Jim Carrel: Keeping PTO intact trumps over-crowding (at Bird Elementary)!

On Thursday January 17th, a special session of the school board's FTT committee was held to review the Boundary Task Force's (BTF) recommendations. The committee voted 4-1 (Nays: Jim Carrel) to approve recommendations of the Boundary Task Force and forward them on to the full school board for final action. Prior to that motion, Jim Carrel made a motion to amend the BTF recommendation by redrawing lines to eliminate moving 51 students from Northside elementary to Westside elementary. His reasoning: moving 51 children out of Bird to reduce crowding would result in most of the current parent leadership of the PTO being lost to a different building. Carrel stated that he was willing to let C.H. Bird elementary remain over crowded (anticipated by as much as 75 kids by 2010), if the PTO leadership remained intact. Losing the current PTO, Carrel said, would harm children more than being in crowded classrooms.

SP-EYE note: We value the contributions of parents involved in PTO very highly, but to assume that all would go to hell in a hand-basket just because the families moving from Bird represent most/all of the PTO leadership is ludicrous. Frankly, this may give other parents a chance to step forward and offer their contributions, which could be equally--if not valuable.

Other committee members disagreed:
FTT committee member Jan Fournier responded, "I'm confused as to why you don't think 50 additional kids at Bird is not a problem." FTT committee member Rick Mealy disagreed with the motion on a number of levels. "The PTO will rebound; new leaders will emerge", Mealy said. Mealy also stated that while the BTF vote of 10-8 on the new boundaries was not overwhelming, it represented a majority nonetheless. In addition, he felt it was inappropriate to undo decisions of an 18-member Task Force that considered much data and testimony over the course of 7 meetings and 2 public hearings. Mealy said that the final decision rests with the full school board.

SP-EYE note: What ever happened to the concept of "getting behind a decision once it has been made?" Apparently Mr. Carrel only subscribes to that philosophy when we agrees with the decision.

Some believe it was out of line for Mr. Carrel to use his position as a member of the FTT committee to advance an motion to make a change that was supported by only a minority of the Boundary Task Force, of which Mr. Carrel was also a member. In fact, Carrel stated publicly that he was one of the "8" on the 10-8 vote of the BTF regarding the final recommendations. It's a good bet that Carrel will be making a similar motion to the full board at its next meeting.

During the meeting, the committee heard testimony from 15-20 residents each requesting that an aspect of the Boundary Task Force's plan to redraw elementary school boundaries, be altered.

Common themes included : not moving the 51 students from Northside to Westside, opposition to moving the Parkway Village subdivision from Horizon to Creekside, concerns about moving children from Park Circle to Royal Oaks.

Back to referendum in April for a pool?

At the January 14, 2008 meeting of the school board's FTT Committee, members approved forwarding a recommendation to the full school board to hold a referendum for a pool in conjunction with the upcoming spring elections.

Since the board must vote on such a measure before February 15th, look for very quick action from the board, likely at its January 28th meeting.

School Board starts 2008 off with drama.

After a quiet, post-referendum fall, where it almost seemed as if the Board kept its agendas "vanilla" to limit public interest in their actions, the first committee and full board meetings of 2008 saw sparks and drama.



Disrespect and abdication of fiscal responsibility

At the Finance Committee, citizen representative asked about the qualifications of "trainers" who frequently receive hefty stipends for a day (or less) seminars related to staff development. Finance Committee chair Jim McCourt waived off the question and stated that he is not capable of judging qualifications, and that "we have to trust administration". The other committee citizen representative and School board candidate, Terry Shimek, openly laughed at Murray's questions and follow-up comments.



We believe Dr. Murray is correct to ask these types of questions. With a $65 million dollar budget, this school board needs a "trust but verify" approach to fiscal management. We are also appalled at Mr. Shimek's lack of respect for an other's opinion. With all the fiscal abuse and mismanagement in the news today, we need a school board who asks the tough questions. If spending is justified, why should administration be angry about questions? If citizen representatives are to be ridiculed for asking administration and the school board to provide documentation to substantiate spending, what is the purpose of even having a Finance Committee?



