Whatever Happened to Stackhouse?

photo courtesy of WSJ

People ask us frequently about our former school board president...and so when this appeared, we thought we'd share.

Bottom line...Stackhouse HAD escaped significant penalty by agreeing to enter the First Time Offender's program.
Unfortunately he was rejected; the judge felt that he wasn't remorseful.  Imagine that!
Now convictions have been entered into his permanent record, and he even had a chance to sample jail
food.
10 day sentence with 5 suspended, but it sends a message.


Ex-Sun Prairie school official gets probation, jail for theft from football program : Wsj

Next on the chopping block...the SPLL agreement

It's time people.
Actually, it's long overdue.

Ask anyone in the community...even the Sun Prairie Little League (SPLL) people.
Oh, they'll look uncomfortable, dart their eyes to see who might be within earshot...
...but even they will tell you that SPASD got the short end of the stick on this "agreement".

C'MON!  This group has "reserved" (um....squatted on?) the varsity and JV softball fields...all day and night long... for the entire summer...for TWO years in a row (that we've been watching anyway).

Those fields aren't being used 13 hours a day every day all summer...but because they've locked them up, no one else can use those fields.

We have the Home Talent team playing...for no charge...on our fields as well.  And the legion team.  What On God's green earth do Home Talent and American Legion have to do with SPLL?

They've created an umbrellla that encompasses the entire city.
And for all that *free* use, we got exactly $85,000 over 22 years.

WOW.

Phil Frei and Tim Culver need to call us...we have some land for sale that would be just fine for athletic fields.

OK....maybe that's going too far.  But SOMEONE in the district or the school board needs to call SPLL and declare that it's time to renegotiate that agreement.

Sound of Sun Prairie...not off the hook

We may have been mired down in the field/facilities usage and AD Jimmy Mac shenanigans, SOSP...but we have not forgotten.  In fact, the fields/facilities usage ties in with y'all.

Those old enough my remember those adds for Certs candy/breathmint (the only mint with Retsyn&reg).  What?  The only one with retsyn!?  We must have it.  Except retsyn was the food additive equivalent of smoke and mirrors.  One of the greatest advertising coups of all time.  They literally made something from nothing.

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors associated with the Sound of Sun Prairie (SOSP) too.  Except we believe there's something behind this one.  There's simply too much hand waving and cries of , "It's a great program for the kids and the community".

• SOSP is a school sponsored activity.  
• It's a summer school option (except not available through the on-line registration).
• The district receives between $300 and $400K of state aid for the summer school attendance. 
• We're just not certain exactly how much of the detail has been shared with DPI.
• It's one of those things where you wonder if the aid would be there if the right questions were asked.

• We pay the leaders a stipend.
• The band boosters are believed to also financially award the leaders.
• Kids are required to pay a hefty fee ...to the band boosters...not to the district.
• Yet they use our fields and facilities free of charge.
• Isn't summer school supposed to be at no charge to students?
• Then why do they have to pay an enormous fee?

• Will the SOSP open its books for inspection to the district (we seriously doubt it)
• Where does all this money go?

And if we are now (in theory) charging coaches running summer athletic camps and using fields/facilities...
...why aren't we charging SOSP?

We still have a lot of questions...
...and we think answers are in order.

As we've said before...SOSP IS a great opportunity for kids.  But that does not relive them of their responsibility to pay for the use of facilities.

You Can't MAKE This Sh*t Up!

Captain's Log June 2012: This month the facility rental agreement follies (i.e., Policy KG) were exposed. This planet is headed for disaster.

 Captain's Log June 2013: One YEAR later.  No progress made.  There's no sign of intelligent life here.  We find only a colony mired in petty personal agendas and shenanigans.

Seriously...one simply cannot make up the crap that has gone on with field/facility rentals.  It is an exhausting table of foils, fumbles, and errors.  It is a tale spiced with egos and attitudes.  To change the policy (KG)...which was NOT.is not  being followed in any way shape or form is being presented as an attack on the boosters and the athletic coaches who run camps.   A lot of revenue was generated, but all we hear is whining that "we don't make that much".  Let;s get crazy back on the bus.

