Thursday, May 8, 2008

LT Editorial May 8, 2008

An editorial from Tom Giffey about the discredited rumors regarding Dr. Ron Heilmann. I agree that Dr. Heilmann should have been more up-front even about these meritless rumors. In a hiring decision at his level that is requiring investigations and closed session a potential new employer deserves to know.

My only other comment is the final sentence in Giffey's editoiral when he writes that the the ECASD has had a lot of bad "luck". Luck has nothing to do with it. The Klaus/Olson debacle is directly attributable (although extreme even beyond my criticism) to a decade of failed leadership of the BOE and Administration. More recently, Mike O'Brien's glaring conflict of interest with his employer, Weld, Riley, legal counsel for the ECASD, multiplied the effect of the actions of Klaus and Olson by attempting to hide them from the public. Plus, the misguided loyalties and friendships among administrators and BOE members over many years appears to have caused a failure in judgment of at least a majority of current BOE members who did not object to the secrecy.

It has nothing to do with luck, only bad leaders.

Maria



New school leader should have been open about inquiry
Undoubtedly, Ron Heilmann didn't want his new career in Eau Claire to start like this.

Heilmann won't officially become Eau Claire school superintendant until July 1, yet he became the subject of scrutiny here in recent days as allegations surfaced about his conduct as Oshkosh school superintendant.

Anonymous claims were made that Heilmann had stayed with an Oshkosh student during an out-of-town trip. However, an independent investigation by an Oshkosh law firm found the allegations were without merit, a determination the Oshkosh and Eau Claire school boards concur with.

This situation is unfortunate for several reasons. First, it's unfortunate for Heilmann that his reputation was called into question by apparently baseless backyard gossip.

More importantly, it's unfortunate that Heilmann didn't let the Eau Claire school board know his conduct was under scrutiny before they hired him. Even if later proven spurious - as seems to be the case here - claims about an improper relationship between a school official and a student are highly serious and should be treated as such. It's understandable if Heilmann was upset and embarrassed by the allegations. Nonetheless, Heilmann should have let the Eau Claire school board know about the situation sometime between Feb. 14 (when he became a finalist for the Eau Claire job) and March 26 (when he was hired).

At a press conference Tuesday, Heilmann said he initially didn't know about the inquiry in Oshkosh. However, he obviously knew about it by March 5, when he sat in on a closed meeting of the Oshkosh school board at which the allegations were addressed. Just two days later, he visited Eau Claire to discuss his qualifications at a community forum. Heilmann attended a second closed-session Oshkosh school board meeting March 19, just a day after members of the Eau Claire school board visited Oshkosh. Such visits gave Heilmann ample opportunity to discuss his predicament with his potential employers.

According to Wednesday's Leader-Telegram, Heilmann noted at Tuesday's press conference that he "didn't alert Eau Claire board members based on legal advice given to the Oshkosh board to not discuss the matter." Such legal advice should carry weight, but it shouldn't outweigh the need to let one's future bosses know about potential pitfalls. Considering the ongoing hubbub over the backdating of a provision in former Superintendant Bill Klaus' contract, the last thing the Eau Claire school district needs is another "scandal." Heilmann's failure to level with the Eau Claire school board has led some to call his judgment into question before he even takes the district's helm - and that's the most unfortunate thing of all.

On Tuesday, Heilmann apologized for the situation and acknowledged the inquiry was proper. Eau Claire school board President Carol Craig and other board members expressed confidence in his ability to lead the district.

We hope this incident doesn't cause further harm to Eau Claire's schools or to Heilmann. However, considering the school district's recent luck, that may only be a dream.

- Tom Giffey, editorial page editor

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim Olson again- the name/url option for posting still eludes me.

I think there is something to Tom Giffey's Luck theory. Sometimes I'm tempted to give
credence to a univesal theory of chaos.

But enough philosophy. In the long run it isn't so much what fate has stored up but how we handle it.


In this case whether one accepts the luck theory or the decade of incompetence theory the issue is where do we go from here?


We can go back and beat on the past or we can
move ahead and try to be contructive about
getting our school system into a sustainable
fiscal condition.

The test for the new superintedent will be how he
handles the hand he has been dealt.
So far, I can't fault his approach, and I don't think there is anything to be gained by picking at it.

After surfing through the depressingly dark sloughs of a number of school district related blogs around the state I am getting some understanding of why the state has a record number of superintendent vacancies.

We are not unique.


We can overcome. We can work together as a community; study our problem onjectively, look for solutions, and forge ahead.

Anonymous said...

And in order for the BOE to welcome input from the community, we all need to try to be more respectful of people's opinions and differences - be more inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt - and quit being so personal about our disagreements.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that is possible. Some nut case from Oshkosh posts on L-T a nasty blast at someone else from Oshkosh who never posted anything and everyone takes the side of the nut job. In addition, suddenly there are interesting monickers on L-T that never appeared before to discuss school matters and only seem to be there to discuss one person not from EC who had not, until attempting to defend herself, posted in EC.

I have read several blogs including the new Super's name which I googled. All of them turn around to attack someone who clearly has questioned his opinion, his supporters, has asked for accountability, etc. The person being attacked did not at any point discuss the rumors publically that I could find, so I don't see why she is being attacked except to divert attention for someone else's personal reasons. Isn't that Libelous?

This seems to be how everything goes. Can't get everyone to agree with you so attack them and make them the bad guy. How is anything supposed to get accomplished in a community with personal playground spats getting played out in public?

Judging by the recent attacks, I am more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the victims of the attacks, both Heilmann and Monty.

Anonymous said...

I did browse the recent invasion of LT news blogs by the Oshkosh feuders but they seem to have returned to Oshkosh to continue their vendetta and we are much better off without them or for that matter without any personality related discourse.

What we need is a blog source that concentrates on
ECASD policy and fiscal strategy issues and related
state school funding policies that affect us.