Ladies Logic

Friday, November 09, 2007

Levy Fall-Out

I got an email from a friend of mine asking if I had heard the latest School Board news. Apparently, stung by the defeat of the twin referendums, ISD 719 Superintendent Tom Westerhaus has decided to resign when his contract ends in June of 2008. In his "Dear Colleagues" letter he lays out the reasons.

I am also being criticized for what I did and did not do to ensure passage of the referendum. While I'm not exactly sure what else I could have done, if in any way I contributed to the failure of this referendum, I am truly sorry and apologize to you for that. Perhaps I am most guilty of providing too much information, something that I always believed was more important to do than not providing enough information. Rest assured that we are reviewing what was done in this election to learn for future elections.


So letting the voters know what they are voting for is a problem and the district is "reviewing what was done in this election"?

The process of budget-cutting will soon unfold, and I know for certain that process will not be easy. Please bear with us as we address the difficult task of balancing a budget with less general fund support from the state than a majority of Minnesota districts.


Emphasis mine. The Superintendent still doesn't get it! It is not the state's fault that the district is in the straits that it is in! The problem lies with a school board that builds monuments instead of schools. It lies with a school district that is more concerned with hiring administrative staff as opposed to hiring teachers! It is not the state's fault that the spending priorities of this school district are out of whack.

I can only hope that the new superintendent is smart enough to "get it". We have an aging population that can not afford the continued "cost of living" increases that the school district and the county seem to think that they are entitiled to! Never mind the fact that we do not get a cost of living increase....

The attitude of entitlement that comes out of the school district is what the voters rejected. Will the board learn?

Labels:

posted by The Lady Logician at 5:39 PM

23 Comments:

  • I think there might be other reasons the Superintendent is leaving, he recommended firing a guy that is now on the board. He is uable to face the music. What a coward.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:50 PM  

  • I saw that on the news last night and after a re-read of the "Dear Colleague" letter there was mention of it there.

    I think a follow up is going to be necessary.

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:18 AM  

  • When men or women of high integrity leave a company they do not blame others. Tom is not professional in this approach. To blame Chris is to blame the people who elected him. He will have to work with Chris Jannaury-June. If he is really is bothered he should resign effective the end of the year. He will not be effective if he can not work with the whole board and waste the district's precious money.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:40 PM  

  • Well that seems to be the standard response of the Stand by Me committee if the letters in the American and the Pacer are any indication. Those voters with whom they disagree are subject to some pretty nasty remarks.

    It's a pity - we all need to work together to get the problem fixed and the sore losers on the "Vote Yes" side seem to be willing to tear the community apart to make a point!

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 4:49 PM  

  • "...willing to tear the community apart to make a point!"

    They have always been that way. This was a smaller community, and then with the growth in the late 90's, they have been getting their way up until now. "They want their cake and eat it too". I know that sounds immature, but in this case it is true. It is a sad fact.

    These folks that keep asking for the maximum amount every opportunity that they can. Even though the growth does require careful planning to maximize the money spent, they are not "maximizing" the money spent. One other person commented, "...they are building monuments instead of schools". This is extremely accurate as well. Heaven forbid we add the name "Savage" to that monument, but that is a different story.

    I really hope we can have "common sense" residents come forward to find realistic solutions to the eminent problems that will now sprout up from the election results, both the new board members and the referendum failures.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:49 PM  

  • The school naming rant IS another rant for another day.

    I was reading the comments on the Pacer and American websites and some of those comments were not conducive to dialog at all! Until that mindset changes it is going to be really rough to make progress.

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:36 AM  

  • How about the comment in the letter to the editor from the guy who led the effort against the referendum for CAG. The day after the election, after a 20%point 'victory', falsly accusing Stand By Me of scare tactics? That is both divisive and classless.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:52 AM  

  • "The day after the election, after a 20%point 'victory', falsly accusing Stand By Me of scare tactics? "

    First off - where was that quote? Second, when you have the board on the record talking about what student services activites and SCHOOLS will close what would you call that? I would say that qualifies as scare tactics because it is designed specifically to scare parents of school kids into voting FOR the referendum.

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 12:44 PM  

  • The quote I'm referring to is in the letter to the editor titled "No Means Get Creative" in the PL American. In the start of paragraph 2 the letter writer states: "The scare tactics of the Stand By Me committee were over the top".

