Get Ripley's Believe It Or NOT on the phone... stat; because they'll never believe this one.
At Monday's Board meeting, district resident Roger Fetterly chastised the school board for spending District tax dollars to pay their attorney to help fight an existing complaint alleging Open Meetings Law violations. Then Board President David Stackhouse insisted on responding to Mr. Fetterly's statement, but would he allow Mr. Fetterly to counter HIS comments? NO! In fact, Stackhouse became downright rude in in his own tongue-lashing of Mr. Fetterly and the un-named plaintiff involved in filing the Open Meetings Law violation.
The presidency and Board composition may have changed but it's business as usual at board meetings. Oh...they'll listen to public comment. The problem is that their body language (rolling eyes, staring off into space, disgusted looks) speaks volumes. They suffer at the whim of each resident for their allotted 3 minutes and then they just shrug off any concerns, criticisms, or issues raised. Their body language says it all, and does so loud and clear: "Thanks for sharing; now sit down. We don't agree with you and we're not going to do anything about it." Compare that response to the response given to anyone who speaks out in praise of the Board or the District. They glow with pride.
So...why is this so unbelievable? because not 10 minutes later as an agenda item, was the issue of convening an Ad Hoc Task Group for "Community Engagement", which passed 6-1 (with Stackhouse voting against). So here the Board tells the public that they're really interested in listening to them, immediately after blasting a resident who expresses a legitimate concern over how the Board is handling another current issue. Talk about sending mixed messages. No wonder the board pushed so hard to hire a Communications Manager for the District! This board would fail Comm 101.
The message we seem to be getting is:
The Sun Prairie school board is not open to criticism of any kind, even that designed to be constructive in nature. They welcome praise, but will get cranky with anyone that doesn't see things their way.
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