Another One Bites the Dust.....

The Jan. 21st BOE meeting began with a few announcements about Butler, Faanes and Craig representing the ECASD at the Chamber of Commerce sponsored "State of the County": event last week. Also, WASB convention later in the week in Milwaukee. School Board elections are in April and all of the contenders were present in the audience. Open Enrollment period is Feb. 4th until Feb. 22nd. Public Comments were made as follows:

Bob Janke spoke long and eloquently but ineffectively about all the rural schools that have been closed and also was critical that the district is not using GIS to predict enrollment. He criticized considering spending upwards of $20,000 on the community survey and volunteered that if they gave him a few bucks for beer he would head out to a couple of taverns and give them more information than they will get from a survey. Interesting plan.

Then Tanya Miller, a LR parent spoke about the sadness of losing a school and more about integrity and honesty , etc.. her son raised $200 to help. Bill Garton the custodian at LR spoke as well.

And, of course, yours truly requested that none of the Board members express their dislike of closing a school because the translation of that is that they just dislike planning. When they closed Park School 10 years ago, then Cleghorn, then Lincoln, now Little Red and recommend that Montessori move it just means that there is NO PLANNING at all going on. Blah, blah, blah....

There was some snarl with approving the Consent Agenda as Comm. Cummins had a question about the Closed Session Minutes, but that will be handled in Closed Session. Then during the approval of the payment of bills and payroll I noted that Pres. O'Brien and Comm. Faanes abstained (due to spousal employment) but Comm. Kneer (an ECASD employee herself) approved. But I also heard through the Locust Lane grapevine that Comm. Kneer resigned her employment just recently because she had a "Conflict of Interest". Hmmmm, she and the majority of the BOE has always insisted that there has been NO Conflict of Interest but maybe in the development of the Conflict of Interest Policy (which has been in the works for months) the light finally turned on.

Pres. O'Brien again thanked the LRSC members and especially Comm. Craig for a "yeo-person's" job of managing this huge effort. Other committee members were introduced. The charge of the committee was read and then the recommendations were presented:

1. Creation of an standing committee for boundaries issues (this has been completely under the control of G. Butler for many years and from all accounts the great and powerful "Boundary Wizard" working with the data behind the curtains has wielded his authority without public input.) Again, that this analysis and data sees the light of day with multiple minds working on solutions is a HUGE step in the right direction.

2. That LR be closed and students re-located to Putnam Heights. Time frame is at the end of the 07-08 school year.

3. That all single section schools be held to the same fiscal standards as multi-section schools and therefore they recommended that Montessori be moved.

4. That the LR school and surrounding land be preserved for future district use.

Dr. Butler spoke of the operational and relationship based concerns required for this move and assured everyone that it would be smooth. There was a brief discussion about the need to move 2 Early Education programs out of Putnam Heights to South Middle School as part of the transition as well. Gregg was coy about the location of the program but it seemed clear that South MS was the only option. Comm. Craig responded to information presented by Tanya Miller about south side development and indicated that there is no guarantee that that will mean more students in those houses. She again re-iterated that the LRSC recommendations should be seen as the catalyst for doing Comp, Cummunity Planning.

Comm. Bollinger indicated the need to communicate what the district means by neighborhood schools compared to what the community might think and to see if the community will financially support less cost effective but more neighborly schools.

More discussion about the 1988 (20 years ago!!!) ECASD recommendation to phase out 1 section schools in light of the 1999 decision to add onto LR. Also discussion about transportation issues that are already underway to assure that no student has a bus ride greater than one hour.

More discussion about the Montessori move and r. Butler indicated that it was nearly impossible to move by next school year. There were many questions about whether or not the Montessori program would ever grow enough ( enrollment data comparing the number of students in 2002 was 165 compared to only 145 in 2007). Comm. Craig said that the "heart of the issue is equity" and that Montessori is a 1 section school in a 3 section building. "Moving Montessori is an integral part of the recommendations."

NOTE: Many minutes earlier Comm. Wogahn had moved to accept the committee recommendations and this had been seconded by Comm. Kneer. After this there were multiple violations of Parliamentary Procedure before Comm. Wogahn called the question to stop discussion and vote. His statement that he did not disagree with the discussion about single section programs but also supported Carol (Craig) was extremely confusing.

Comm. Bollinger made a "Friendly Amendment" to recommendation #3 that the plan to move Montessori be developed by May 2008. Comm. Cummins and Craig voted "NO" to calling the question. But then the BOE voted and 6 of 7 members approved the recommendation with Bollinger's amendment. Only Cummins dissented due to it not being part of a more comprehensive plan.

Another lengthy and confusing discussion about the community survey possibilities. Dr. Leary indicated that community engagement should be an ongoing process with BOE and Admin. people being active members across the community (this is a good idea but flies in the face of the ECASD BOE member style to be the opposite of open and inclusive and welcoming of community input). Leary warned BOE members that they need to come together and define what they want to know and how they will use the answers. Thankfully, Comm. Faanes volunteered to head up a 3 member committee with Kneer and Wogahn to brainstorm the questions.

The next Clear Vision meeting will be during the WASB meeting in Milwaukee. Some discussion of WASB resolutions about state aid formulas that was understandable only by Mr. VandeWater, bless his heart! Comm. Cummins asked about the Conflict of Interest policy and that will be presented in Feb.

Adjourn!