STAR's "Fool's Gold" is a Fool' Errand

Guess subscriptions must be down again for the Sun Prairie STAR, because recently the STAR's managing editor. wrote an OpEd piece casting aspersions on the Sun Prairie School Board's actions...and more directly at President Tom Weber.

Chalk one more up on the list of whiners in the "Bryan Davis for Superintendent" fiasco.  Or is it that outgoing SuperNintendo Tim Culver is trying to sow as many seeds of malcontent as he can during his final weeks (can't we just put him on paid administrative leave and avoid this nonsense?).  We wonder what the good doctor's correspondence records would show.

The coconut (emphasis on "nut") telegraph tells us that our local editor-in-cheek has either filed or is planning to file a massive open records request.  When you cast a net that large, be careful what you are fishing for!  You might find that some of your buddies are far more worthy of an investigative journalism article than the school board or its President. 

Our money is on Mr. Weber and the board landing squarely on their feet.  They did what the community wanted...went through a process.  The process ended poorly.  Then they went out and found a perfect fit for our district.  Instead of crying foul, why don't you thank them?  What?  You wanted ANOTHER lengthy, time consuming process that would drag into summer when most residents are gone?   Your thought process is misfiring!  They found a perfect fit, and the board was unanimous.  Note as well that when it came to RE-considering Bryan Davis, only John Whalen was a fan (and you understand that his vote has no value...right?).  They averted a potential train wreck and turned it into a huge success story. 

In fact, even new board member Marilyn Ruffin voted against considering Mr. Davis.   You don't think THAT caused some interesting dinner conversation in the Ruffin household after Jerry Ruffin pleaded with the board, on behalf of Sun Prairie African American Parent Network (AAPN), to hire Mr. Davis? (Hi, honey,I'm home...and hey...I didn't vote to hire Davis.  Sorry!).

And we hope, Mr. Managing Editor, that if you do get those Open Records, that you'll spend as much time exposing the multitude of district staff who we are willing to bet will be discovered to have spent much staff time involved in some grass roots lobbying for Bryan Davis...all on the taxpayers' dime.  If anyone should be worried, it's those folks.

9 1/2 Hours - When They Get Behind Closed Doors

9 1/2 Hours: The true story behind the Superintendent hire

It begins on March 24th.    This is immediately following current Columbus Superintendent Bryan Davis' candidate forum.  Internal candidate Erik Olson's forum was held the previous evening.

Two and one-half hours of discussion ensued, followed by a very specific motion by Steve Schoeder/John Whalen:  extend offers (note the plural)  to: 

--- Bryan Davis the Superintendent position and 

--- Erik Olson a Deputy Superintendent position (for strategic planning and organizational alignment) and 

to direct President Tom Weber to discuss with the candidates.

The vote was unanimous.

Then two weeks passed with no notification.  Of course, in there was spring break for Sun Prairie, as well as the Spring Elections when 3 shool board seats were up with 4 candidates including one incumbent.

On April 7th, the board met again for 2 hours and 22 minutes.  

Two critical motions were made:

The first was to offer the superintendent position to Bryan Davis.  That motion failed having only support from John Whalen.

The second motion was to offer the superintendent position to Erik Olson.   

That motion passed 6-1, with John Whalen in opposition (God love John Whalen for his fierce loyalty to the Culver regime!  It's cute; really it is).

The question is...what happened between the decision to make a tandem offer (David/ Superintendent, Olson/Deputy Superintendent and this decision?  And what about Bryan Davis declaring for all the many (???) STAR readers that no offer was ever made to him. If one digs a little, one will learn that in the world of Public Instruction, what the rest of us would call "negotiations towards making a formal contract offer" is viewed a "an offer".

We have no need to trash Dr. Davis' reputation or bona fides, but clearly the room turned dramatically against him (except for Johnny Whalen!).  Did he demand an outrageous salary?  Or were other demands simply not to the board's liking?  Or did something else come out during the background check (which--newsflash-- is a prerequisite before a contract is offered)? Perhaps we never need to know, but the vote on April 7 made it clear that Davis was no longer a viable option.

April 15th....an offer is rejected.

