Janesville School Board defeats academic proposal on tie vote
In other business
In other business Tuesday, the Janesville School Board:
-- Agreed, on a 7-1 vote, to send a letter to the area’s state legislators, calling on them to oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to expand the school voucher program. Bill Sodemann cast the one opposing vote.
-- Voted to extend the current system of retirement benefits for another year for those who qualify for retirement this year or in 2014. The vote was in three parts for three different union-represented employees. Greg Ardrey abstained in the vote that affected his wife, a district employee. Two of the votes were 6-2, while one was 5-2-1. The “no” votes were Karl Dommershausen and Kevin Murray.
The same consideration would be extended to non-union employees, officials said.
-- Voted against Kevin Murray’s plan to allow those same close-to-retirement employees to accumulate unused sick days in the coming year, which could help some of them qualify for an additional year of post-retirement health insurance. Some board members preferred to address this issue later and in a different way. The vote was 4-4 with Sodemann, Kristin Hesselbacher, Deborah Schilling and Peter Severson voting no.
-- Heard the annual demographics report, which states that the percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch has not changed from last year’s 49 percent.
JANESVILLE — A 4-4 vote of the Janesville School Board defeated a proposal to expand the Challenge Program for academically talented third- and fourth-graders Tuesday.
Motions fail on tie votes. A potentially tie-breaking vote rested with Scott Feldt, who was stuck at an airport in Washington, D.C., it was announced at the meeting.
Board President Bill Sodemann asked the board’s attorney whether the vote could be revisited. Attorney Dave Moore said the same motion could be brought up, but only by a member who prevailed in the preceding vote.
Sodemann asked whether a different motion that accomplishes the same thing could be brought up, and Moore said he would have to research that question.
Officials admitted that for 30 years, the district has not served all the students who qualified for the magnet program because of space limitations. The expansion would change that, said Kim Ehrhardt, the director of instruction.
The program for many years served grades 4-8 at Roosevelt Elementary and Edison Middle schools.
Last year, the board agreed to start a fourth-grade Challenge Program class at Madison Elementary School and a third-grade Challenge Program at Roosevelt.
The fourth-grade program at Madison School will be a fifth-grade class next year, so the administration asked to hire two teachers to handle grades 3 and 4 at Madison.
Ehrhardt said the expansion has the potential to attract families and open-enrollment students to the district.
Expanding enrollment is a goal the board has set, and more students means more revenue for the district, Ehrhardt noted.
A coalition of four school board members came together to defeat the expansion:
-- Greg Ardrey said he does not oppose the program, but he noted that he had said last year he would not vote to expand it until the administration came up with a comprehensive plan for serving talented students.
The plan is in process and will be presented to the board in May, said Amy Sheridan, the district’s coordinator for talented and gifted education.
-- David DiStefano said the argument that a program at Madison School on the west side of the city would create geographic equity is “ridiculous” because Roosevelt is in the center of the city.
“I look at this more as a want than a need,” DiStefano said.
-- Deborah Schilling wondered whether the district should expand services to talented students at all 12 elementary schools who are not in the Challenge Program. She suggested a special program for children talented in the arts but not academics.
Those children do get services, but not at the level the district provided before budget constraints led to cutting teachers dedicated to talented education, officials said.
DiStefano also suggested expanding programming at all 12 elementary schools, saying, “I want to be able to impact more kids.”
Superintendent Karen Schulte said she would love to enhance services to talented students at every school, but it would take more than two teachers to do it.
Ehrhardt said it would take three to four teachers.
Schilling noted that the Madison Elementary students would eventually go to middle school, and the district would then be faced with expanding the middle school Challenge Program in years ahead.
-- Peter Severson said the issue is budgetary and should be voted on in budget deliberations, not on a vote about enrollment-based staffing.
Kristin Hesselbacher rejected Severson’s thinking, saying the expansion was most definitely an instructional issue.
Severson said board members should remember they have a $4 million budget hole to fill before voting to create new positions.
The administration believes the expansion would have brought in more students from outside the district, which could offset costs, but they could not guarantee it.
The board approved the rest of the 2013-14 staffing plan, which includes expansions of the Rock River Charter School and Janesville Virtual Academy.
The Rock River Charter expansion, with up to two teachers, would happen only if enough students materialize this summer.
The virtual school gets an increase of 1.6 teachers and also plans on increased enrollment to offset costs.
Mar 21, 2013 at 4:47 p.m.
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u2katie: Please let the entire school board know of your concerns. You can email the entire board with one link at the school district website, under Board of Education.
Mar 21, 2013 at 3:49 p.m.
