Stay tuned next week for the Complete Guide to School Board Candidates!

With my editor Kelly Gildner's blessing, I will (depending on my technical savvy) post an article next week that summarizes all five of my candidate interview articles for readers to re-read prior to the elections. In this way, if people missed an article, they will be able to see what the candidates had to say. If you just want to review everything at once, that will be available to you here starting Monday March 28. Most of all PLEASE VOTE APRIL 5!!! Use your rights as a citizen and make your voice heard.

March 14 Evansville School Board Meets at 6 p.m., among other things...

Click on the post to view the agenda for Monday's Board meeting. There will be no committee meetings of the whole this month due to spring break falling on the usual date of March 28th. There will be an open enrollment update and the board is set to approve any open enrollment changes at this time. I'm curious as to the discussion about the day at the capitol and the budget resolution they plan to discuss. If you go to the district website, you will also be able to view the packet of materials the board is given in preparation for the meeting. It usually has excellent information and I encourage all to look it over.

Today, Evansville made the Gazette front page twice! Once for our 25% increase in population since 2000 and once for Stoughton Trailers reopening the Evansville plant. This should mean good news for the city and the school district in terms of revenue increases. In the same time frame, the school district has seen an 18% increase in enrollment. That is the good news. The bad news is that this increase was fully realized in 2006 and has flattened at about 1800 since then, with only minor fluctuations up and down. The double whammy of no appreciable enrollment increase for five years and a back-loaded bond that was written with the expectation of steady enrollment increases (payments increase as time goes on instead of evenly distributed over time) will continue to bite the district in the ass until 2020 or enrollment increases substantially, whichever comes first. Maybe the 2010 census information predicts another bolus of new students into the district. While it will improve the funding outlook, unless they stack them vertically, it also augers that new buildings will be needed to house any substantial increase in enrollment.

What with our fine upstanding example of governorship, soon I expect us all to return to the feudal educational system in which only royalty can afford education and the rest of us scratch out a living by their largess. Butthead. When I think of all the times when I was on the board when we had to reschedule a meeting because of posting inaccuracies or, my favorite, when the venue was locked and we couldn't get to the room for which it was posted, it makes me want to vomit at the apparent consideration of those in power that they are above the open meeting laws and can do whatever they want because they are sick of being frustrated. For God's sake, I was on the school board for 3 years and never stopped being frustrated at the "rob Peter to pay Paul"decisions we constantly had to make. I have friends on the board who have done it twice that long. Being frustrated with budget inadequacies is the status quo for all school districts everywhere. Shifting from whence they get funding is not going to magically solve that problem. Scott Walker is a menace and his agenda of attracting national attention for a shot at the national stage was bought at the expense of wise governance for our state. This has been a bizarre chapter in Wisconsin history with a sad conclusion.

No Collective Bargaining and ACT performance

I have read so many times in the last week that the five states without collective bargaining in the US (South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Virginia) have the lowest ACT results vs. #2 Wisconsin with collective bargaining. I have tried repeatedly to inform people as to the reality of Wisconsin only being #2 in composite ACT performance AMONGST THOSE STATES IN WHICH 50% OR MORE OF THE STUDENTS TAKE THE ACT. Additional considerations to take into account is that the top nine performing states are coastal schools, east and west, where geographically the SAT test is preferred for college entrance requirments so the percent of students in those states who take the ACT are naturally lower than 50%. In addition, eight states currently use the ACT as a graduation requirement to comply with the NCLB laws. Effectively 100% of their students take the ACT, whether they have prepared for it or not. I finally decided to do a little research on the ACT website. Click on the post to go to a site in which you can play all you want with the ACT data from 2010. I summarize what I have found here.

The five lowest performing states on the 2010 ACT composite score were, in fact (ranked from 46-50) Michigan, Tennesee, Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi. Four of these five states have recently begun administering the ACT to 100% students as a graduation requirement. Florida is only state in the last 5 that does not use the ACT as a graduation requirement yet. It is absolutely expected that these states have the lowest ACT composite scores.

