School Board election season begins

Besides snow and the holidays, December marks that time of year when campaigning for school board seats begins. Nomination papers can be picked up at the school District office. This is a great services and allows the school board to know who exactly might be campaigning to replace one of them or an open seat so they can find their own candidate to maintain the status quo.

Of course, if you'd rather run "under the radar", you do NOT have to get the forms at the School District. You can obtain the necessary forms at: http://elections.state.wi.us/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=412&linkcatid=526&linkid=295&locid=47

There are 3 seats up this year:
- Mary Ellen Havel-Lang (3 yr)
- David Stackhouse (3 yr)
- Timothy Boylen (note this will only be for 1-year)

This is YOUR chance to change the direction of the board. Please consider running for one of these seats.

The forms you will need to file (due in the school district office by 5:00 January 2) are:

• EB-162 (Declaration of candidacy)
• EB-169 (Nomination Paper for Non-Partisan Office)...requires 100 signatures
• EB-1 (Campaign Registration statement)

School Board sweeping Culver contract issue under the carpet?

It's now been nearly 2 months since it was raised to the School Board's Finance Committee and the School Board that District Administrator Tim Culver exceeded the limits of his contract by charging the school district for his membership to the Sun Prairie Rotary Club.

see: http://sp-eye.blogspot.com/2007/10/school-board-cant-even-make-simple.html

We were told that they'd be "looking into it". Well how long does it take to look? The facts are clear.

• Culver is limited to 2 paid memberships (which he already receives)
• The Rotary Club is a great service organization, but it doesn't meet the specifications of the contract.

http://sp-eye.blogspot.com/2007/08/district-administrator-tim-culvers.html

• Culver gets paid close to $150,000 per year including some nice monthly per diem expenses! You'd think he could afford to open his wallet and let the dead presidents see the light of day!
• The School Board approves quarterly checks to pay for his dues and meals at meetings (despite the fact that the meals should be covered out of his per diem pay).

Why hasn't this question from the public been answered?

Our crystal ball is clear on this one. We figure that once the Board figures enough heat has been generated on the issue, they'll discuss it at a meeting and agree to approve the additional expense--and once again violate their own policy--or in this case, an employment contract. We're holding out hope, however, that this might be an instance where at least Caren Diedrich votes against such a decision, citing the taxpayers.

Let the bus aides rule!

As predicted, the FTT vote was 4-1 in favor of hiring bus aides....or rather have Kobussen hire bus aides and charge us $17.00 per hour. The school board on Monday December 3, then voted unanimously (Diedrich and Boylen absent) to seal the deal.

It's so easy to say, "It's for the kid's safety", and therefore who could possibly argue with the decision. Of course, that's the prevailing tactic of our school board and administration. They toss out feel-good buzz phrases to support their decisions in a manner designed to make people think that to disagree would mean that you don't care about the welfare of our children. It's a great tactic, actually. They are to be lauded for their ingenuity.

Our problems with this whole situation is that this is yet another knee-jerk reaction to solve a problem by throwing money at it instead of holding people accountable for their actions. We were told that it's not a good idea to suspend bus privileges of offending students because "if they're not on the bus, they're not in school". True. But there's a word for that. It's called truancy, and it's a legal issue. The school administration cannot serve as surrogate parents, and the taxpayers cannot--should not--bear the fiscal responsibility of the district administration doing so. Parents have an obligation to get their children to school. And if they're suspended from riding the bus, maybe the parents need to spend some quality time with their children pursuing behavior modification techniques.

Another problem is that the school board talks a good game about setting policy, but then they frequently disregard their own policies....unless of course sticking to their policies serves their purpose. Now we have a policy that simply states that the Administration can hire bus aides as needed. This leaves a lot of unanswered questions:

• Why wasn't some other solution considered such as using volunteers--perhaps senior citizens or at-home parents--- and providing property tax breaks in return?
• Since all bus routes have an assigned driver, and the behavior problems affected only 3 of 28 bus routes, did we consider switching bus drivers? Could it be that there are a few bus drivers that have better sills in the discipline management area?
• Who monitors the decisions that bus aides are needed?
• How will we even know if the bus aides are being effective?
• What if we decide that the problem is temporary? Who will make sure that we stop using bus aides when they are not necessary?
• Is one bus aide enough for a bus of 70 kids? Jim Carrel noted that when traveling with the HS band, there are often 3 or more chaperons per bus. Does this open the door for more than one bus aide per bus?
• How soon will it be that, in the name of safety, a bus aide is placed on all 28 routes (at a cost to the taxpayer of $3,000 per route per trip)
• When will this school board as a whole consider the taxpayer?