Policy KG falls somewhere between the school board's Community Engagement and Operations Committees.  Jill Camber Davidson's committee was initially taking the lead, but this lack of action does not jive with what we've seen from Ms. Camber-Davidson.  Someone or someones are stalling!

This issue has got Jimmy Mac's fingerprints all over it, and we're sure he'll eventually get hung with all the blame.  After all...isn't that where this district excels?  At pointing fingers at the person who last sat in a particular chair?  But it's not just the MacMan that's involved here...there are many others.

Let's take a look at just a fraction of the nonsense:

• Just this week, nobody seemed to know that the Brewers were using THREE fields (including Summit Field)  for a $395 per kid (~100 kids) baseball training workshop.  It wasn't listed on the public facilities calendar...and still was not as this went to press. There are rumors that even grounds staff had no clue.

• SP Little League has "squatted" on the varsity and JV softball field for all of last summer and now reserved the fields---free of charge-- all this summer.  Even if they aren't using them, no one else can.

• The district office knew about the squatting last year, said they'd fix it and did not.  Now they've known that it was reserved for like 80 days straight this summer for several weeks.  As of today, the facility calender STILL shows those fields being squatted on. Seriously...how hard is it to go in to "the system" and revoke a reservation?

• Dr. Culver...who is ultimately accountable....apparently knows nothing about the field issues.  WTF?  REALLY?  Oh wait...has he retired already?  Sometimes it seems he's nodding off at more than the occasional board or committee meeting.

• The coaches are all upset because they are being billed for their camps this year (except for "contact days", more to come on that).  Really?  Did you think this was free when you're charging a fee?

• Nobody seems to know what the purpose of the athletic camps is.  And the story seems to change like the weather.   Is it fundraising? Is it for the kids?  Who's running it?  The boosters? The coaches?  The school district?  Where does the money go?  

• And if the boosters are involved, why do the kids have to send their money to the coaches' home?  Take a look at the flyers, people, and Google the address checks are to be made to.  The Internet will set you free.  Not to pick on football...but the 2013 Sun Prairie GridIron camp flyer has kids sending their forms to the Waunakee football coach. How does that fit?   Check it out here:  
2013 Gridiron Camp flyer

• The coaches are apparently making some money off the camps...but should they be?  Shouldn't their coaching stipend cover that?   Should they being paid both a stipend and a share of the revenue?  And if a camp is held during WIAA contact days...are they even ALLOWED to be profit from it?  Just askin'?

• We have it on good authority that one camp had revenues of about $17,000.  Wouldn't you like to see the expense accounting for that one?  Where did all the money go?  A pair of short or a t-shirt that one gets for signing up cost a pittance to provide.

• Several coaches have rejected the notion of being charged a fee .  They claim that they made an "in kind" donation.  They claim they had the kids "pull some weeds".  REALLY?  WTF is the definition of an "in kind" donation, anyway?

• And when rentals ARE billed (of course we don't know if the district is actually collecting payments)  the fees charged don't match the fee schedule attached to policy KG.  WTF!  Are we the only ones that read these policies?

• The proposed changes to policy KG provide a clause that the "renter" has one year to pay or make a donation in kind.  REALLY?  Do you get  year to make your rent or mortgage payment?  Who the hell has the wherewithall to track invoicing for which payments may not come in for a year? 

• Didn't Jimmy Mac expound on the wonderful system he purchased to track field/facility rentals?  Oh yeah...I guess the old garbage in= garbage out adage deserves a corollary:  No data in means no data out.  We hear from good sources that there were several "off public" calendars that Jimmy Mac and the coaches used.  Maybe that's where the Brewer's Baseball Academy rental was listed.

There's a whole lot more nonsense that we don't have the time to list here.
Are the monkeys running this zoo?

It's time for the school board to once again take charge since Dr Culver seems incapable of providing a speedy resolution.  Note to John Whalen...this would not fall under the label "micro-managing".  This is called managing, which the board is forced to do when the district appears incapable of doing so.