The 2010 ACT composite performance of the five states that are being portrayed as the bottom of the heap because of no collective bargaining follows as well as Wisconsin data. I cite the state, the percentage of students participating and the rank on the 2010 composite ACT performance. South Carolina, 52% of students, #44; North Carolina, 16% of students, #22; Georgia, 44% of students, #37;Texas, 33% of students, #33;Virginia, 22% of students, #12; Wisconsin, 69% of students, #17. A close scrutiny of this data will reveal that Virginia outperforms Wisconsin on the composite ACT performance. Sure, only 12% of their students take the ACT compared to 69% in Wisconsin. But they are certainly not at the bottom of the heap as portrayed.

Now I come to the crux of the matter. I have a burning need for everyone in this melee to speak the truth. When one cites data which you have not vetted, and propagates is as the God's honest truth when is doesn't even come close to any form of reality, it only diminishes one's cause. This is true on both sides of this arguement. My fervent wish is for both sides to come to the table and bargain in good faith using truth and compassion. Some universal truths can be agreed to. It's time to begin acting like adults and solve the problems of our state.

Please read Superintendent Carvin's letter

I received a letter from Superintendent Carvin today through the schools AlertNow electronic notification system. For those of you who aren't registered for this or without school age children, Kelly Gildner will print it in the February 23 Evansville Review. Ms. Carvin expressed concern about meeting the deadline for printing in tomorrow's edition, but I encouraged her to send it directly to Kelly as soon as she could after the meeting last night. I called Kelly right after the meeting and made sure she knew it was coming and to save space, even if it meant cutting my article. It is a very good letter and please take the time to read it if you haven't already.

How this has played out over time has been curious. More and more dirt is being flung about. But more information about what is contained in the Bill is also emerging. Important information that doesn't reflect any better on the gov than the union busting methods. I am not a big fan of the hiding democrats, but if their absence has allowed more information and discourse about this bill, amen to that. People need to inform themselves and vote accordingly.

Evansville Schools Called Off Due to Anticipated Staff Absences

Evansville's staff members have heeded the call of WEAC, according to the robocall from Superintendent Carvin this morning at 6am. I appreciate being informed, but like every parent of school aged children, I have carefully watched the school closings just in this eventuality. I knew about this at 11pm last night. But I suppose there are those who have been burying their heads in the sand or who live in a cave somewhere that are simply uninformed.

I am sad that our teachers feel marginalized by our Governor's recent edict. I am especially aggravated with the governor for failing to acknowledge the concessions offered when the union stated last week that they now (belatedly for the Reach for the Top grants) endorse merit pay that includes student achievement as a criteria and other positions they formerly vehemently opposed. Instead, on the heels of WEAC's announcement of said concessions, he volleys with "no more collective bargaining." Hmm. This indicates to me that Scott Walker is incapable of thinking on his feet. This is a poor attribute for the leader of our state.

All that being acknowledged, I am equally sad that our kids have to pay the price because our staff members seem to think that protesting 20 minutes away can't be done on their own time. Like everyone, my kids have a lot of irons in the fire right now. Solo and Ensemble demonstration for the teachers, registration, tests for placement next year, are all supposed to be taking place today and in the coming week. This serves nobody except the Unions. And by that I mean the Union organization, not it's members.

Being lumped in with a union today means that you agree with the union vociferously defending a clearly deficient member so that you will be defended in the eventuality that administration tries to railroad you in some way. Everything is so adversarial that the natural human reaction on both sides is to throw up ones hands and declare "screw it." The cost of the blinking lawyers alone to process the collective bargaining for both sides would probably fund five teachers. Now add in all the hours of staff and administration, all the paperwork required, meetings rescheduled for any number of reasons, etc. etc. etc. Add a few more teachers. Or more pay for the ones we have. Or new textbooks. Anything! Let you imagination be you guide!

I am not privy to the sanctions, if any, the district plans to levy on the staff who did not show today. The TV said, "staff should report" last night. Maybe this is a story. Maybe not.

Finally, Mr. Everson did not plan to excuse any students for the planned student walk-out yesterday. My daughter said the sit-in became effectively everyone because teachers were only required to attend class if their class was there. She was the only kid to show up for one class and the only soprano who showed up to choir yesterday. "I got to sing some solos!" If students weren't to be excused if Mr. Everson suspected no illness was present, then the same consequence should be leveled on the missing staff today. Should there be "teacher detention" for this action? What do you suppose that would look like? Would Mr. Cashore be in charge? There goes my imagination getting out of hand again.

