“your allegations are not true”

On Nov 10, 2008, at 9:46 AM, Paul Balon wrote:

Jim, your allegations are not true. Many school districts in Colorado use BusRadio including Denver, Adams 12, Adams 5, Aurora, just to name a few as well as Douglas County School District have had overwhelming positive response from students and parents. The public service messages are great as well as the GPS and the 911 emergency service provided for free. At any time a parent may log into www.busradioparents.com and listen to what is being played on the radio which is much better than not knowing what radio station a driver has selected. Public radio truly has objectionable lyrics being played every day. I was at the NAPT conference and the NAPT supports BusRadio and districts from all over the United States that I talked to had nothing but positive comments about BusRadio. If you go to the NAPT web site you will see the BusRadio is one of the business partners of the association. How interesting that BusRadio is installed in 10,000 plus school buses with over a 1,000,000 students listening to the program. You have tried the media both in print and TV in Colorado and they no longer will listen to you. You have tried school boards in Colorado and they will no longer listen to you. What next? Thanks.

PAUL BALON CDPT
Director of Transportation
303-387-0401
303-514-2165 CELL
Paul.Balon@dcsdk12.org
"SAFE SERVICE ON TIME"
Learn today. Lead tomorrow.

Jim Metrock’s reply to Mr. Paul Balon:

Date: November 10, 2008 11:28:08 AM CST

Dear Mr. Balon,

First, to all those I am copying I apologize, but Mr. Balon has said my "allegations are not true."

Mr. Balon, every one of them? I didn’t get lucky on even one of my "allegations"?
Actually, I tried to present facts not allegations.

If you would highlight for me the statements or allegations I made that are "not true" I would be happy to recant or confirm with more evidence.
The email I sent to you, other school officials, PTA officers and members had a lot of documentation. I’m a retired member of the Alabama Bar. By training, I try to be cautious with my words and try to have confirming evidence for everything I say. If I failed to do so, I will correct myself.

You said, "I was at the NAPT conference and the NAPT supports BusRadio and districts from all over the United States that I talked to had nothing but positive comments about BusRadio. If you go to the NAPT web site you will see the BusRadio is one of the business partners of the association."

"Supports" is a vague word. I hope you were not implying that NAPT endorses BusRadio. I bet some readers of your email came away thinking they do. They do not. They never have and never will.

NAPT states that it does NOT recommend any school district enter into a contract with BusRadio or ANY of its Business Partners. (Their full language is below.)
You should make nothing of the fact that BusRadio is a Business Partner of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. That designation only means BusRadio has helped support NAPT with money. NAPT is a wonderful organization whose reputation would be hurt if the public thought for a moment they would recommend or endorse products and services.

Funny, I too was at the NAPT conference just a few weeks ago and I even had a booth handing out literature that gave the facts about BusRadio to counteract their sales claims and puffery.
You must have been at the trade show and yet why didn’t you come by my booth? What I learned from the heavy traffic at my booth was that overwhelmingly pupil transportation officials would never allow BusRadio or anything like it to be put on their busses. Some who had BusRadio were appalled at their "clean music from dirty artist" policy and that the very state the conference was held in (SC) had barred BusRadio from all public school busses.
I understand that you may have made the decision to bring BusRadio into your district, but your district paid for you to be flown across the continent to attend the NAPT conference and you could have at least picked up our two brochures ( Coalition Letter and The Ugly Truth About BusRadio ) to bring back to your Board and Superintendent. BusRadio is very controversial. It is always good to hear both sides of a story when something is so controversial. In your position, I would even go so far as to say you had a duty to bring back information opposing the use BusRadio, especially when you could not have possibly missed my booth both days of the trade show.

If Douglas County would like to hear both sides of the BusRadio controversy, I would be happy to come out and make a presentation to your school district. Give BusRadio’s sales rep Jay Stickney 15 minutes and me the same and then school officials and the public can ask us hard questions. I will cover all of my expenses. Unlike BusRadio, I am not wanting to make any money off your district.

Much Obliged,
Jim Metrock

From NAPT’s website:

Legal Notice: The list of NAPT Business Partner members contains links (where available) to websites sponsored and maintained by third parties. This should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase or sell any product or instrument or to enter into any transaction, or as a representation that any particular product or instrument is suitable or appropriate for you. Since everyone has unique objectives, experience, financial and operational resources and other relevant circumstances, NAPT does not endorse or recommend any particular organization, individual, product, process, or service nor can we assure the quality of work provided by any organizations or individuals, including NAPT Business Partner members.