What's in order here is for the board to call a special working session and make change happen.  We cannot wait any longer.

Was There a Happy Ending With That?

And teachers say they aren't appreciated?
We find...thanks to a watchful resident...that for Teacher Appreciation day, the district provided 21 hours of massages.  We're not sure whether there were any happy endings.

Really?
Oh...it gets better!

For a cost of $1239, we added a $240 tip!  For "services" rendered?
Oh...and not to worry...it wasn't your tax dollars at work.  The funding came from the "Pepsi money".
WHAT Pepsi money?

Oh...and seeing as this all happened during a school day....how were teachers "available" for a massage?  Please don't tell us we paid for substitutes!  And isn't this the time that these "professional educators" are supposed to be working on lesson prep and grading papers?

There has been a lot of poor data coming out of the district, but now we see that the icing on that cake is poor decisions.  And high school Principal Lisa Heipp and Deputy DA Phil Frei signed off on the approval.
REALLY?  What on earth led anyone to believe that this was OK?  Is this yet another instance where Tim Culver was outside the loop?  Did the school board know?

Where dd all this occur?  Some back alley in dimly lit rooms?

We have a lot of questions....and we'll be making some records requests.  Stay tuned.

Do we need district training in how not t make poor decisions?  Don't we nag kids about the importance of making good decisions.

It just continues to be one step forward and several leaps backward.

Was the "Manly Man's" package an option?

Now We're Cookin' With Peanut Oil!

With mortgages well below 4%, it seems a travesty to be paying off a big ticket loan at more than 5% interest rate.  With new School Board Treasurer Mike Krachey leading the charge, however, the way has been paved to knock that loan principal down significantly, reducing interest payments.   Huh!   Why wasn't such a move proposed by past Treasurers?

Currently, The State trust fund loan has four more years of payments and the total principal due is $615,567.79. 

The district pays 5.25% interest on the loan.

A motion to spend $300,000 of a possible (READ: very likely)  budget surplus to reduce the Sun Prairie Area School District’s State Trust Fund loan was approved by the Sun Prairie School Board on Tuesday, May 28.  This cuts the principal down almost in half and saves at least $40K in interest payments.

Not so fast, says Dr. Culver!

District Administrator Tim Culver pointed out that because the district is estimating anywhere from $0-$448,000 for a surplus, there is the possibility the district could come out in the red after a $300,000 payment.

“We need to be prepared to explain this was a conscious choice to take this particular risk,”
--District AdministratorTim Culver.

Explain what, Tim?  Instead of spending the $300K very likely surplus on other things (which always happens!), this year the money is earmarked to pay own debt and save money.  Newsflash, Dr. C:  While your salary puts you in a very comfortable position to be virtually debt free, the rest of the world has spent the better part of the last 4-5 years paying down debt.  This makes perfect sense to us.

Now you might encourage some folks to come to the annual meeting to boo and hiss that the money should instead be spent on more staff, higher pay or more toys.  We don't think so.

Put a Fork in Her, Captain...She's Done

Ashley Field is once again on the agenda for tomorrow night's Planning Committee meeting.With a new projected. cost of $5.1 to $5.7 M (give or take 5%), all we expect to hear is the death rattle.

...Ashley Field proposal

All told, there was a lot of talk being talked, but no Benjamins made the walk for this folly.  For all the interest in football in Sun Prairie, no donations could be mustered to even form the nucleus of a real plan.  Meanwhile, the pedal is firmly to the metal on the new $7M 2-sheet ice arena.

How is it that donations or financial commitments could be generated for the ice arena and Summit Field turf, but football came up with diddly squat?   Don't hang Dave Stackhouse for this one.  He's got enough to atone for.  Was it the 11th hour "need" for a new baseball field to replace the field at Ashley the final nail?   Was fundraising held hostage by the baseball folks?  We hear rumblings to that effect, but logic would dictate that this is the football community's show to blow.

It seems the epitaph has been written...

