Yes, we confirmed with many that Scottie Wright indeed turned in his application. He wants the job back. He wants his program back.

He never should have lost it.

Blame politics.

He was the second winningest coach in Swartz Creek history. A district title banner for the gym wall. A Metro League championship banner. At Swartz Creek for heaven's sake  —  the laughing stock of the Metro Flint regional area sports scene since I was in school. And I'm an old man.

Maybe there's something bad in the water out there.

Corruption? Let's start with all the illegal meetings board members were involved with as exposed by the new school board President  —  Chuck Melki. He was a detective at the Genesee County Sheriff's Department before he retired. He was Police Chief in Clayton Township. Let's just say Melki knows a thing or two about catching crooks. He set them up by asking certain questions with the school board tape rolling.

Credit Melki with chasing away Superintendent Rod Hetherington. He shocked everyone by announcing he was taking a new job in New Zeeland in the middle of all this chaos Melki caused by daring to question so much about the district's leadership.

His Deputy Superintendent, Jim Kitchen, got the interim tag. Soon he hit the road to join old pal Hetherington in his new community.

Not before Melki uncovered a $20,000 check he cashed. The school board didn't approve it. His contract didn't allow it. But the school board President I credit Melki with forcing to resign signed the check. I didn't know school board Presidents could sign checks. Isn't the board supposed to approve all payments? That's what the state law says. It's written into MCL codes in English and I know Swartz Creek students are not too adept at understanding what they read as evidenced by their test scores, so maybe others there have a few problems understanding it, too.

Let me summarize it. I told Kitchen on the radio that he cashed a check he didn't deserve, according to his contract. Return the money. That was my demand. Maybe they don't get my radio signal in his new community.

Carrie Germain signed it. I suggested she hire a good defense attorney. If she isn't headed soon for an orange jump suit, something is wrong with our legal system in this county.

Oh yeah, there's another matter of that 20 grand being part of more than $150,000 Melki asserts was spent by the district administrators without board approval. Trustee Ken Engle, another long-time cop on the Swartz Creek's school board and the current Police Chief in Clayton Township after serving in the same role out in Argentine Township, supported Melki's position on all this with public comments at a board meeting.

Engle essentially said the same thing I did about all these illegal payments. I hold firm that certain people need to go to prison for fleecing the taxpayers.

A certain administrator who was FOIA coordinator earlier this month blocked allowing Melki to get his hands on documents he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see.

Administrator Dave Simonsen said the law firm advised against it. He convinced enough board members to vote against it. They went into closed session to discuss it, then returned to vote in public.

An illegal closed session I might add. Melki didn't go behind closed doors with them.

I'm sure an attorney would put his law license at risk to do something illegal like that, or he simply doesn't understand the 1976 Open Meetings Act that governs how public officials MUST turn over documents to the public. It's our tax dollars they are spending. They can't hide stuff like that, or they could secretly split up $150,000 or so if they could do it in private without finding out about it.

Oh wait, that's what Melki is alleging they did.

I joked on my radio show that Simonsen was an administrator charged with being the FOIA coordinator, and it was my bet he received one of those illegal checks among the $150,000 or so passed out by administrators without board approval. Illegally.

My rant about FOIA laws and my joke about old Dave getting paid? He took a leave of absence after my radio show rant. Bad headache I suppose.

Must have been something I said. Or maybe he's worried about how he will look in an orange jump suit.

I'm thinking I would have won my bet that he got some of the stolen loot not authorized by the school board. But imagine this, not a single person called up to take me up on my offer to wager on my hunch.

Not even one school teacher who doesn't like me trying to cost teachers their jobs, she ranted.

I guess I'm mean spirited as this Creek teacher said when leaving me an anonymous call to my Hot Line —  Call us at (810) 771-8421 if you want to leave me your thoughts from 5 pm weekdays until the next morning when the office opens at 10 am, or any time on weekends.

Mean spirited? Yeah, I guess. 

Color it as part of the job description in spending more than 50 years as a "watchdog over your tax dollars" as I remind everyone every morning when I start my radio show.

 Melissa Sexton is the new FOIA coordinator. I'm sure she will do the right thing and have the documents ready for Mr. Melki tonight from his FOIA request illegally rejected by Simensen. Or was it the law firm? Seems as though folks with law licenses would be quick to clarify an item such as that nugget of info.

Now that I've scratched the surface on how deep the public corruption goes in this school district, back to AD Adrian.

She was interim AD when she fired Scottie Wright.

Wright supporters figured she was doing an administrator's dirty work. Now, five seasons of lousy records have passed and we can verify all the rumors.

These folks fired the son of a legend  – Bob Root's son, Kevin Root.

Maybe she thinks  La'Quan Collins will deliver a winning program.

His claim to fame so far is being the JV coach under Mike Thomas who led Grand Blanc to a state title, then left pretty much in disgrace because of his actions toward kids and wild antics on sidelines that are simply unbecoming of a high school leader of young people 

-----------------------------------------------------

Mike Killbreath appears on Metro Flint News/Talk Radio via The Morning Gazette Radio Show weekday mornings from 8 am until 10 am. He's an award-winning newspaper columnist and investigative reporter who is the former long-time owner of the local Metro Flint area chain of 14 community newspapers. This past fall marked his 50th year as a journalist. He also hosts a new weekend national TV show known as The American Crusaders on cable TV and various OTT TV live streaming platforms.

Click Here to Read Mike's most Recent Column

Click Here to Read Recent Columns

My Last Sports Thoughts Column

More Recent Sports Thoughts Columns