We also find Mr. Shimek's behavior to be in poor taste. Perhaps he just chose poor timing to laugh at some random internal amusing thought, but appearance is everything. We can agree to disagree, people, but laughing at a fellow board member is simply unacceptable behavior--particularly for someone who wishes to serve on the board and be a role model for our students. Later during the meeting of the full board, Mr. Shimek was also excitedly mouthing things to someone at the board table. It appeared that he was trying to communicate with Mary Ellen Havel-Lang, who is up for re-election. If Mr. Shimek wants to be considered seriously as a board candidate, this was not a good start.



Teachers picket School Board meeting.

Anyone driving past the City Municipal building before the start of the January 14 school board meeting was greeted by a huge gathering of Sun Prairie teachers picketing the school board over their lack of a new contract (which expired last summer). Sun Prairie Education Association (SPEA) president Brad Lutes spoke emotional words asking that the school board come back to the negotiation table. In a move to push negotiations forward, Mr. Lutes handed the school board a thick stack of teacher resignations from volunteer positions associated with clubs and extracurricular activities.

Following Mr. Lutes' comments, school board president David Stackhouse gave a brief verbal response highlighting a 2-page written public statement he passed out. The key issues involved are:

• SPEA wants a 5.23% salary increase; the school board has offered 3.72% (The consumer price index--CPI--is 3.03%, and under the QEO, districts must offer at least a 2.1% salary increase to avoid arbitration).
• SPEA wants a 5.20% total compensation package (salary + benefits) for 2007-08 and 5.4% increase for 2008-09; the school board has offered 4.00% for 2007-08 and 4.2% for 2008-09. (Under the QEO, districts must offer at least a 3.8% total compensation package increase increase to avoid arbitration).
• The district (i.e., taxpayers) pay 100% of health insurance for SPEA employees. SPEA wants to continue to pay nothing for insurance. The District proposes that SPEA members pay 2% of their health insurance premiums for those that choose to participate in a Health Risk Assessment program and 4% for those who do not.
• NOTE: In Dane county, school district employees pay an average of 5.24% of their health insurance premiums for a single person, and 6.99% of premiums for a family. State employees also pay 6-8% of the health insurance premiums, and the percentage has increased with each of the past 3 contract years.

What is the "QEO"?

The QEO, or "qualified economic offer" is difficult to explain in all its detail. However, in an article in the Wisconsin State Journal, the QEO is described as : "The QEO law, despised by unions, allows districts to avoid arbitration if they offer teachers an average salary increase of at least 2.1 percent and a benefits increase of at least 1.7 percent [for a total compensation package increase of 3.8%] . Critics say the law unfairly caps teacher salaries. Supporters say it is necessary to curtail property taxes."

5 Candidiates vie for 3 School Board seats

Incumbents Mary Ellen Havel-Lang and David Stackhouse will seek to retain their seats in April. Tim Boylen, who was selected to fill Jim Gibbs' vacant seat for the rest of this year will not seek formal election to the seat for the remainder of the term. That means we will be getting one new face one the board, and hopefully one with a fresh perspective.

Running in addition to Havel-Lang and Stackhouse are:

• Jill Camber-Davidson, former citizen representative on the Finance Committee and current citizen member on the Education & Policy committee.
• Terry Shimek, who took over Camber-Davidson's seat on the Finance committee when her 2-year term expired.
• A relative unknown, Al Slane, of Cottage Grove

There will be no primary. The top two vote-getters will be elected to 3-year terms. The 3rd place finisher will be elected to a 1-yr term which closes out the rest of the seat left vacant when Jim Gibbs resigned.

Here's hoping we get more than one new face on the board. The role of the school board is to weigh the district's educational needs as presented by administration against the fiscal burden absorbed by the taxpaying community. We need a board that works well with the administration without getting overly cozy. We need board members that can exercise fiscal responsibility.