    The decision to not open Redtail Ridge came from a board workshop where a very detailed analysis of the costs were analyzed. There is no way that building can or will open. It isn't a scare tactic to point out the actions that will need to be taken both pro and con. The district and Stand By Me said Redtail Ridge won't open, class sizes will go up, and programs will be cut.

    CAG wants accountability. I agree. They claim these were scare tactics. Next September when each of these is proven to be correct I'll be waiting for the 'we were wrong' letter from CAG. Not to much to expect from a group that claims to have a foundation of accountability.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:04 PM  

  • Well that letter was not exactly the "day after"....

    There are many people who said that the board was simply wrong building RedTail Ridge a year early when the money was not there to hire staff. Those people do have a valid point I think.

    Another "scare tactic" that I think we can both agree is wrong was how pro-levy documents were sent home with from school with all kinds of dire predictions of cuts to student services. That and the one that said that our property values would go down if the levy was voted down. Anyone without a dog in the levy fight knows that there is a whole lot of factors that go into home values besides how much money the school district was given. If dollars spent per pupil were the sole indication of good schools then people should be flocking to the Minneapolis Public Schools because the spend more per pupil than we do. But that is a different post for a little later today I think.

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 2:30 PM  

  • You completely miss the point with respect to the actions of the Superintendent. The Superintendent took the very necessary and difficult action to protect our kids. The reward from the community is they made the insubordinate employee his boss. Any person of principle would move on.

    Some other district is about to really benefit from the stupidity of ours. We get a totally unqualified school board member and they get a man generally regarded as one of the best Superintendents in the state. Sounds like a trade Kevin McHale of the Timberwolves would make.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:33 PM  

  • I believe you with what was sent home, but having not seen it I can't totally comment.

    The reason I say the 'day after' is because letters must be submitted to the papers the day after, therefore it must be submitted by noon Wednesday.

    This is truly an emotional issue with lots of opinions and valid points on both sides. I do hope we can all come to the table and find common ground for the good of all.

    One final thought. I do encourage those within CAG to get involved, join committees, and help become part of the solutions. To sit back and do nothing until it comes up again next November would be irresponsible.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:39 PM  

  • You guys got me thinking. Let's get a district wide conversation going here and now. I put up a new post specifically to discuss solutions to our problem.

    http://www.ladieslogic.com/2007/11/education-open-thread.html

    You guys have started it here - now lets get the community involved and carry it (and hopefully some solutions) to the new thread!

    Oh - Anonymous....I'll answer your other comment above (because I do have an answer) shortly! It's a busy Monday for me today.

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 8:49 AM  

  • Another bomb dropped today! ISD 719 did not make Adequate Yearly progress and is in violation of the No Child Left Behind Act.

    While I am not overly thrilled with NCLB because of the stresses it puts on teachers, it does show another weakness in the district that money alone can not fix!

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 3:02 PM  

  • Just to clarify. It was a subgroup of Special Education Students where ISD719 did not meet adequate progress on NCLB. Still a deficiency, I agree. However, it is interesting to note that Special Education is where the district was shorted $1.655M in state funding a few years ago that significantly contributed to the financial difficulties of the district.

    Now, some will say 'see I told you that giving them more money won't work'. That is not a fair statement. Special Education requirements are extremely difficult. It must be noted that unfortunately there are some Special Education students that will never be able to pass NCLB regardless of what the district does.

    It would be unfair to say this failure is a reflection on the educational efficiency of the disrict. I truly do hope the fair minded person agrees that these things are much more complicated than meets the eye.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:23 PM  

  • "However, it is interesting to note that Special Education is where the district was shorted $1.655M in state funding a few years ago that significantly contributed to the financial difficulties of the district. "

    For as much as levy proponents LOVE to talk about the supposed fallicies that were presented by C-A-G, they also LOVE to trot out this fallicy of their own!

    If you look at the school districts website and the MN Department of Education website AND you look at the Legislative Audit reports etc (all of which are public data that anyone can see) you find that there WAS NO CUT IN SPECIAL ED FUNDING to this district! There was no cut in funding PERIOD.

    There is an editorial in today's Star Tribune that (among other things) addresses this fallicy in the following paragraph.

