ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

The public’s trust in public institutions erodes when they conceal the truth.

Two good examples of this disturbing trend surfaced earlier this month with the announcements of “retirements” of two Wayland Union School District administrators, Steeby Elementary Principal Mike Haverdink and Pine Street Elementary Principal Jennifer Moushegian.

Though neither has yet reached his or her 50th birthday, both have announced they are leaving at the end of the academic year. It’s strange enough that two school principals are leaving, with their jobs posted just four days apart on the Allegan Area Educational Services Agency web site. It’s even stranger that both are under 50 and no satisfactory explanation has been offered to the public.

It is not far-fetched nor is it prying for the people in the district to wonder what’s going on here. Yet the public is being shut out of learning if it’s just a coincidence, or as Bob Dylan sang in “Ballad of a Thin Man” almost 55 years ago:

“Something is happening here, but you don’t what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?”

I figured out Haverdink’s retirement by paying attention and connecting the dots in the publishing of the minutes of a work session. I then e-mailed Superintendent Norm Taylor and Haverdink to ask if it was true and why. Taylor confirmed the retirement and Haverdink replied with a terse statement and then later took umbrage with my “less than stellar” story.

I wrongly suggested Haverdink had cancer and afterward published a public apology. Otherwise, I stand by my story.

The Steeby principal suggested I retire and asserted I am guilty of misinformation and spreading fake news. I had noted he was on medical leave in 2018, when he was absent from accepting an award on his school’s behalf. He flatly asserted his medical condition and history was nobody’s business.

His anger and protestations led me to believe there’s something else going on, a charge he vehemently denied.

In the case of Ms. Moushegian, she did not answer either of my e-mails inquiring about her “retirement.” It made me sad because I’ve had a long and cordial relationship and with her late father and mother.

I need to be clear that I have no evidence there’s something unsavory going on.

But when two public school administrators step down in the same month before they turn 50 years old, the people have a right to ask why. And I was asking on their behalf.

This obfuscation really isn’t anything new. Corporations so often will tell the public their CEO or high mucky-muck has resigned, “to spend more time with his (of her) family.” All this does is leave people to wonder and prove the organization is not transparent, which apparently is OK for private business, but not the public sector supported by public tax dollars.

It was a little more than seven years ago that I made a mortal enemy out of Wayland Chamber of Commerce Director Denise Behm for suggesting she was speaking with a forked tongue about the reason she left her new job at the Gun Lake Casino after less than a week because she missed her friends and colleagues three miles away in Wayland. But at least Ms. Behm made an attempt to explain.

Wayland Union Schools, Mr. Haverdink and Ms. Moushegian have been very public figures for quite some time and their departures under unusual circumstances should be better explained than with silence or “It’s none of your business.”

The public deserves much better than that.