Hrodey Grievance Hearing Tomorrow

Agenda for

Thursday, June 10, 2010

SPECIAL SCHOOL BOARD MEETING (Closed)(Revised)

6:30 p.m. at the District Office (Room 220),

501 S. Bird St., Sun Prairie.

President: John Whalen

1. Opening Items
..... 1.01 Call to Order, Roll Call, Affirmation of Public Notice

2. Closed Session
.....2.01 Go into closed session for the purpose of 1) conducting expulsion hearing(s) and/or deliberating in regard to the matter; and 2) conferring with legal counsel regarding a Level III SPEA grievance, followed by hearing and deciding said grievance [Wis. Stats. 120.13(1)(c), 19.82(1) and 19.85(1)(a), (c), (e), (f), and (g)].
3. Discussion/Business Item
.....3.01 Conduct expulsion hearing(s)
.....3.02 Deliberation and action on expulsion(s)
.....3.03 Conduct Grievance Hearing
.....3.04 Deliberation and action on grievance
4. Reconvene in open session
.....4.01 Action from closed session, if appropriate
5. Adjournment
..... 5.01 Adjourn the meeting
.................................................................

Note the difference from the earlier public notice issued 6-3-10:

L E G A L N O T I C E

Agenda for

Thursday, June 10, 2010

SPECIAL SCHOOL BOARD MEETING (Closed), 6:30 p.m. at the District Office (Room 220), 501 S. Bird St., Sun Prairie. President: John Whalen

1. Opening Items

1.01 Call to Order, Roll Call, Affirmation of Public Notice

2. Closed Session

2.01 Go into closed session for the purpose of conducting expulsion hearing(s) and/or deliberating in regard to the matter [Wis. Stats. 120.13(1)(c) and 19.85(1)(a), (f), and (g)].

3. Discussion/Business Item

3.01 Conduct expulsion hearing(s)

3.02 Deliberation and action on expulsion(s)

4. Adjournment

4.01 Adjourn the meeting

..........................................................

Notice anything different? Why the two notices? Colonel?

Gee...it wouldn't have ANYTHING to do with the fact that FINALLY the board's feet are going to be held to the fire with respect to complying with Open Meetings Laws

BBallGate: Legal Papers Served

This week Sun Prairie High School head varsity girls basketball coach Liz Hrodey’s personal attorney served a Notice of Circumstance to Sun Prairie Area School District. Specific individuals served were: District Administrator Tim Culver, SPHS Principal Lisa Heipp, Director of Human Resources Annette Mikula, and Athletics Director Jim McClowry – and Sun Prairie School Board President John Whalen.

The “Notice of Circumstances Giving Rise to Claim for Damages” is a preliminary step in a potential lawsuit. The next step would be a formal Notice of Claim, on which the school board would act. If a formal Notice of Claim is denied a lawsuit can be filed within six months following receipt of such disallowance of a formal claim.

The Notice of Circumstance alleges that Hrodey was not provided with a safe working environment and that the district failed to protect her from an ongoing pattern of harassment and interference with her coaching by parents and players.

The notice also alleges that the investigation following the receipt of complaints from parents and players appeared to be biased.
---excerpted from the Sun Prairie STAR report

Hrodey Press Release (Sun Prairie STAR website)

Formal Notice Of Circumstances Giving Rise to Claim for Damages

This is not an official Notice of Claim...but it is definitely a Notice to Get the District Checkbook Ready.
Hmm...wondering how any settlement will impact the 2010-11 budget and mill rate. Might want to call ask your school board member.

BBallGate: Legal Fees Mounting!

The first of what would be expected to be several months of legal fees associated with the administration's decision to remove girls' varsity basketball coach Liz Hrodey in mid-season are in.

Just shy of $6,000 in legal fees (so far).
(Looks like we just cancelled out the expected revenue from personal appliance fees)
That's a bit over 24 hours of attorney time at $240/hour.
That's a lawyer working three solid days. Begs the question: is that an oxymoron?

And that doesn't even TOUCH the amount of paid administration time spent cleaning up after this mess.