    "The website of the Minnesota Department of Education displays revenue trends over the last 14 years and shows that every school district in the state has received per-pupil funding surpassing the rate of inflation. In fact, the statewide average is 27 percent above inflation over that time period. "

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:51 PM  

  • Well, even the CAG documents show a decrease in state funding.

    The reality of what happened in Special Education funding is mandates were given from the state and funding was to be allocated. In the end the mandates stayed but the funding was witheld. I call that a cut. Bottom line the district was required to meet mandates without funding.

    It is not true that districts receive funding over the rate of inflation. Why do you think over 1/3 of the school districts in the state of Minnesota had a levy referendum on the ballot his fall.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:45 AM  

  • "It is not true that districts receive funding over the rate of inflation. "

    I think a sitting state Legislator, who is involved in the process, knows better than you or I what the Legislature funding rates were, don't you?

    "Why do you think over 1/3 of the school districts in the state of Minnesota had a levy referendum on the ballot his fall."

    If state funding was so light why didn't ALL 400 school districts have levies on the ballots? If state funding is so light, why didn't Shakopee - which has the same student population, the same rate of growth, the same need for new buildings and a LARGER SPECIAL ED population have a levy on the ballot? How is it that other school districts are able to educate their kids on the same or less money? These are questions that 60% of the voting population in ISD 719 asked going into the levy! These questions need to be answered.

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 8:35 AM  

  • The reason that others didn't have referendums this year is they had one in the past couple of years. Nearly EVERY district in the Metro has had a levy referendum within the past three years. So, No I don't take as gospel the legislator you mention. I have personally had conversations with our own legislators and they know there is a problem.

    I hate to get into this again ... but Shakopee gets MORE revenue than we do!

    I fully believe that the majority of the people voting against the referendum did so because they did not want a tax increase NOT that they investigated and determined the district was not spending wisely. It was purely their own financial situation.

    Winston Churchill said 'The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter'. Hard to argue that after this election.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:44 AM  

  • "I hate to get into this again ... but Shakopee gets MORE revenue than we do! "

    Really? If you look at the budgets for the respective districts (as filed with the MN DOE) you will see that ISD 719 has HISTORICALLY had more revenue than Shakopee. There is only one year that they had a higher revenue and that was because of a bond that paid out (a bond for the new high school if I am reading the report correctly). Shakopee's revenue is pretty static at $55 to $58 thousand a year where ISD 719 is over $65k a year.

    Both budgets can be found at the respective school district websites.

    I have to agree with you on the Churchill comment....

    LL

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 9:03 AM  

  • Honestly, I do wonder how we break through this log jam. I do believe there are numbers and statistics all over the place that we can all twist and turn to support our point of view. Personally, I know this administration and school board. I have sat down numerous times with each and every one of them and truly believe they are doing the best a person can to balance fiscal responsibility against trying to give our kids the best education possible.

    No question there are issues out there. What I do hope people understand, however, is a lot of the problems are from decisions long ago before any of these people were in place. For example, many don't like the design of the high school. NONE of the top people in the current administration were in place when that building was designed.

    How do we break through this? The district did hold four town hall meetings to discuss this past referendum. Sadly, other than the PTC night, there was always more presenters there than audience members. How will we ever break through this if more people don't take the time to get involved?

    While you may not believe it, I do respect everyone's position. What I struggle with is the apathy.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:33 AM  

  • Anon - I do agree that there are issues from previous administrations and those do need to be addressed. The thing is this administration should be able to deal with - IF the superintendent is as good as everyone says he is. That is what bothers me. Everyone says he is so great and yet the first time he hits adversity he turns tail and runs....

    The best way to break the log jam is for the district to make the budget information OPEN TO ALL who ask for it and right now (according to the email that I got yesterday) that is not the case. A citizen from C-A-G asked Margo Nash (finance officer) for the budget and some time to ask questions about the budget and he was told (by the Superintendent) that he did not "deserve any of Margo's time". That is not going to help things going forward.

    Anon - I have no doubt that you do respect those who voted against the referendum - your comments have reflected that and I do respect that. It is the people who have called the 60% who voted against the referendum ignorant, stupid and every other name under the sun that I have my doubts about.

    By Blogger The Lady Logician, at 7:34 AM  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:54 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home