Adam Shiel and Carol Craig for School Board Elections

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
George Jean Nathan, American Journalist and Essayist

School Board Elections are on Tuesday, April 1st. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for every single one of you to get out and vote and to also bring your neighbors and spouses and significant others to the polling place. I am asking that everyone, not only gets themselves out to vote but please spend 10 minutes on behalf of our district and make 5 phone calls to your acquaintances and ask them to vote as well. As you can see from the title of this post, I am supporting candidates Adam Shiel and Carol Craig. I, of course, would encourage you to support Shiel and Craig as well and am attaching some information from and about them below.

My thoughts: Shiel has been in attendance at almost all the BOE meetings of the last year and a half and has made a significant investment in time to get "up to speed" on all of the current issues of our district. My discussions with him confirm that he recognizes the futility of fixing just "pieces" of the budget without considering the "whole" district. His work on the Charter School Committee gave him a full dose of the amount of time and effort it takes to start steering this ship in the right direction. His skills as a thinker, perspective for the broad view and greater good for all our students will serve the board well.

Carol Craig has the most incredible resume of education, accomplishments and public service of anybody who has served on the ECASD BOE in the last 15 years. Her work ethic (beyond regular board meetings) on behalf of our district is unbeatable via the Charter School Committee (with Adam Shiel) and chairing the Little Red Study Committee as well, both of those just in the last year. She has been an unwavering voice for community engagement and planning. If any one person could singlehandedly drag this district from the pit to the top of the heap, it would be Carol Craig.

ADAM SHIEL

My name is Adam Shiel. I'm running for school board because I think public schools are a vital
part of our community. Our district faces many challenges in the next years. I want to do my part to make sure our schools continue our excellent educational tradition.

I'm originally from Kansas City and came to Eau Claire via Cleveland and North Carolina. My wife and I have lived in the neighborhood (Third Ward) for eight years and we have two children in the district. Daniel
is in kindergarten and Amelia is in the 4K program. I'm an electrical engineer in the microelectronics
industry. I currently work downtown at Silicon Logic Engineering and have also worked at Cray.

My job as an engineer uses many of the skills the district needs to face its challenges. Every day I work with customers, vendors, and coworkers to solve complex problems. I have to set aside my own preconceived ideas, look honestly at the data, and decide what's best for the project - just like what would be required as a school board member.

I would bring broad perspective to the board. With two children in the district, I know first hand a parent's concern for their children's education. As an engineer, I know the value of a good education in the 21st century job market. I'm a tax payer and want to make sure our taxes are spent well.

I received a good introduction to the complexities of running a school system while serving on the district's charter school committee last year. I'd like to put that knowledge to use, along with my problem solving skills to help our district through the challenging years ahead of us. I ask for your ideas, your involvement, and your vote on April 1.

My highest prioirty if elected would be to plan for the limitations
imposed by revenue limits. I think we should review administrative
positions at the main office and at the schools to make sure we're
being as efficient as possible, and then to be able to explain that to
the community.

Demographics are the main driver of our district. We need to look
at how the student body is likely to change over then next 10 years,
in terms of of location and socioeconomic status. That will give us
the scope of the educational issues we have to deal with. It will
also give us information on where we will have facility capacity
issues.

Independent of demographics I think we should compare our
educational methods to current best practices to see if there are
things we can do better.

We need to involve the community in all of this to take advantage
of their ideas and to help diffuse knowledge of the school system
out in to the general community.

We should work to revitalize our foundation for two reasons. First,
it can provide an alternative source of revenue for the district. Second,
it's another way for getting the community involved with the schools.

CAROL CRAIG


At my core I believe that public education is the single most important factor in securing economic, social and personal security within our community, state, nation and our world? That answer is not meant to be esoteric – rather, it is meant to acknowledge that I believe decisions made at a board of education level change the future. Every community must have board members who first believe in public education, then who are committed to the hard work of educating oneself to the complex dimensions of decision-making at the Board level, and finally board members who are willing to intellectually defend positions in a respectful and convincing manner. I strive to be this type of board member and vested stakeholders have witnessed this type representation from me.

The tradition of excellence in Eau Claire can be maintained by getting back to our “roots” - so to speak. By that I mean, the Eau Claire community has historically believed in and supported quality educational programs and we need to re-kindle that positive relationship with our community. We need to have community dialogues to engage the 75% of the citizens in Eau Claire that do not presently have kids in school so they can become public school advocates again. We need to look at the “bigger picture” of what’s happening in education (changing student demographics, dwindling number of professional educators, USA losing ground in world academic standings, private versus public sector priorities for governmental dollars, etc.) -- and trust that when our community is able to have this respectful dialogues about the importance of quality education for all students, we will continue to find a way to maintain excellence in the ECASD.