I do not wish to make light of this action. I am disappointed to think of all the money we just paid in property taxes that pay these teachers. My expectation is that they do their job at the appointed hours and participate in civil disobedience on their own time. The demographic hit the hardest by this are the working poor with small children. This is the demographic that educators routinely use to implement what are effectively entitlement programs such as 4K, full day 5K and the like. These are the people being hit hardest by your choice to shut down our schools at the last minute. How many of them will lose the paltry job they have to stay with their small children? Or worse yet, how many of them will be forced to leave the kids at home alone to go to the only job they have? Scott Walker could care less if Evansville School staff members personally attend the rallies. But that struggling parent might have a few choice words for this action.

New 6 pm Start Time for February 21 School Board Committee Meetings of the Whole

Click on the post to view the agenda for the Monday February 21 School Board Committee Meetings of the Whole at 6:00 p.m. Please note the new start time of 6:00 p.m., which goes into effect for the first time for this meeting. There is a standing agenda for the most part, with additions based on new business as needed. Hope it's short because there is a band concert that night...

Our Heavy Handed Gov.

I've been asked to comment on Governor Walker's recent announcement that he will remove collective bargaining from contracts with the unions that represent state workers. Collective bargaining means the entire compensation package is negotiable. Retirement, insurance, salary, etc. With respect to most of the state workers, they complain about their salary being lower than average for the country yet have benefits and retirement packages that are some of the most generous in the nation. As was pointed out in a recent article I read, it is the trade-off they negotiated. Walker wants only salary to be a negotiable item, among other concessions.

The collective bargaining agreements with the unions ties the hands of school boards wishing to compensate teachers with higher salaries. There is only so much money to use for compensation. If most of it goes toward insurance and retirement benefits, there isn't anything left over for the salaries. Broaching the subject of sharing the cost of these benefits with public unions has fallen on deaf and indignant ears in the past. So it's understandable that Walker didn't expect anything to change from that status quo going forward.

However, the heavy-handed approach he has demonstrated since the day he was elected negates what he has to say. I do not disagree that public employees' days of crazy generous benefits are behind us. States cannot afford it anymore. Oddly enough, what he has to say I have been saying for four years. My husband hasn't gotten a raise in four years. Our insurance rates have risen. Our take home pay is lower now than four years ago. Why should public employees consider themselves above the fray for these economic times? I don't understand Walker's adversarial approach to the subject. "I don't have 16 months to negotiate." He could have at least sat them down, told them the realities and let them mull it over. But instead, out came dictatorial, my-way-or-the-highway Walker, like a blunderbuss. One would think that he knows enough about Wisconsin's deep roots in socialism and libertarianism to know how popular this approach would be and how it would be portrayed in the media. I wonder how many of the protesters actually know the terms he is recommending? Did they contain their indignation long enough to get to the end of the articles to see his proposal? For many, the answer is probably NO because they were so incensed at the methodology.

A move that should have made it easier for school boards, towns and cities across the state to negotiate to lower budgets has simply aggravated the masses. Teachers are taking "sick days" and Madison had to declare a "snow day" sort of day because they expected insufficient staff to teach. Everyone will be distracted from the fact that, due to a confluence of events, most districts and municipalities are projecting 10-20% budget deficits. But there it will remain.

Do the Madison teachers believe taxpayers support spending the time you're supposed to be teaching the next generation out boycotting our Governor? Do it on your own time. If you have no contract, you may be fired. Yesterday was the only public comment day. It is understandable if you took yesterday off in an attempt to have your voice heard during the public comment meeting. But even that could have been accomplished on your own time. I don't know for sure, but I imagine the meeting exceeded 3pm. There were 10,000 to 15,000 people there, for heaven sakes.

So, yes I agree something has to give. Yes I support the governor's idea to make only salary a negotiable item, with some understanding that benefits would remain, even at a lower level. You have no idea how much it pains me to agree with such a rabid Republican, so cut me some slack here. But under no circumstances do I agree with the way in which he did it. He was grandstanding and his message was lost in his method.