On Monday night, July 28, 2008, the school board unanimously approved appointments of new citizen representatives to the Finance, FTT, Education & Policy, and Human Resources committees for one-year and two-year terms.This was subsequently reported by Sun Prairie Today.com, the Sun Prairie STAR, and in a July 30 e-mail sent out to the School District's "Key Communicator" e-mail list.
See the Sun Prairie Today.com report
Read the Sun Prairie STAR article
School Board President Stackhouse commented,
"It's a wonderful thing when people in the community step up and ask to serve in any form," Stackhouse said. "We had some excellent candidates for various positions, they bring great things to the
table."
But...hold on a second....one of those individuals withdrew his application and declined the opportunity to interview...yet he was appointed to a position nonetheless.
How on earth, does one manage to appoint someone to something when the individual has clearly communicated that they are no interested? In the course of appointing citizen representatives for its committees, the board managed to:
- appoint a citizen representative without conducting an interview in direct violation of board policy and procedure BCE-R.
- create a requisite application form which is neither discussed nor referenced in its policy BCE-R.
- inform candidates of interview times without their consultation less than 24 hours prior to making formal appointments (in fact the e-mail message of interview times actually said that the interviews would be conducted on Monday August 28).
- clearly opt NOT to retain Finance Committee citizen representative Dr. James Murray for a 2nd term (which could have been done) and then appoint him to the Education & Policy committee.
- ignore specifics of the application submission process outlined in policy.
The Process
The SPASD website indicated that applicants had to "complete and return an application and a letter of interest" prior to Friday June 27, 2007.
NOTE: Board Policy BCE-R (sect. A.4) says nothing about an "application". Interested citizens are only required to: " All applicants shall mail, e-mail to the District Administrator's secretary and get confirmation of receipt, or deliver to the District Administrator's office a letter containing the applicant's name, address, telephone number and a concise statement not exceeding 500 words of the applicant's qualifications and interest in appointment to a specified committee. "
Applicants received no communication from board President Stackhouse (or any board representative) until an e-mail from Stackhouse was sent Sunday July 27, 2008 at 4:03 PM informing all candidates of their interview time slots.
SP-EYE: Weird? Isn't it common practice to call candidates and offer them several options for an interview time?
Concerted Decision to not retain Murray
Board policy allows the board to re-appoint a current citizen representative to a 2nd 1-year term if that term does not coincide with the other citizen representations term. Dr. James Murray just completed his first year on the Finance committee and clearly indicated his interest in being re-appointed. Board past practice has been to re-appoint these people. Clearly, President Stackhouse made a firm decision NOT to re-appoint Dr,. Murray to the Finance committee. We assume he had reasons.How serious could Stackhouse's concerns have been if he proceeded to nominate Dr. Murray to The Education & Policy committee...despite being told that Murray was no longer interested in serving. Dr. Murray subsequently declined to appear for his interview.
The Applicants
7 people applied to fill 6 empty slots. Clearly this was a game of musical chairs and someone would be sitting out.
Finance: 4 candidates for 2 seats
FTT 2 candidates for 1 seat
E&P 2 candidates for 2 seats
HR 1 candidate for 1 seat
The Interview Process
Interviews were scheduled at 15-minute intervals Monday July 28 from 5:15 to 7:00 pm (despite e-mail message indicating the interview date to be August 28th).
The schedule was as follows:
__5:15: Patrick Anderson, (Finance, FTT)
__5:45: Rick Mealy (Finance)
__6:00: Tim Boylen (Finance)
__6:15: Scott Sedlacek (FTT)
__6:30: Jan Disch (HR, E&P)
__6:45: Robert Carlson (E&P)
Appointment
Interviews concluded at 7:00 pm
Why did Stackhouse nominate Dr. James Murray to a position direct violation of section A.5. board policy/procedure BCE-R???
"The Board president and/or committee chair will interview each candidate...prior to nominating a candidate to the Board for appointment to any standing committee." ?
Why also would Stackhouse have nominated Murray after he clearly declined consideration? (Murray sent e-mail to Stackhouse and also spoke by phone to board members Stackhouse and McCourt)
Why would the board proceed to make this appointment in light of the facts...something which the board likes to tell the public that they base their decisions on? Did Stackhouse and McCourt not communicate Murray's decision to other board members? If not, why not? They certainly seem to discuss a number of other things between meetings. Certainly, they should have released this information to the media before it was published.
The board likes to talk about "the wonderful things they do for the community's children"....yet they can't get a simply thing like citizen representative assignments right without violating their own policies and making a public mess of things.
So...now what? Does Tim Boylen get offered the Education & Policty seat to minimize the magnitude of this CF? Or do we start all over again looking for a citizen to fill the empty seat? Perhaps, if the board hadn't rushed to so quickly, this mess would not have been created. Don't we counsel our children, "Don't rush...do a quality job in all that you do"???
Read board policy BCE-R
SP-EYE: Be careful! There are multiple versions of this policy out on the district's website...but that's a whole different issue that needs to be addressed!
Check out the "application" form...which does not exist according to policy
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