Only 3 of the 4 candidates responded. To be fair, the candidates are presented in alphabetical order.
The questions we posed were:
- Mr. Welke has pledged to donate all of his 2009 calendar year school board stipend (2/3 of a full year), after taxes, to all the local PTOs, divided equally. If elected to more than a 1 year term, he has pledged to donate 1/2 of his future stipend (after taxes) back to the PTOs. Will you agree to this pledge as well? Yes or no. If no, please explain your position.
- Please identify 4 or 5 basic elements that serve as the foundation for your platform should you be (re-)elected.
- The economy is in an unprecedented state. Taxpayers--and therefore school districts-- have to tighten their belts. Please describe things that you have done while on the board and things that you pledge to do going forward that highlights your position on the fiscal responsibility spectrum.
- (for incumbents) What have you done well as a board member? What will you
do differently if re-elected? - Please tell us what makes you a candidate that deserves to be (re-)elected.
- Is there anything else you'd like to share with the community?
Terry Shimek (incumbent)
Question 1: Would you "give back" 1/2 of your school board stipend?
No. My family's current annual contribution to the Sun Prairie Schools and individual students exceeds the stipend. As a teacher, my wife's out of pocket contributions are in excess of $250 annually. We provide support through fund raising activities for a number of the music, sports, and other extracurricular programs. We further support certain organizations that provide annual scholarships to high school students. Family members also provide significant volunteer time to the district. I support Mr. Welke's pledge; however my wife and I prefer to direct our contributions in a more personal manner.
Question 2: Identify 4 or 5 basic elements that serve as the foundation for your platform should you be (re-)elected.
I do not have an agenda. My goals are simple:
Do what is best for the education of our children.
Do my best to meet the diverse needs and expectations of the School District Community.
Understand that compromise is sometimes necessary.
Strive to obtain as much input as possible from the community.
Question 3: What have you done as a board member or going forward that highlights your position on the fiscal responsibility spectrum?
The School Board makes decisions as a group and supports those decisions as a group. It would not be proper to either expound upon or criticize the actions taken by the Board over the past ten months. The Board must balance the interests of all stakeholders. I hope that our actions have properly reflected this balance of interests.
Clearly the economy is going to factor into future decisions by the Board, belt tightening will be necessary. It is my hope that suggestions will come from all of the stakeholders, the Board will also have to review State and Federal Funding sources, and appropriate budget decisions will have to be made. There are a number of areas that the district can look at to reduce costs, however these should only be brought forth in the appropriate forum where the pros and cons can be discussed in a fair and open manner.
Question 4: (incumbents)What have you done well as a board member? What will you do differently if re-elected?
I have fairly represented the interests of all of the stakeholders. Due to conflicting interests, it is not possible for everyone to be pleased about every Board decision. In those situations, you hope that the decision represents a reasonable compromise. I seek to engage as many people as possible in discussions about district issues. I attend as many school activities as possible, at all levels, grade, middle, and high school. I meet regularly with the school community organizations, teachers, and administrators. All of this is to better understand what the community expects from our schools.
Going forward, I want to stress the need for more community engagement. The message has to get out that the community can call, email, or stop and talk to Board members at any time. The Board has received recommendations from the Community Engagement Taskforce to improve communications; it is my hope that we will implement a number of these recommendations.
Question 5: What makes you a candidate that deserves to be (re-)elected?
I am one of the few Board members that has had children at all levels, with the resulting participation in a majority of the activities that the District offers. When parents talk about IEP’s, TAG, and moving a child up a grade level, I know what
they are going through. My children have attended five of our elementary schools, Patrick Marsh Middle School and the High School. I am a twenty three year resident of Sun Prairie and have been involved with our schools in some way for over 16 years. My purpose is to give back to this community and to do that, I seek to be re-elected to the School Board.
Question 6: Is there anything else you'd like to share with the community?
Thank you for this opportunity!
Al Slane
Question 1: Would you "give back" 1/2 of your school board stipend?
I would not pledge to donate my stipend for a number of reasons:
* My wife and I already contribute in several ways to our parent group.
* While interesting, some people perceive this kind of pledge as buying votes, though it may just be campaigning.
* I would not ask other candidates to make the same pledge since I don't know their financial situations, though I would suspect that most could do without the $63.46 paid before taxes each week.
* It is just a hollow promise with no guarantee on follow thru.
Question 2: Identify 4 or 5 basic elements that serve as the foundation for your platform should you be (re-)elected.
* Continued focus on improving student education thru innovative curriculum and technology
* Add focus on writing, safety, truancy, and tardiness
* Encourage broad participation in activities and sports
* Work to improve the starting salary for teachers to help recruit the best new teachers
* Continue to form a new boundary policy
* Continue to gather input and make data driven decisions
Question 3: What have you done as a board member or going forward that highlights your position on the fiscal responsibility spectrum.
I would continue to use excess aid created by 4K to run under the revenue cap once 4K startup costs are paid for. I would also continue to press to not use the authorization to exceed the revenue cap for pool operating costs.
Question 4: (incumbents)What have you done well as a board member? What will you do differently if re-elected?
As a new member, I think I have kept and open mind, listened to input, and tried to make good decisions with the information available. If elected I will be a more active member now that I better understand how the board functions.
Question 5: What makes you a candidate that deserves to be (re-)elected?
I think I have used the last six months to learn how things work, and I am now ready to move forward and use my new experience to make good long term decisions for the community.
Question 6: Is there anything else you'd like to share with the community?
No response.
John Welke (write-in candidate)
Question 1: Would you "give back" 1/2 of your school board stipend?