As one school board member put it last night, "We would have been better off just paying out the rest of her contract".
Yup...got that right.

Lawsuits filed?
We've heard from several sources that lawsuits were formally filed against the school district last week. Allegations are also surfacing that in addition to the district, Athletic Director Jim McClowry, High School Principal Lisa Heipp, and the parents of one varsity girls player were also served with papers and attached to the suit.

Anyone ever seen that grade Z Lifetime movie, "Fear"?
Can't you just hear Mark Wahlberg gritting his teeth and rasping,
"It didn't have to be this way, Mr. [Culver]" ?

BBall: Stage 5 Shenanigans Alert!

We declare shenanigans.

Thanks to a few of our school district employee friends, we obtained a copy of the internal posting of openings for coaches in the girls basketball program.

Hmmm....Varsity head coach position is "open"? Um....just a sec there Shrek....but in our last episode, were we not hearing that a grievance had been filed against the administration's action to "remove" Liz Hrodey? And wasn't there even a hearing before the school board scheduled--and then postponed?

Isn't it possible Ms. Hrodey could WIN the grievance and be re-instated?
So...isn't this just a tad too assuming?
We're just sayin'......

And what about the other coaches? This list seems to be the whole shebang. Including Jay Swanson's position. We don't recall his being involved in anyway.
And hasn't that guy been screwed enough already?

Again...we're just sayin'

The clip art is a nice touch, though. Very tasteful. And we kinda dig that it has clipart images of a tennis racket and a girl diving (not shown) even though all the positions listed are for basketball.

Isn't that what that feng shui happy crappy is all about?
Ok...you got us...we just like to say "feng shui". You should too. Let's start a movement. See if you can somehow work "feng shui" into your converstaions a couple of times a day. We're bringin' it back.

Turf on Ashley Field...how feng shui!

Behind Closed Doors: Appliance Fee-ass-co Update

You'll recall that in our last episode, the school board stood firm and voted to retain the appliance fees as previously established.

Weeeelllllllll...it seems that there've been some changes. You didn't hear about them either, did ya? Nope...no discussion from the board table...YET we find that some changes have indeed been made.

SP-EYE sidenote: dontcha just HATE it when the board and the district make a big public fuss of something --usually moving to quickly cover what for many are quite ample derrieres, we might add. They staunchly defend the position du jour and THEN the shenanigans begin. Quietly, behind the comfort of closed doors, they DO take action. You see, while they like to put on a good game face in public, in reality, they don't particularly like to have their drawers a-droopin. Why? cuz inevitably they get made out to look like big sillies. And we can't have that...what with decorum and all.

You remember them buying like $300 of KitKats per year from employees' birthdays? Publicly supported. Privately: that policy has been given the boot. Those silly, inconsistent class supply lists? Gonzo. Pizza? Not being ordered.

Our only question is this: why do they make such an effort to make the citizens complaining about the silliness look silly, when it is the admin that ends up with egg on their faces? That's neither decorum, nor logical, people!

Ok...commercial over...back to the appliance fee-ass-co. But...you guessed it, they did all this stuff outside the public eye. They must enjoy eating crow in private. Of course they wouldn;t have to eat crow if they'd simply learn to say, "You know what? You're right...it's dumb and we're not gonna do it". That Pavlov guy never got the dogs to do that.

Many thanks to the individual who provided this update on the silly appliance fee-assco:

[Administration] have now determined that microwaves and coffee pots are okay...and refrigerators are only going to be $15 [not $30]. Great news, but proves the point that nobody did any kind of research on the true cost of running these appliances...they just grabbed numbers from who knows where. And I would be surprised if they have yet calculated the cost of truly running these appliances. So to get your microwave money refunded, here are all of the hoops you must jump through...(taken from an e-mail sent to all employees):

The following is the text of an e-mail sent out to all staff:

I jusfound out yesterday that we are refunding teachers who paid a microwave appliance fee for this year. This is the procedure that needs to be followed:

1) Teacher will contact School Secretary and ask for a refund

2) School Secretary will make a copy of the personal appliance fee form and give it to the teacher

3) School Secretary will direct the teacher to fill out an expense reimbursement form and attach the copy of the personal appliance fee form to it

4) Completed forms will be sent to Rhonda Page for an account code and payment
**In order to get a refund by April 26th all forms must be turned into Rhonda by Friday April 16th.