We now now that on April 15th an offer was extended to internal candidate, who subsequently declined for personal reasons.  We don't blame him.  The behavior of district "professionals" in this who process would turn most away. If it were up to us, the district office would be raining pink slips in the not too distant future.

Two weeks later....the drama further unfolds

We now have a new school board...3 new members in fact.  At the school board meeting on Monday May 27, more district staff come out to speak the praises of Bryan Davis and for the board to hire him.  There are rumors (which, if true, can be confirmed via Open Records) that Dr. Davis was heavily lobbying for himself with key district staffers (more on that to come!).  Several community leaders also spoke, including Jerry Ruffin, whose wife Marilyn is a newly elected board member.

The April 27 closed session brought two more very key motions during a 95 minute session.

The critical motion, passing unanimously, was--interestingly enough-- what is termed a "motion n the negative.  Normally motions are made in the positive...i.e., worded in favor of something.  This motion made it clear for those that hadn't figured it out yet, that the board would NOT consider any of the candidates from the failed search.  Instead, they would go in a different direction.

The second motion direct board president Weber to bring in Dr. Bradford Saron in for an interview.  So clearly, that name materialized on the board's rada, and in a relatively short meeting, they abandoned all candidates from the initial search and went after Dr. Saron.

April 28th...success!

Just a hair over 3 hours spent interviewing Dr. Saron, the board unanimously directed president Weber to negotiate a contract with Dr Saron.

--------------------------------------------

So there you have it, peeps.  These are the facts.   There was no formal contract ever offered to Dr. Bryan Davis.  In fact, the board was clearly opposed to offering one to him.  So disinclined were they that they actually made a motion in the negative to make crystal clear that the search had ended and none of the 18 applicants would be considered any further. 

We wish Dr. Davis luck in his quest to be somewhere other than Columbus.

Desperation Sun Prairie: What Part of 'Failed Search' Don't You Get?

So....
The superintendent/ school district administrator position was offered to one of the finalists, who was not Dr. David from Columbus.
The offer was declined.  And we totally get that.
So why are we hearing MORE rumors (confidence is high; we repeat, confidence is high) that Dr. Davis has been reaching out via e-mail to both school board members, district staff, and even community residents?

Newsflash:  All this is easily discoverable via an open records request.  The difference between rumpr and fact is what you can prove.  We may just do that to offer proof, to show you rumor-mongers what an actual fact looks like.

So, it appears that SOMEONE is at DesperationCon 1.

We have so very many questions about what transpired during lat March/early April...and so should you.

Question #1: if an offer was made to Dr. Davis, as has been rumored, why was he not hired and instead an offer made to "the other guy"?

Question #2: Once the other guy turned it down, why didn't the board go back to Dr. Davis?

Deductive reasoning would tell us that there was something....or some things...that soured the board on the Columbus Superintendent.  

• Did he demand some unfathomable salary....you know like the $175-200K club?
• Was he requesting "absolute power" like Elliot in E.T. the Extraterrestrial?
• Or was there some other as yet unrevealed  BSC requirement/condition that piqued the board?
• Or after not 1, not 2, but at least 3 failed attempts at getting another job, is Columbus eager to help him on his way?  (How happy would your boss be if you were in the public eye applying for many positions?)

Question #3:  Why is this guy peppering the board, district staff, and ostensibly key community members with his resume and continued interest?  Doesn't that sound a bit like, "nobody wants me; think I'll go eat worms?"

Is Dr. Davis doing the Desperation Samba?

Don't know where i'm goin'I don't like where i've beenThere may be no exitBut hell i'm going in
---Jimmy Buffett, "Desperation Samba"

The bottom line here is this thing smells funny and noone should be eating it.  Someone needs to get through to Dr. Davis and respectfully suggest that he be more like Elsa and just "Let it Go".

SPASD: Of Bullyism, Rumormongering, and Juvenile Threats

The SP-EYE signal was spotted and acknowledged.

We warned you.
SP-EYE went into semi-retirement because things were in good hands.
The district was moving forward after years of being stuck in neutral under the inattentive "command" of SuperNintendo Culver.
And then, after Culver did the TubeSteak Boogie, a process was enacted to replace him.

And now a bunch of rumor-mongering bullies of the adult kind has to go and stomp their feet and whine.