Due to the significant increase in the proposed budget for improvements to Ashley Field, the competing need for funding other facility security and maintenance issues, and the apparent limited public support of the initiative, it is recommend that nothing be done at this time with Ashley Field; that the fields continue to be used as are. 

We have far more pressing issue on the...cough, cough....ACADEMIC and SAFETY fronts to wate any more time on a grandiose Ashley Field.

Jimmy Mac Goes Elvis

From the "This Was So Expected It Doesn't Even Qualify as News" Department:

Perhaps channeling some inner Elvis, Jim "Jimmy Mac" McClowry has metaphorically speaking left the building, having resigned as district Athletics and Activities Director.  We received multiple texts and e-mails alerting us to the announcement which quietly appeared in an addendum to the personnel table included in the May 28 School Board package.

We understand that he has accepted a similar position in Kaukauna, a smaller Division 1 school district. Sometime change is necessary to move forward.  Certainly the hockey fee fiasco, and the quality of data presented were an albatross which dogged him, but we understand from numerous reports that Mr. McClowry had more than one albatross hovering over him.  This, then, was probably the best move for Jim.

Personally, we wish Mr. McClowry the best in his new position.  Honestly, we do. Sure, we jab and we poke, but we do so only to effect change.  Change that district folks just don't seem wiling or capable of enacting on their own.  We tried to effect change the easy way...by asking politely.   Then we asked more pointedly.. Neither gets you anywhere.  We sincerely hope that the events that transpired over the last 6-12 months will be valuable to Mr. McClowry in shoring up things in his life.  Life is a series of challenges from which we all learn and use to better navigate life's highways and byways.

This will also provide the District with an opportunity to regroup regarding the Athletic and Activities Director position and determine what we truly need and expect there.

We'd be remiss if we didn't point out that it is a little disconcerting that Mr. McClowry put forth the budget initiative to hire an assistant Director given that he was clearly thinking of moving on.  AD positions don't open all that frequently in the state, and so we suspect that this was a move that had been in the works for some time.

Last but not least, as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. Last year Mr. McClowry made sure that the School Board was aware that he represented the Big 8 Conference AD with the most tenure.  That crown now passes on for  someone else to wear.

Nope. Nothing New Here

Another year...another drought of National Merit Scholarship winners.

Yeah...we get it...but for all the back patting that goes on, it sure seems like we do better in sports than we do in academics.  Not saying that sport championships aren't a good thing.  But couldn't we---SHOULDN'T we---be recognized for both?

Wouldn't it be nice to have Tim Culver publicly declare that our GOAL is to develop our students academically such that each year we have at least 2-3 scholarship winners?  And then make it so.

On April 24, 2013

April 24--A Lodi High School senior has been named one of 18 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholars in Wisconsin.

On May 8, 2013

Fifty-one students graduating from Wisconsin high schools were among the 2,500 National Merit Scholarship winners announced Wednesday.
Out of the 51 Wisconsin winners, 18 are from counties in the State Journal’s circulation area and 14 are from schools in Dane County.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/local_schools/national-merit-scholarship-winners/article_738057f5-8916-57c3-866e-8bcc5ccc1d70.html#ixzz2UzeTWuuR

At least Middleton wasn't named, but Madison had 12.

On May 31, 2013

Seventy graduating high school seniors in Wisconsin have been selected as National Merit Scholarship winners in the college-sponsored scholarship category.
Of the 70, 19 are from south-central Wisconsin, including 17 from Dane County.
The winners were announced Wednesday. This is the third of four rounds of National Merit Scholarship winners to be announced.
More college-sponsored award winners will be made public on July 15.
The college-sponsored awards give between $500 and $2,000 per year for up to four years of undergraduate study at the college financing the scholarship.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/local_schools/more-national-merit-scholarship-winners-announced/article_07b4ee68-ca8a-52c6-8fba-f05d94c37897.html#ixzz2UzfaiTce

Middleton had 4 in this round; Madison another 10


Maybe in July we'll get one?

To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist was asked to complete a detailed
scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about
extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an
outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn
sat scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, some
15,000 met Finalist requirements.