So what I would love to see is the actual calculations for the amount of manhours spent on originally collecting the fees, issuing stickers, the cost of the stickers and printing, and now the cost of all of this paperwork...both printing and paper costs, but also manhours spent filing and cutting checks. Not to mention the hours accumulated by all of the teachers having to take time to complete yet MORE paperwork to justify the over abundance of admin and secretaries in the district.

According to ( this website ) ONE compact dorm fridge should cost about $36 to run in a year. Assuming it is used 9.5 months of the year..that would be a pro-rated cost of $28.50. So the fact that the district is charging $15 to break even on energy cost means they did no calculations and this is nothing more than punishment and politics. If energy costs were truly a concern, they would:
a. charge for ALL appliances and not just refrigerators
b. they would have done their homework and calculated the true cost
c. they would also charge employees who work in the office for their extra energy. The offices are ALWAYs warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Ever wonder why?

SP-EYE: What an awesome insider look at more of the silliness. Thanks again for sharing.

Suggested motto for administration:

Learning by Doing: We just make it up as we go along.

Girls Basketball: GAME ON!!!!

************************ PRESS RELEASE *****************************
Date: 3/23/2010

Subject: Sun Prairie Girl's Basketball

The Sun Prairie Education Association will be filing a grievance regarding the non-renewal of basketball coach Liz Hrodey in the very near future. The grievance will look into the proper application of the collective bargaining agreement. We believe some of the provisions of this agreement may not have been followed in this situation. This is an unfortunate situation for everyone involved but it is important that proper evaluation procedures are followed to insure situations like this do not occur in the future.

No further comments will be made public until the grievance procedure has been completed.

Respectfully Yours,

Brad Lutes
S.P.E.A. President

Can We Talk About Those Student Activity Forms?

Ok...so we've all heard the rumors. This whole basketball is already being tried in the court of Facebook, internet chatrooms, and even the Discussion/Commentary pages of the electronic versions of statewide newspapers. As of yesterday, the comments regarding removal of Sun Prairie Coaches (40) outnumbered the big spread regarding the elegance of the new Sun Prairie high school fieldhouse (25). In fact, the coaches issue was the second most read and second most commented on article. That is a fact, Jack. The coaches story received more comments than the article regarding the events that led to the St. Mary's hospital error (37)....and only came in second to Congressman Paul Ryan's "numbers" issue.

While we wait for all the inevitable legal wrangling to final put this sordid affair to rest, what we CAN do is take a look at some of the systems that were supposedly put into place to address some of the nastiness that transpired. One very interesting factoid that no one is talking about publicly is that all student athletes AND their parents are required to read and sign that they will live by the Sun Prairie Student Athlete Code of Conduct. Whooops! It seems some players and parents may have forgotten about those silly forms they sign. We're thinking that the signed copies of these forms likely will come back to haunt some folks real soon.



The Code contains the following:

The privilege of participating in our athletic and activities programs is extended to all students who are willing to assume certain responsibilities. Parents are expected to attend one extra-curricular code meeting with their child along with reviewing all policies in this handbook.
Your greatest responsibility is to be a credit to your team/group, school, parents, and community. Therefore, it is required that you…

• Display high standards of social behavior.

• Follow the student code of conduct on a year-round basis (365 days per year).

• Display outstanding sportsmanship as a participant and fan.

• Display proper respect for those in authority, including teachers, coaches, and officials.

• Display a real spirit of cooperation and sportsmanship.

• Dress appropriately when attending a contest or activity away from home.

• Use language that is socially acceptable. Profanity will not be tolerated.

• Provide a reasonable level of dedication/commitment to your school, activity, sport, coaches, advisors, and teammates.