A number of community members have asked me why I would “give back” my stipend if elected to the Board so I feel that I need to address that with you. Currently we are in incredibly tough financial times to say the least. Teachers are spending their own money on school supplies and teaching aides. The District has a number of schools that have a poverty rate of 30% or more. By returning my stipend to the schools it is my hope that they will put it to good use in areas that it is needed. If this money helps pay for a student's field trip that can’t otherwise afford it or provides some funding for teaching supplies and aides that would be great. People donate to our schools in many different ways. This is just my way of “giving” that seems right to me under the current circumstances.
Question 2: Identify 4 or 5 basic elements that serve as the foundation for your platform should you be (re-)elected.
Since I am currently not a Board member I will answer this question with the things that I feel are important to me as a community member of the SPASD. If elected I will carry these values and ideas with me as a Board member.
I am an advocate of transparency, accountability and community engagement.
I believe that The SPASD could benefit from being more transparent in their activity and actions. Board Meeting agendas should be released to the public sooner and have more detail. Meeting minutes should contain enough information so that future Boards and Administrations and the public can easily retrieve the minutes from a specific topic and have a good understanding of what transpired on that issue. Community Engagement should be something that the board is constantly involved in throughout the year and not just a month or two before the spring election. The CETF gave the board a number of sound recommendations to better connect with the community yet I do not believe they have implemented any of them. As an extension of community engagement I would like to see teachers more involved earlier on in the processes of the District and Board. Personal and professional accountability is the most important. The Board should be accountable to all state and federal laws, DPI funded program requirements, District policy and most importantly to the children and residents of the school district. Mistakes will be made and I think that it is very important to be open about them, learn from them and move on. This community has a great capacity to accept and understand as long as mistakes are not swept under the rug or concealed.
Question 3: What have you done as a board member or going forward that highlights your position on the fiscal responsibility spectrum?
As a community member I have prepared and presented three Situation and Recommendations reports to the School Board. Two of them had to do with the outcomes of the most recent boundary change and one asked for a cost/benefit analysis of the SAGE program. All three of the reports had portions that addressed funding and school expenses. I believe we should have a regularly reoccurring review of programs and services in order to retain the ones that are working and look for alternatives to the ones that are not or are not cost effective. The District should be seeking out grants and alternative funding sources while keeping fidelity to current funding sources. I think that the Board should be asking the teachers and support staff to identify potential areas of saving and then acting on those ideas if possible. As a taxing authority, the school district needs to remember that there is a high expectation that they be good Stewards of the Taxpayers dollars.
Question 4: (incumbents)What have you done well as a board member? What will you do differently if re-elected?
[SP-EYE - Though no response was required Mr. Welke opted to to take this opportunity to describve what he brings to the table. ]
I think that my record as a community member speaks for itself. As a community member, in the last year, I have prepared documents and information along with alternative ideas for the board to consider as they struggled through the latest boundary decision. Since then I have authored 3 Situation and Recommendations reports that made their way onto the School Board's agenda. I have been actively engaged with the Board and district and I would certainly continue that level of commitment as a board member.
Question 5: What makes you a candidate that deserves to be (re-)elected?
I believe that I deserve to be elected because of my background and experience. I have been a sworn Law Enforcement officer for the State of Wisconsin for over 20 years. As such I bring to the table the perspective of a Public Servant. I have performed at a high level under close public scrutiny and with a high degree of personal accountability. I have served on a number of local, State and Federal Committees and task forces and have also served as my department’s law enforcement liaison with several user groups. My skills, knowledge, experience and abilities should transfer well in the role of a school board member. My perspective, values and experience should also compliment and diversify the current composition of the School Board.
Question 6: Is there anything else you'd like to share with the community?
I think that it is important for the School Board to remember their role. They are to represent, to the extent possible, the wishes and values of the community that elects them as they perform their duties. The Board should support ideas that bring people together rather than divide them. The board should also be striving to make the SPASD “the employer of choice” for administrators, educators and support staff by providing an environment that is safe and rewarding to work in and by providing fair and competitive compensation packages to attract and retain staff.
John Whalen
[SP-EYE- After a 2nd invitation to Mr. Whalen to participate in this exercise, we received the following response. In reply to Mr. Whalen's concern that responses would be edited, we present his response exactly as he sent it. The same holds true for other candidates. ]
Thank you for your interest in my responses. At this time, I would like to respectfully decline. To date, I have participated in interviews/surveys by the Sun Prairie Star and the League of Women Voters. I think voters will find these sources useful in selecting a candidate.
In the future, I would recommend providing some guidelines or policies for publishing responses. For example, will responses be edited prior to posting? Should the responses be limited in length? What is the deadline for responses? Also, if you are sincerely interested in all candidates responses, you may not want to endorse a candidate until after responses to your questions are solicited. This would help SP-EYE avoid the perception that it has a bias towards one candidate.
Thank you,
John Whalen
[SP-EYE: We'll chalk it up to election-related nerves or paranoia, but SP-EYE has not formally endorsed any candidate. Perhaps Mr. Whalen is refering to our post " School board elections 2009: You DO have a choice.html " in which we mentioned that instead of a slate of 3 incumbent candidates, John Welke announced his decision to join the race as a write-in candidate. If that is deemed equivalent to SP-EYE endorsing Mr. Welke, then the STAR must be endorsing Welke as well, since they also printed Mr. Welke's announcement.
That's OK John, we understand. As community residents who are watching the school board, we understand why you might be a little nervous now that you're not a shoo-in for re-election. After all...look what happened to long-time school board member Mary Ellen Havel-Lang last year. Like another infamously malodorous event, change happens.
Whether you fashion the status quo or change in the composition of our school board, SP-EYE reminds you to do you civic duty and express your opinion: VOTE on Tuesday April 7, 2009.]
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