New Superintendent Search

OK, folks, we are coming to a critical junction and it IS TIME TO PAY ATTENTION!

The ECASD has narrowed their candidate search down to 2 and on Thursday, March 6th and Friday, March 7th there will be public community forums to meet and see the 2 new candidates. Both forums will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Delong Middle School Auditorium. Community members are encouraged to arrive anytime after 5:00 p.m. on both nights to submit questions ahead of time to the candidates. Dr. Klegg will be in EC on the 6th and Dr. Heilmann on the 7th.

I have posted several things in other posts about the candidates and articles from their hometown newspapers. The basics are:

1. Dr. Randy Klegg from Clinton, Iowa who has been the superintendent there for 10 years. This is a district about half the size of the ECASD. (5 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 2 high schools with 4,700 students)

The website is: http://www.clinton.k12.ia.us/
Hometown newspaper website is: http://www.clintonherald.com/

My initial opinion which is based only on looking at the website is that this is not a district that is doing anything that we need here in Eau Claire. There does not look to be any strategic planning, meaningful community involvement, and it is much smaller than our district. It appears that 3 of the 7 Board members are either current or former school district employees. I am not sure what the significance of that is but I think it is unusual.

2. Dr. Ron Heilmann of the Oshkosh School District who has been the Superintendent there for 10 years. This district appears to be the same size as EC although they have 16 (!!) elementary schools, 5 (!!) middle schools, 2 high schools and 6 charter schools with 10,500 students.

The website is: http://www.oshkosh.k12.wi.us/
Hometown newspaper: http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

The district website is really comprehensive and it looks like there is a LOT of information about their Strategic Planning efforts and many community members on a significant number of school district committees. It appears that they are trying to do a lot of the things that have been neglected here in EC for the last 10 years.

Additional searches in the newspaper, however, reveal that the Oshkosh School Board has been very divided and contentious over the planning process for a referendum. There is a very critical letter in the newspaper about the "leadership" of the district over many years. So, my search for information is revealing more than one view of how things are going.

Here is a link to a kind of blog that the newspaper runs about the Oshkosh School District planning process. Interesting...

http://forums.thenorthwestern.com/viewtopic.php?t=26400

PLEASE ATTEND THE COMMUNITY FORUMS FOR THESE CANDIDATES! I am probably only able to attend the one on the 7th but I hope many others attend at least one of them and then share their views here or with the ECASD BOE. Remember that the Menomonie district ended up NOT HIRING any candidates and decided to wait another year. NOT ideal. But we must get the right person for our district. You can help by participating.