Just our cup o' tea!  W love to deal with backstabbing MFs who respond only to rumors!

Yep...we heard the bitching.  We heard the brazen group that chose to speak at the school board meeting of April 13, 2015.
You know what we heard?  A bunch of passive aggressive bullies.
Employees of the district and those more cowardly ones, that could somehow coerce someone else to speak up, talked about the "internal candidate" finalist for school district administrator position.
Really?...did you people listen to yourselves?
Yours was a brazen act of bullyism that, had it been directed to your children, you would be hellbent for leather.
Were you so clever to plan that if you were vocal enough you might get the "internal candidate" to withdraw from contention?
In any case, somehow (no facts are available people) the process ended in a failed search, So now the NEW school board, with 3 new members will be starting at square one.   July 1 comes fast folks, too fast to complete a new search.  So how is THAT good for "the children"?

Oh, but we could go on for hours; instead lets focus on some of the more interesting ruors that have been propped up to be fact:

RUMOR:  The process was complete before it started.  The board had their person all along.
Really?  You think those people went through the exhausting process they did if that were the case?
You haven't been taking your meds, have you?
Let's remember that the board consists of 7 members.  If there were 4 votes to do such a thing, don't you thing they just would have gone ahead and skipped the search and done that?  Not even a board from, say, 9 years ago would have done that.
So, your theory is they went through all the time, wasted all the search and review committees' time, only to keep pushing their candidate to the top.   Seriously, you should write for Hollywood, that story is better than the plot of most films in the last 6 months.

RUMOR:  The internal candidate is not licensed.
Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't.  But what IS true is that a school board can request an emergency license for someone close to finishing their requirements for up to a year...and it can be extended!
And what do you suppose would have happened over the past school year if Dr. Culver had been hit by a bus?  The "Assistant" superintendent would have stepped in...right?  And that would have been fine.
You may want to check some facts---there's a novel thought!---and see if (A) this is even true, and (B) if it is, is it just a single class that's needed?
We find it very hard to believe that the application would have even been considered if having the necessary licensure was an issue.

Statement:  How can you hire someone that has no superintendent experience?.
Newsflash people, the good Dr. Culver had never been a "superintendent" before we hired him here.
His prior position was ASSISTANT Superintendent/Direct of Instruction.... the position held by Alice Murphy for years, and now by Stephanie Leonard-Witte
 Geee... who was on that school board that hired Dr. Culver???  Shame on them!

How exactly does one get to be a superintendent without ever having been one?  It's a finite pool, people!  If it's never refreshed, then eventually it dries up.  Have none of you hired someone fresh out of school or who has the qualifications but not the absolute experience? Someone that fit like a glove otherwise?  Really?  If that's the case, this community is, indeed, doomed.

Oh...and her's another newsflash.  The "other" external candidate comes from a district about 20% of the size of Sun Prairie.  Yep... that whole district of students could fit comfortably in the high school here.   How qualified does that make HIM to run Sun Prairie? And given his field of study and aspirations (just look where he applied), do you really think he'd stay in Sun Prairie long enough to even be able to define "making a difference" let alone actually make one?  There were quite a few support staff, teachers, and a majority of community members that saw SPASD as nothing but a very temporary lily pad for that frog.  Oh that's right...they don't count.

False statements/conclusions about the candidate pool.
It seems some people are spouting non-truths that the pool consisted only on in-state candidates, and it was unacceptably small.
First, the statement that there were no out-of-state candidates is flat out wrong.
Second, if you find 18 applicant "embarrassing" then perhaps you should catch up on news instead of gossiping with disgruntled school district staff.  Perhaps you would have heard about our Governor, Act 10, and his proposed school cuts in the 2015-2017 budget!
Think that MIGHT have something to do with it.
Also, you whiny-ass types tend to speak without any real information,  We actually received MORE applicants than other districts.

Flat out myth regarding the screening process
Some are accusing the board (and then passing it on as factual) that the board ignored the input of the selection committee?!!!
Really?  We're not hearing anybody who actually served on that committee saying such things.
And where we these concerns when May Ellen Havel-Lang and Caren Diedrich just tossed aside the work of the last Boundary Change committee?  Huh?
You want to know what's egregious?  It's that you frickin' people pushing this flat out fiction are completely disrespecting the many people who took part in this process.

