Carrel admits deceit; ashamed to be a board member

Jim Carrel finally stripped off his sheep clothing and exposed his true persona at the February 11th school board meeting. First, Carrel admitted that his motion to table the Boundary Task Force vote at the previous meeting was a deceptive tactic at best designed to give him time to rally his supporters. Then on Monday night he tossed aside the Boundary Task Force's recommendations, offered his own plan, and then exploded when school board members rejected his plan. Perhaps his most important statement was publicly announcing that he was "ashamed to be a part of" the school board. You know, Mr. Carrel, you can step down.

The community deserves an opportunity to fully appreciate what Mr. Carrel is really all about, as evidenced by the following quotes:

On a deceitful tactic to delay the vote of the Boundary Task Force recommendations:

[his motion to table boundary discussion pending evaluation of removing SAGE from the Bird school] "was just a parliamentary move to stop a moving train."

"It just seemed like the only thing to say to get it to stop because you cant table a recommendation for no reason."

"We're not going to move SAGE from Bird, we just needed some parliamentary procedure to stop what I considered an inferior project"

"I didnt have any intention of removing SAGE from Bird. It was just a stalling tactic because the project on the table is flawed and we have to fix it."

First of all, Mr. Carrel is not as "in the know" as he likes people to think he is, because Robert's Rules of Order do not require any reason to be offered to table ("lay on the table") a motion. Want the facts? Read about these motions here:
http://www.constitution.org/rror/rror-05.htm

So...what Carrel really meant to say was that he needed to come up with a plausible excuse--in his mind--to delay a vote. Mr. Carrel has been very quick to point the finger at citizens costing the taxpayers money associated with complaints regarding [alleged] violations of open meetings laws. Has anybody asked what costs were incurred as school district staff spent time reviewing the SAGE program to prepare to a response about SAGE at Bird? A response that was never needed once Carrel admitted that the whole "get rid of SAGE at Bird" was a clever ruse to delay a vote. Carrel apparently used his time to meet with affected parents from Bird. Don't even think about telling us that part of his discussions did not include ideas to push his "grand plan".


To the other school board members after his motion was doomed to fail:

"Because you've all stated your opinions and are going to vote my proposal down, I'm ashamed to be part of this group."

"I cant imagine how the rest of you can look yourselves in the mirror and accept
inferiority."

If Carrel is so "ashamed" to be a board member, then perhaps he should step down. This is a guy that preached the need for "decorum" at board meetings and to eliminate personal attacks. Carrel was out of line Monday night, and is clearly not what this community needs. He is a maverick. He also waxed poetically during the elections last year about being a "consensus builder". He didnt build any consensus Monday night. The wolf (coyote???) has been exposed for what he truly is. This is clearly a perfect example, of "if I can't play, I'm taking my basketball and going home".

Hot issues in the Sun Prairie School District

Here are some of the key issues happening in the Sun Prairie School District as well as our thoughts on each.

• Boundary Task Force - On the agenda for Monday 2/11/08. At the 1/28/08 meeting of the school board, a number of residents appeared to take issue with some of the Boundary Task Force's recommendations. Following Jim Carrel's "Hail Mary" motion to evaluate discontinuing SAGE at Bird Elementary to free up space, the school board decided to table the issue. Was discretion the better part of valor? Or are elections getting close and incumbents Stackhouse and Havel-Lang wanting to step carefully around a hot-button issue?

SP-EYE says: that if there were better options, the Task Force would have looked at them. No boundary changes ever occur without fear, or frustration. That's what happens when you live in a growing city. Arguments that folks moved to a specific neighborhood for a specific school are weak at best. We cannot afford a school for every neighborhood, and we have to address over-crowding as well as school equity as it relates to children of low income families.

• Teacher Contracts - Teachers want raises that are well above the consumer price index (3.0%). They also like the current practice of having taxpayers fund 100% of the cost of their health benefits. The teacher's union wants a higher average teacher wage. They want an increase in total package (salary + benefits) of 5.2% in 2007-08 and 5.4% in 2008-09. The District is offering total package increases of 4.0% and 4.2% for the two years. That package includes raise of 3.7% (QEO minimum is 2.1%). Teachers want over a 5.2% salary increase. The District (i.e., the school board) wants teachers to pay a percentage (2-4%) of their health benefits as members of Local 60 (support staff) and administration do.

SP-EYE says: The school board has already offered a package that exceeds the QEO. The economy is tight right now, for everyone. Hello! have you looked at the housing market lately? The business climate? No one is getting 5% raises...well...except for Exxon-Mobil execs, that is. State employee union contracts are looking at potential salary increases of up to 2.5-3% for 2007-08, and likely 0% for 2008-09. That's zero...as in goose egg. In addition, state employees will also likely have to pay an even higher percentage of their health insurance premiums. Already, state employees pay 6-8% of the cost of their health insurance. As far as teachers, 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. Our teachers currently pay zip.

• Electronic School Board - Conceptually, Jim Carrel's plan and the board's decision to purchase BoardDocs software has merits. The cost of putting together, making copies , and delivering school board packets to board and committee members is pretty high.

