Spring Elections a SPARCle Fest

American Idol alumna Jordin SPARCs would be excited.
Joni Mitchell would rename her album (that's what it was back then) Court and SPARC.
If Traffic got the band back together, they might sing about the Low SPARC of High-Heeled Boys.
Thousand Foot Krutch might even re-release their recent hit as "Let the SPARCs fly!"

That's right, folks, as if you didn't have enough clues, we got us a bunch a bona fide SPARClers running for city elections.

For school Board, we have former Spanish Teacher Carol [your kids probably know her better as Gobeli ] Albright.  She's vying against incumbent and current school board president Tom Weber, andJessica Moehr, who has served on the School Board's Planning Committee for 2 seats..

And for City Council, we have none other than the ALSPARC himself, Al Guyant, vying against incumbent Kent Orfan to complete the final year of Dave Carlson's District 4 seat.

We find it interesting that SPARC is running a School District Candidate's Forum on March 16th.  You don't suppose they'll feed their candidate, Carol Gobeli Albright, do you?

Isn't that just a tad too cozy?  A grassroots political action group holding a candidates forum which includes one of its own members that is being propped up?

Things that make you go, "hmmmm"

With the spring election just around the corner, the Sun Prairie Action Resource Coalition (SPARC) is hosting a public forum to help you get to know the candidates and where they stand on the issues that matter most to our students and our schools.

All three candidates are confirmed to attend the event, which will be held in the Community Room of the Sun Prairie Public Library (1350 Linnerud Drive) from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Sunday, March 16, 2014.
We are fortunate to have three individuals stepping up to serve our community this year:

• Carol Albright (retired SPASD educator)
• Jessica Moehr (currently a Citizen Representative to the school board’s Performance and Operations Committee)
• Tom Weber (incumbent; current board president)

We think Thousand Foot Krutch has it best...
indeed, let's let the SPARCs fly, baby!

Tax levy approved; 1.4% DECREASE from 2011-12

The annual Electors Meeting...my how it SPARCled.  For awhile there, it appeared that we'd been teleported to Forks, WA.  Would Edward be in attendance?

Like good little liberals, the SPARClers appeared in a moderate show of force to try to erase the reduction in tax levy.  Their play was for a 0% increase, which would have added nearly $1M to the proposed tax levy.

Of course, somehow the message filtered through to the collective and it must have suddenly dawned on them that the electors cannot override a school board proposed tax levy which is adequate to operate and maintain schools.  So their next ploy was to put the extra tax dollars away to pay down the $1.5M debt levy increase scheduled to come next year.  Once again, however, the rest of the electors had clearer heads and soundly defeated the SPARClers.  The levy proposed by the school district,$46,437,308, was approved by a vote of 130-49.

Hail Mary bid for levying an extra $900K
Have we no shame?  Comparing high school graduation rates to airplane crash percentages and foodborne illness, Al Guyant, a prominent Member of the SPARC group (and who has been dubbed the Al SPARC) offered the following, after asking Dr. Culver what the graduation rate is (Culver responded; 98%):

“When I go to the store to buy food, I want 100 percent of that food to be good and not get sick. When I get my brakes fixed, I want those brakes to work 100 percent, not 98 percent. The planes that fly my grandchildren here, I want them to be 100 percent successful, not 98 percent successful. Why is it that we want 100 percent in many things in our society, but we tolerate 98 percent? Our country is under economic attack, we need as many smart people to go work for Epic and other places so that they can hire, they can pay more taxes...the goal should be 99.99 success and someone should come up with what is the cost of doing that.”

--- Al Guyant (as reported by the STAR)