As you can see I originally sent the e-mail to Board President, Susan Fox, and Superitendant, Craig Gerlach, as they set the agenda for our meetings. Craig then forwarded the e-mail to the entire board. Additionally, I have an e-mail from a district resident dated 3/9 who informed me they had read my e-mail. The funny thing is that prior to today no one had made an open records request for my e-mail. I am unsure who forwarded my e-mail or the intended purpose behind forwarding it.
toSusan Fox
CRAIG GERLACH
dateMon, Mar 1, 2010 at 9:19 PM
subjectConsolidation vote
mailed-bymgschools.net
hide details Mar 1
I will formally ask to put the discussion and possible vote of the Maywood/Winnequah consolidation on the agenda for March 10th.
I am not sure if a vote will happen, but not having the ability of putting this to a vote on the 10th is just another example of different processes for different agenda items. We have held all the listening sessions, we have all of the details and we have the Administrations recommendation. The fact that this potential consolidation is nearly cost neutral this year may mean that it should not even be part of the budget discussion when we make the cuts for this year. Any savings should be looked at, for this year, to help bring up the fund balance. The real savings starts with the budget year after consolidation, whether that happens this year, next year or in 10 years.
I understand that some will think we are fast tracking this, but I don't know how they can make that arguement when we have been discussing this at the Ad Hoc Committee since last year and at the board level for the past 2 months. Do we need to notify the residents of the district? I would say it is in our best interest to send a 1/2 page note home with elementary kids, post it on the district website, notify the City, Town and Village and contact the H-I to let everyone know that this may happen. I am sure the local community access station that broadcasts our meetings would even put a message out. Will some claim they did not know...absolutely. However, we were elected to make these hard choices and the fact that this one has not come before us in the normal process means that we are playing by 2 very different sets of rules depending on the issue. That is not acceptable.
All I ask is that this issue be posted for discussion and possible vote. Regardless of the political magnitude we must follow the process and right now we have 2 different processes being used.
Thank you for considering this.
Jason
The Maywood-Winnequah merger should be a separate vote, and should take place a meeting before the rest of the other budget cuts. The year it happens is not quite neutral but closer to $100,000, and the board should get a little time to consider what gets saved for a year, if the merger makes the cuts about $900,000 this year.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, the vote should not have been on the 10th. Even though the board has talked about it, there has been a consistent message, that the vote for consolidation would take place on 3/24 (You can search in the Herald).
Delaying the other cuts to April 14th would be bad, because it is after the election, so the suggestion should be vote on Maywood-Winnequah on 3/24 and have a special board meeting before 4/6 (election day).
With regards to the Open Records Request, I'm not surprised that it made it into the hands of residents. There is a narrative that board members are "out to get Monona," and your email can add proof to this narrative, and power to the presenter.
Email is very easy to cut and paste into other programs to hide who passed it along. And despite my suspicions, I pretty much know it will not be reveled, so I don't dwell on it. Posting it here is an honest thing to do, and while I disagree with some of your points, I appreciate your transparency.
What does it matter if an e-mail was forwarded to every person in the entire district. Everything is subject to open records so only write things you don't mind that anybody from either community could read. What's the need for secrecy about what you write in e-mails?
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous #2
ReplyDeleteIf i was trying to be secretive I would not have voluntarily posted the entire e-mail. You are correct that it is subject to open records, however no request was made until 3/16 and yet members of the public had it before then.
I am just pointing out that it happened.
The board needs to work together as a group. When board members start forwarding emails intended for each other to members of the public, particularly without being up front that he/she intends to do this, it is not helpful to making good decisions. Common courtesy does not fly out the window just because something is legal. Whoever forwarded Jason's email to a member of the public certainly should have told Jason he/she was doing so. One cannot quack about transparency and then do something sneaky, albeit legal, like this.
ReplyDeleteThis illustrates the ridiculous, childish drama and behavior that is going on with the school board. Regardless of how we may feel about any particular board member, we should demand that EVERY member of the board start making an effort to work effectively together.