Chain of Communication

Perhaps what's most intriguing about the student athlete Code of Conduct is the chain of command that student athletes --and their parents-- agree to follow:


CHAIN OF COMMUNICATION WHEN YOU HAVE A CONCERN WITH A PROGRAM
Communication among or between students, parents, and coaches is encouraged and becoming ever more necessary. Coaches are encouraged to operate under an open door policy where they will candidly respond to questions and concerns from either the athlete or the parent. There are situations that may require a conference between the coach and the parent. It is important that both parties involved have a clear understanding of the other’s position. When a conference is necessary, the following procedure should be followed to help promote a resolution to the issue:

1. If the student or parent has a question or concern about the program, the question or concern should be brought directly to the coach/advisor.

2. Contact with the coach/advisor should be accomplished as much as possible during normal school hours via the tool established by the coach/advisor (i.e. email, phone call, office hours, etc.).


3. Coaches/advisors should schedule the meeting with the student and/or parents in a private setting. Communication, by all parties, will be carried out in a rational, calm, mature discussion with respect shown to all.

4. If the student, parent, and coach/advisor cannot mutually resolve the concern or questions are not answered, the subject should then be brought to the Activities Director. The Activities Office phone number is 834-6715.
------------------------------------------

Ssssh...be quiet for a moment. Do you hear that?
It sounds like a rather Rubenesque woman singing...doesn't it?

BBallGate II: The Coaches Plan

...and here is the Plan for Transparency drawn up by coaches Hrodey, Bartow and Young, and submitted in response to the girls' concerns. This one was rejected. Thanks again to the Sun Prairie STAR for obtaining this document.

Now you have both the girls' plan and the coaches plan...which was rejected. Decide for yourselves which was the better of the two.

Transparency Plan for Remainder of Season

The following was the response submitted by SPHS girls basketball coaches Liz Hrodey, Steve Bartow and Erin Young, and Sun Prairie Education Association union representative Brad Lutes, to the 11 Problems and Solutions submitted by 14 SPHS varsity players and a team manager.

Disclaimer: The coaching staff is responsible for all personnel decisions. No guarantees should be expected by anyone regarding the amount of time they will play in a game.

Student-athletes must come forward with concerns to the coaches immediately. A non-coaching adult designee will be made available upon request of the student if a parent/guardians can pre-schedule meetings with the coaches.

Do not approach a coach after a game or practice. Parents/guardians can pre-schedule meetings with the coaches.

Do not approach a coach after a game or practice. Immediately document and disclose any concerns to the Athletic Department.

Transparency Plan for Remainder of Season

1. Parents/Guardians will be welcomed and encouraged to attend all team practices.

2. Each practice will be taped and a DVD will be made available upon request by any parent/guardian.

3. All written practice plans will be made available upon request by parents/guardians.

4. Coaches will initiate no person-to-person contact with student-athletes at any time other than during practices or games unless coordinated via the Athletic Director or non-coaching designee.

5. Coaches will hold only a pre-game and half-time meeting in a locker room. Post-game meetings will be brief and take place on the court.

6. A non-coaching school designee will accompany the team on the bus for all remaining varsity away games.

7. A non-coaching school designee will be present for all remaining home and away pre-game and half-time locker room meetings connected to the game.

8. Text messages will no longer be initiated by the coaching staff. Coaches will use email to communicate with students and parents.

9. A non-coaching adult advocate will be made available for any student-athlete that requires a more private natured conversation with any member of the coaching staff.

10. All members of the varsity basketball team will practice together and be coached by Liz Hrodey and Steve Bartow and Erin Young.

11. Steve Bartow will be the lead coach for varsity reserve.

12. There will be no official team activities scheduled that conflict with varsity reserve games.

13. Any person-to-person contact from a parent to the coaching staff must include the presence of the student-athlete.

14. Any further self-evaluation or student survey will be conducted by the athletic department in strict confidence.

15. Only members of the varsity basketball team will practice with the team.

16. All practices will end on time.

BBallGate II: What The Girls Want(ed)

The following is represented in the March 18, 2010 edition of the Sun Prairie Star as the list of Problems and proposed Solutions as Prepared (and signed) by 14 members of the girls varsity basketball team. Thanks to the STAR for providing this...we had planned to request this document via Open Records.