"Word on the street" is so very sadly out of touch with reality.

RUMOR: support staff, professional teaching staff, most district staff, and a majority of the community believe that Mr.Davis was the ONLY qualified candidate.
Wow!  Sounds like you held your own mini-referendum.  Got any data to support that?  
We thought as much.
Sure, we've heard some grumbling.  But the grumbling we've been hearing is coming from a very small subset of DO workers that are scared to death that "Culver time" is over and they will be held accountable to earn those fat salaries that have been bestowed upon them.  Oh...and these folks know who they are.  
During "Culver time", if people didn't like the job they were responsible for, they were allowed to do whatever they preferred to do.   Things didn't get done.  We had the Athletics Direct/athletic fees fiasco.  SOSP has ruled the roost.  Our buildings & grounds group was a shambles.  Gee...who hired the guy that has re-built that group for success.  Oh yeah...that's right...our "internal candidate".We've had piss poor data presented to the public.  There are o MANY other examples, wbut we drink to forget those.

So we're in he minority for wanting to see that chapter closed?  
Yep, we can live with that.  There's a lot of dead wood that needs to green up or face the chopping block in our eyes.

RUMOR: Mr.Davis was told by the board president that " he was our man" but he needed to find a spot on his staff for Mr.Olson.
Oh puh...LEEZ!  That sounds like one of two things: a disgruntled finalist who's pitching a hissy fit because he didn't get the job, or something one would seed to shake the confidence of Mr. Olsen.
We call that bullyism, people.  Its wrong, and it's way more shameful than anything this school board has done.
And if Mr. Davis shared those concerns with someone from the public, then we can tell you that he is DEFINITELY not a guy we want to hire.  We might want someone that can keep things in confidence...just sayin'.
And if someone on the board shared this from what would have had to have been a closed session, that board member (are you listening Caren Diedrich?) should face censure.

It even goes so far that some people are saying that the board was going to create a new position for Erik Olson.  Newsflash, people, he already IS the number two person in the district (and we don't recall any alarm about that).  Does anyone really think there's a position between #1 and #2?  #1A?   #1.5?


FACT:  People are expressing concerns to the school board based on second (and third or fourth hand) information.
Good grief, people!!!!   You need more schooling than our kids.  Its called the telephone game. You know...if you want to get a message out, there are 3 ways to do it:  TELephone, TELL the Communications Manager, and TELL Caren Diedrich.

No matter who you tell, the message blurs along the way.

THREAT of a recall election (if Mr. Olson is hired)
The general public is already clueless about what it takes to be a school board member, but you really failed civics if you think this is more than an empty, childish threat.

Newsflash, geniuses.  State statute requires a petition containing signatures equal to 25% of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election for EACH recalled candidate.  And you need to do it in 60 days.  That number would be roughly 6650 signatures.  And THAT is just to hold an election!  
Oh, you people make us laugh!


Brash Statement: The only qualification the internal candidate is that he's a drinking buddy of the board president.
Now you are making serious accusations of both an elected official and a top school official.   You better have some facts to back that up or a damn good lawyer.
This is so juvenile, uncalled for, inappropriate, we're not even going to waste words on it.

We can say one thing though.  If a school board leader has a strong enough working relationship with a district administrator that they might have a drink together to unwind after a meeting, can you find any room for the possibility of seeing that as a good thing?  There are lot of contentious issues we are facing, and it just might be a good thing for the board to have a solid relationship with the superintendent.

But to dare suggest that going out for a drink or two is the only qualification of the "internal candidate" is unintelligent, ill-informed, and just plain asinine.
OK...we spared a few syllables..

Shame on all you fucking people who are engaging in a massive --- in what doesn't even qualify as thinly veiled---- attack on Mr. Olson and his family.  He's done nothing but work his butt off and effected positive change for the past 2 years.  

You know what?  Good luck to you all.   You sow shit and you will reap nothing but shit.  oh yeah....and notice to school board members.....

Someone is talking outside the close sessions (Caren Diedrich)!

You might wanna get the pruning shears and nip that bud.