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.