+++++++++++++ PROBLEMS - SOLUTIONS

The following -- Problems and Solutions to Varsity Girls Basketball 2009-10 Season - was submitted to Sun Prairie Athletic and Activities Director Jim McClowry and signed by 14
SPHS players and a team manager.

1. Problem: We are scared of individual conferences.
Solution: We will be allowed to have conferences with representatives ex: parents or teammate.

2. Problem: 18 girls on one varsity team with 5 freshmen.
Solution: Freshmen get a say whether they play varsity or not.

3. Problem: Attacks, derogatory remarks, yelling won't be tolerated.
Solution: Document everything.

4. Problem: Players feel there is preferential treatment to certain players.
Solution: Not Ashley's (Bartow) fault! Or any other players, they are put into these bad situations.

5. Problem: Playing time confusion and unclear communication.
Solution: Explain and set standards to stick to.

6. Problem: Split practices. Half the girls on one side of court, half the girls on the other, starters and non-starters.
Solution: Come together as a team, one side = one team.

7. Problem: VR is not being coached as it should.
Solution: Assistant coach should coach with actual passion and varsity players should be able to attend to support the team.
They should be able to go to away games and ride the bus with their teammates as they do for us in a regular game.

8. Problem: Try-outs meant nothing, teams were pre-determined.
Solution: Coaches shouldn't be able to tell players their standing before try-outs or anything about the team.

9. Problem: Private evaluations were read by others not meant to.
Solution: Keep personal responses confidential.

10. Problem: Before game conferences with select members of team.
Solution: All-or-nothing, it's selective and we need to be a TEAM.

11. Problem: "Height is more important than hard work" and "height is everything"- coach Bartow.
Solution: This is NOT true. Skill and hard work should over rank an uncontrollable trait like height.

Surprise! Board Stands By Admin; Hrodey Issued Non-Renewal Notice

An unidentified source close to the basketball issue tells us that:

" Based on two years of performance concerns, the administration of the Sun Prairie Area School District determined it was time for a change in the leadership of the Varsity Girl's Basketball program. Therefore a recommendation to non-renew the coaching contract of Liz Hrodey was presented to the School Board. On March 15, 2010 the School Board approved this recommendation. Because there is potential for further contractual or legal processes in this matter, the school district's legal counsel has advised that no further information about this matter be released at this time. "

The feeling is that the issue is not nearly as cut and dry as it has been argued in the public domain. The board anticipates this action will be challenged with a grievance.

SP-EYE: The public domain has called this a lose-lose-lose situation. We disagree. There were some winners here. The 14 girls that signed a petition to remove Hrodey/Bartow and their meddling parents all won. They were the squeaky wheel and they got lubed.

Liz Hrodey lost big time. Her reputation is getting smeared. Not to mention personal suffering.

Ashley Bartow loses as well. Here is a classy, very talented girl that may never want to play again.

The public loses because not only did they pay for 2 additional coaches, but it's nearly certain that a grievance will be filed. We're betting the school district loses on the grievance and the taxpaying public will get hit with a sizable damages award or settlement.

Shocking Revelations in the Girls BBall Folly...

We now learn that...

"[the coaches ]... verbally attacked players by yelling at them and making derogatory remarks."

Wisconsin State Journal article on tonight's closed door meeting to discuss the girls basketball "situation".

Oh dear God! We hope the girls have been provided with intensive counseling!
It must have been awful.
Coaches actually YELLING at their players!
You know what we should do? Cancel all varsity sports and just have the kinder, gentler intramurals. Think of all the money we could save from the budget!

"Fourteen of 17 varsity players signed a petition alleging Hrodey and Bartow verbally attacked players by yelling at them and making derogatory remarks. The petition also alleged favoritism and said players were scared to meet alone with the coaches."
--Wisconsin State Journal

Oh...and there were allegations of
"discrimination due to height,"

Seriously. There are like 1,000 things that we could say to address this. Only which one to choose?
Not gonna do it. Nuh uh!
We think the allegation speaks for itself.

The action comes as Hrodey's lawyer and Bartow say the coaches have been cleared of specific harassment allegations filed against them by players through the district's formal complaint process.