SP-EYE says: Time for a reality check. The FTT was never provided final analysis comparison cost figures. The software costs $$ initially and at least $5,000 per year. In addition, the district is has to purchase at least 7 laptop computers-one for each board member. BoardDocs really is, at best, an electronic organizer. You tell it where to provide situation reports and attachments, and it assembles a board package. Where the rubber meets the road, however, is in the claims for searchability. In order for anything to be searchable electronically, the documents must be text-based. Despite availability of high-tech optical character recognition software such as Adobe Acrobat, board packages are always prepared by scanning numerous pages...and saving them as image-PDF files. These files are not only unwieldy in size, but they are not searchable. So neither board members nor the public will have any less difficult a time finding critical information. This seems pretty incredulous for a district that prides itself on its technology.

• 
  Engaging the Public - On February 18th, the first meeting of the "Community Engagement Task Force" will be held. The school board appears to be interested in how it can better engage the public.

SP-EYE says: Yeah...RIGHT! This from the same group of people that have attacked citizens like Roger Fetterly, who keeps trying to correct the board on financial matters. You may not like Roger's delivery, but it's easy to understand if you ever watch how he and others are treated by thge board. Tim Boylen gets downright nasty. Board candidate Terry Shimek is constantly outright laughing at comments. Why WOULD anyone want to speak before the board. Speak with your votes in April.

• Taxpayer funded "Memorials": Did you know that ---when a District employee is ill, has a child, or sadly passess away--- the District purchases flowers for the employee with OUR tax dollars? True story. Check out the check details. Last year over $500 was spent on flowers.

SP-EYE says: While this is a wondeful practice, these flowers should not be funded by taxpayer dollars. We've never received a "thank you" from a diostrict employee or employee family member who recieved flowrs that we paid for! The heart of this issue is that in each of our jobs, these situations arise and we all take out our wallets and chip in to provide card/gifts/flowers, depending on the occasion. We dont expect our employer to cover these costs...and certainly this is an abuse of the system --and our hard earned tax dollars that the school board and Finance Committee need to stop. It may seem like a small--even petty-- amount, but these things add up, and ethically it's plain wrong.

Carrel to "turn himself in" to the District Attorney???

At the Monday January 28th's school board Finance Committee meeting, one of the agenda items related to a citizen complaint about conflict of interest/ alleged ethics violations by school board members who vote to approve checks paid by the District ...

• when the payee is the employer of a board member (e.g.; Jim Carrel and checks to Johnson Controls)
• when a board member (or their family) has a financial interest in the payee (e.g.; Jim McCourt and checks to Beans and Cream)
• when board member directly benefit financially (e.g.; board members Jim Carrel , John Whalen, and Mary Ellen Havel-Lang and checks to the District's legal firm to respond to allegations of violation of Open Meeting laws)

After a lengthy, heated discussion, Jim Carrel came to the microphone and stated that he had looked into the issue and that he and his attorney would be going to the District Attoney in the morning where Carrel would turn himself in for voting approval of checks where he has a conflict of interest.

School Board tables boundary recommendation

25 members
4 months
7 meetings
2 public hearings
Boundary Task Force approved the final recommendation 10-8-4
School Board's FTT committee voted 4-1 to forward it to the full board

Yet on January 28, the school board voted to table the issue.

Why?
That's a good question.

Certainly numerous parents that would be affected by the changes spoke out against the plan at the board meeting. Their angst and concern over pending school changes were real. But is there ANY boundary change that wouldn't affect SOMEBODY? Change is difficult, but life is a series of changes. There is no perfect solution to boundary issues. Period.

Issues that were cited as being reasons to re-convene the boundary task force:

1. The 50 or so students that would move from Bird elementary would result in a loss of the PTO leadership at the school.
2. The need to re-evaluate Bird's status as a SAGE school.
3. The boundary task force "didn't finish"

We believe that new leadership CAN and WILL emerge at Bird if the original recommendation stands. To believ differently is an arrogant slight against the many other parents, who may have felt intimidated by the existing PTO leadership. We also wonder why now it's acceptable for any school--let alone Bird--be allowed to exceed capavity, when a year ago any such thoughts were unconscionable.

One year ago, Ken Kish (former citizen representative for the Finance committee) made a motion to eliminate the SAGE program (which mandates class size of 15 or fewer for grades K-3)at Bird elementary, thereby increasing the student capacity at Bird. In return, he was treated like the AntiChrist. Now Jim Carrel proposes virtually the same thing and he's viewed as the new Messiah???

How much of this decision to stall board action is due in part to the upcoming elections...and board president David Stackhouse and clerk Mary Ellen Havel-Lang's fates?

Why should citizens get any further involved, when the Boundary Task Force did what it was instructed to do, and now they're told to go back and re-think things? The school board talk a good game of wishing to engage community residents, but when thet DO get involved, they get treated like this.

What exactly IS the point of having a Boundary decision go through a Task Force and then through the FTT committee, only to have the decision of both groups overturned by the school board? If the board values the work of these committees so little, then they should just make all the decisions themselves...after all...it's what they do anyway.