My vision for the ECASD is that it will be one of the few schools in the nation where students are able to understand and maximize their individual learning potential and apply these skills/potentials to their journey of life- long learning in all areas of human development: career, civic, social, personal.

I see a vision being implemented by collaboratively creating such a vision statement that all stakeholders of the community can understand and embrace. Secondly, there needs to be systematic measures in place to provide community-wide support – support in terms of time and resources, to ensure the viability to this long range vision. Lastly, I see semi-annual community dialogues or round table discussions to review and create strategies (present and future) needed to realize this vision. I see this as a fluid, dynamic process – not a pencil-paper formality that ends in a three ring binder.

When a district develops such a vision (obviously this is really a “community’s vision” of what it expects from the district) it is then is obligated to make sure all decisions are aligned with their vision: budget, facilities, curriculum (including technology), staffing, and class size. I don’t want minimize the importance of such our current state budget constraints – but I truly believe that the synergy from a community-wide effort will be a reliable and creative source of revenue/resources once the community is behind the vision.

I see myself as one of seven voices gathered around the table to ensure that every decision that is made for the district represents the best interest of public education in the Eau Claire community. Obviously there are many differing perspectives as to what is the “best interest’ in public education. Therefore, I see myself as being responsible for staying abreast of complex information from many sources. I also have a responsibility to interact and respect all stakeholders’ views and to allow those views to be shared with the public. Ultimately my role is to make decisions that uphold the District’s vision (thus importance of having a meaning and sustainable vision) and the district’s policies. Lastly, because I am one of seven members I see my role as being respectful of the diverse opinions of other board members while trying to work toward an understanding that has unified support.

I was on the Board from 1982-1994 (yes I’m that old for some of you younger professionals!!) and when I decided to run in 2005 (my fifth term) I was really taken aback by the apparent lack of public trust – which in my mind, seemed directly related to lack of public involvement. For the last three years I have initiated activities and policies at the Board level with the goal of re-engaging the public. This public re-engagement should not be just at the public meetings (although I believe public involvement when making policy decisions is critical) but also the public should be involved in all aspects of public education. I have already proposed (and it was passed) that the public be guaranteed input at all Board meetings. I have proposed that the public be involved with various committees in the district. I made a motion, and it passed, that that a community-wide comprehensive plan be completed in order to understand the community's perceptions of district needs and to integrate those perceptions into a viable referendum Plan. At just about every Board meeting I have asked…”did the public have an opportunity for input, and if not, why – and what can we do in the future to ensure this??” Again, I truly believe this community supports quality education but they need to be involved and informed of the myriad of differences in quality public education since they last were involved.

SPECIFIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT PROVE HER LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND CORE VALUES

1. Discontinued the “student fee” that was levied on all students as a condition to attend the ECASD public schools; I advocated that this fee was not consistent with state law which specified districts may not levy fees (for basic education experiences) on families who are impoverished. This practiced was discontinued after I initiated the discussion on this.

2. Argued against the original proposed referendum for facilities and technology and insisted that we discuss the operational budget deficit as the most important budget topic; I strongly advocated that any referendum should be based on long range plan – anchored in community involvement a (I proposed a short term, minimal referendum of 2 years at 5 million to allow for this community plan to be completed). The original referendum plan was changed to include operation issues BUT the majority of the BOE voted for a three year referendum option with facilities and technology costs included at $21 million.

3. 3. I authored a motion to require the BOE to complete a comprehensive community plan (see BOE motion of 2/19/07) which would be the basis of any future operational, facilities or capital budget changes/referenda. This was approved unanimously to be completed by September, 2007. To date, the District has not completed it despite my promptings and request to have this process be a priority for the District.

4. I authored a policy change that would allow the public to have input into any “Item for Discussion” that the BOE considered during its committee meeting; this was approved unanimously and it now ensures that the community has a guaranteed process for BOE involvement.

5. I supported and actively participated in getting the public more involved in our Montessori Charter School. I proposed policy changes that allowed all students equal access to the Montessori program (by providing transportation to this school as we did all other schools) and I also proposed policy changes that mandated that District resources be equitably distributed to all programs – including Montessori.

6. I chaired the Little Red study committee – a committee that was community-based, that was charged with the very emotional issues of closing a school. This committee reached well beyond the frame work of Little Red and put forth significant district-wide recommendations. These recommendations reflected equity issues, the need for long term demographic/facilities planning, and most importantly, the need for the District to engage the community in what it (the community) perceives as critical educational priorities into the next decade.

7. I have attended 99% of every regular and special meeting; my only absences were due to the illness and ultimate death of a family member.

8. Lastly – I care deeply that every student in this district is given the optimal experience to fulfill his or her potential; we cannot and should not allow any student to walk out the doors of ECASD without a set of skills (occupational, social, personal) that has a high probability of allowing each student to develop into a self-sufficient, productive adult.