In a March 5 letter Bartow shared with the State Journal, Annette Mikula, the district's human resources director, wrote she found "no evidence" of "harassment or discrimination against a protected class" by Bartow.

Please, school board. Try, try, TRY to get this one right.
Stop the madness.
Nah...it'll never happen.
Our school board lacks cajones.

Can the board "man up" and fix the BBall issue?

Collateral Damage

As if trashing two coaches were not enough, we recently learned--thanks to the detailed reporting of the STAR sports reporters-- that Ashley Bartow has left Sun Prairie Lady Cardinals basketball team.

... last Tuesday night ...Sun Prairie traveled to its least favorite place – Janesville Parker. And the Cardinals’ trip came under abnormal circumstances with head coach Liz Hrodey and her assistant Steve Bartow on paid administrative leave. Taking their place were interim head coach Lance Annen and interim assistant coach Peter Gumina...
The two interim coaches entered their first game shorthanded without sophomore Ashley Bartow – one of the Cardinals’ top scorers and rebounders – who left the program after her dad was dismissed for the remainder of the season.
The Cardinals, who lost to the Vikings, 49-39, back on Dec. 17, returned home with a 57-32 defeat.

--- Sun Prairie Star

Oh sure...there will be a VERY few that might label her a quitter. To those, we say, "Shame on you."

Here is a girl, with an apparent love for basketball that every bit matches her skills. And Ashley is quite good...up to this distasteful disruption, she was the

8th leading scorer in the Big Eight conference (averaging 13.4 point per game) --as a sophomore. With the top 50 scorers rounding out at 16.9 ppg, she most certainly ranks in the top 100 statewide.

So...what's a girl to do? Continue playing the game she loves despite playing on a team in absolute turmoil? No. She chose solidarity for her family--displaced assistant coach Steve Bartow.

Tell us school board...how does THIS affect student achievement? More to the point...how could you sit back and allow YOUR employee to make decisions that caused this upheaval?

We'll tell you that the young lady will ultimately grow as an individual for making a difficult choice. But that has nothing to do with you. Sadly, depending on what the future holds, she also risks the potential to draw scholarship offers--at the least from a D2 school. We applaud her strength and convictions.

Ms. Bartow...you are a class act. And we're sorry this all had to turn out so badly.

Top 10 in 2010

Yes...we know...2010 is only 1 month old. But you have to remember...this is our school district here. Most of what they do has the community's head shaking. And...for fear of the ever looming fear of being labeled "micro-manager", our elected leaders --the school board--- simply refuse to manage at all.

Who needs Letterman, Carson, Leno, or what's that other guy's name? We have our very own top 10 list.

1. Basketball Coach Fiasco
Been there; done that. Head Coach Liz Hrodey and Asst. Coach Steve Bartow were "suspended--with pay-- for the remainder of the season. Nothing of a sexual, physical, or criminal nature was involved. Based on multiple community commenters, many with involvement, it seems that 14 of the 16 varsity&JV girls bballers threatened to stage a walkout. They didn't like their coach's style, including making them run laps after losses (can you just feel the tears welling up?). The athletic Director, Jim McClowry, offered a resolution. The girls and their parents declined. So plan "B" was to remove the coaches.

Say Dr. Culver...is this what you were referring to when you were quoted as saying,

“Doing this is like being in the middle of a flight on a 747 and deciding what parts you’re not going to use for the remainder of the flight...”

2. PAC but no Piano
Does 'PAC' stand for Piano-less Arts Center? This fall we will open the brand new high school, complete with a stunning Performing Arts Center (PAC). They did not budget for a grand piano. The hope is that the Bernie Powers Band Foundation will raise private money to purchase one. The district is now looking to hire a PAC Manager. The high school is $1.075M under budget, but not one of those remaining dollars is planned to purchase a grand piano for said PAC. We have just one question: Can you even call it a PAC if it doesn't have a grand piano.

3. Winning Bidder writes the Bid Specs!
That's right folks, we budgeted $1.5MILLION dollars for furniture for the new high school. And then solicited a vendor of such furniture to write the bid specs. Then---who would have guessed?!----this same vendor won the bid!!!! It was the LOW bid, mind you....but...ya know?
The STAR said all that needs to be said

“A lot of concern you have for that process is addressed in the way that the process worked through the system.” He said there was no cost to the district to work with him in developing the bid specs. The only way for Marshfield Book and Stationary to recover costs for those planning meetings is to participate in the bidding process.
---Dan Bubolz of Marshfield Book and Stationary (who wrote the bid specs and was winning bidder)

4. Tax to the 'max; (we'll out-vote the community, so) then just relax
The teachers union (SPEA) would like to continue getting big raises. So they suggest that the district tax the community up to its full DPI revenue authority. And just in case 200 of those whiny taxpayers show up to cut the levy next year (as they did this year), SPEA members promise to come out in force (enforce?) to outvote said whiny taxpayers.
SP-EYE report on the SPEA response

5. Budget Crisis? For 2010-11? Really?
There has been talk at the board table that the budget outlook is even worse for 2010-11 than for this year. That's is especially true because we are opening a new school (plus the new 'upper middle' school) and there are always mega-cost that go into opening a new school. So...wouldn't you think the board would accelerate the pace on the budget planning? If you thought "yes", you'd be wrong.

Other districts have already presented a draft budget--including MORE cuts--to their communities. Not so, Sun Prairie. Culver and Frei are in no hurry. It requires Finance Chair Terry Shimek and Board President John Whalen to get the their riding crops out.

"Keep in mind the message that came through [last Monday]. If the economy doesn't change we could be doing this all over again next year. I don't want to sit up front like that ever again." -(Finance Committee chair Terry Shimek 10-19-09 )

"The electors said that they do not want a 12.5% tax increase this year so I'm sure they don't want a 14-18% increase next year. " -(Finance Committee chair Terry Shimek 10-26-09 )

"What's important [from the annual meeting] is the message that came through that the people think we're spending to much and we have to cut back". -(Incumbent board candidate Al Slane 10-26-09)

6. Who Dat!
Can you imagine a FIVE TERM (hoping to make it 6) school board member would refuse to follow the vote of the school board to have each board member's picture appear on the district website? It's called "Community Engagement"...you know, as in, it's nice for the community to be able to recognize their elected leaders. Well, Caren Diedrich, "doesn't like her picture", so she refuses to have her likeness appear on the web. Maybe the community should decide they don't like her picture either and refuse to re-elect her.

Tomorrow, every time a Superbowl commentator utters the words "WHO DAT", we will laugh so hard we'll be exhaling bits of hotwings through our nasal orifices.

7. Charles in Charge? Who the hell is Charles?
Who's REALLY in charge of the school district?

8. Supersizing the Alternative Learning Center
Quietly...oh...you've NEVER seen this on a board agenda...has anyone noticed that enrollment at the "alternative learning center" has risen 23% since the start of the school year? That's right folks...enrollment now stands at 119, up from 97 as of the infamous 3rd Friday count. In fact, alternative learning now accounts for nearly 7% of total number of high school aged kids.

Now, don't get us wrong. We believe in the value of an alternative learning high school. In fact, Madison's Shabazz High School is a shining example of how alternative learning centers can reach those kids that cannot learn in a typical classroom environment. Does anyone realize that Shabazz serves as the alternative high school for the entire Madison school district, and it's enrollment total is 123 students--a scant 4 more than ours? Hello! McFly! Madison has nearly FIVE TIMES the high school level enrollment and our alternative learning center enrollments are the same? Is there a problem here? Shabazz has a rigorous application process. That's right...students don't get "put" there...they must apply and be accepted. The disparity begs a question...and we're just askin'.

9. A Charter School? NOW?
We would say that a looming budget crisis, opening a new high school, implementing a new 'upper middle school', and year 2 of the 4-year kindergarten program trumps Culver's dream of implementing a full-immersion Mandarin Chinese charter school in Sun Prairie. School board...you really need to move that one to the far back burner. And turn the burner off.

10. SuperNintendo? District Administrator? Superintendent?
Which is it? WTF!