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4 questions for those of you who oppose voucbers on the basis of tax dollars going to private schools: How do you feel about your tax dollars going to 1) private, religious, for profit hospitals; 2) for profit enterprises such as Walmart; 3) for profit telecommunication companies; 4) private landlords? I am of course referrring to medicaid, medicare, food stamps, section 8 housing & the incorrectly termed "Obama" phones. Your tax dollars already go to a plethra of private for profit and religious entities so get over it. I am in favor of vouchers. Why should I pay to send my child to private school when some poor kid whose parents likely don't even pay property taxes gets a voucher? The money should follow the child. It already does for open enrollment. It seems hypocritical to me to try to lure students from other districts to try to get $ for your school district, but heaven forbid someone should try to do that to you. Let the schools compete & let the best schools & teachers win.
Mar 21, 2013 at 1:29 p.m.
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Wisconsin schools need to address cuts in their budgets, or we will follow the path of our neighbors in Illinois.
About 50 Chicago public schools to face closure: City Hall sources
http://www.suntimes.com/18987141-761/abo...
Mar 21, 2013 at 1:21 p.m.
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PanamaRed
Update your "facts".
Accreditation agency corrects status for Texas Bufkin school
"An accreditation agency that told the state this month that voucher school Texas Bufkin Christian Academy was no longer accredited issued a letter Thursday saying it made an error, and that the school does have official approval.
The letter from AdvancED, an accreditation group, came after a Journal Sentinel story identified private voucher schools that had lapses in their accreditation by outside groups, but were able to continue accpeting public money because state law only requires the private schools to get official approval, but not to maintain it.
AdvancED had sent an email to the state Department of Public Instruction on March 7 that said the school was no longer accredited.
Angie Koppang, the midwest regional director for the organization, said in a letter to the school Thursday that there was a "clerical error in communications" that resulted in them thinking the school had closed."
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/19822...
Mar 21, 2013 at 1 p.m.
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Walkers public education increase of $475.6 mil includes an increase of $276.5 mil for K-12 schools
Choice schools need to be accredited, provide standardized tests, & prove fiscal viability
Mar 21, 2013 at 11:50 a.m.
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Based on his vote, Bill Sodemann believes voucher schools can offer a better education to our children than public schools. I'm sure he is aware Walker cut funding for public schools and increased funding for voucher schools and the fact that voucher schools ARE NOT required to meet specific "performance" standards, unlike public schools. In addition, "three private schools in Milwaukee continued to receive taxpayer money through the voucher program after losing their accreditation..." So why is he President of our public school board? Obviously Bill Sodeman is NOT serving in the best interest of our school district.
Mar 21, 2013 at 10:37 a.m.
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School vouchers are spreading not just in Wisconsin, but across the country. Why ? Because the public education system is broken beyond repair, everywhere. Skyrocketing per pupil taxpayer costs in public schools are resulting in declining test scores, declining reading ability, and declining graduation rates. Those that fight school vouchers are ignorantly satisfied with the status quo in public school results, and are fighting to keep our children's education unchanged. That's amazing and sickening.
Mar 21, 2013 at 10:11 a.m.
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As a parent of a child who has the potential to be involved in this program in the next 1-2 years, this greatly disappoints me. When your child comes home from 1st grade complaining that she doesn't want to go to school because it's boring, there's a real issue. When your child is 1-2 years ahead of their classmates, they need something more that cant always be provided from their regular classroom teacher. And the teacher is not to blame, either. She has 22 other students, some of which are struggling to meet basic levels of achievement, and obviously those students take precedence over a child who, for now anyways, completes her work with no assistance and waits patiently for the rest of the class to finish.
Now, my child deserves no more or no less than any other child in the district. But it seems to me, she's not getting her fair share. When we have a multitude of options available for students that are struggling (ie, chater schools) and so few for students that are excelling, something doesn't seem right.
Mar 21, 2013 at 9:41 a.m.
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We could easily fund a bigger challenge program if we weren't funding charter schools and kids that don't want a real education. It doesn't seem fair to me to hold these young kids back from a higher education, just so teenagers that don't want to do the work can get a diploma.
Mar 20, 2013 at 11:49 p.m.
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"Severson said board members should remember they have a $4 million budget hole to fill before voting to create new positions"
Severson should remember that the "budget holes that have been predicted in the past have been EXTREMELY inaccurate. They should also remember that because of the JEA and their self-funded insurance the district sits on about a 30 million dollar balance. Quite funny how this budget shortfall nonsense comes up EVERY single year and they always have that very large fund 10 balance, interesting math skills.
Mar 20, 2013 at 11:32 p.m.
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I wonder if Sodemann understands that if the voucher system became available in Wisconsin, organizations or " religions" like Scientology could set up shop here. They have elsewhere.
Mar 20, 2013 at 8:17 p.m.
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Just curious janesvillean, but what are your sources to back up your claim "School vouchers are theft of taxpayer money diverted to for-profit entities who are the largest contributors of political donations in the state."
As opposed to the amount of voucher money that goes to non-profit entities?
Mar 20, 2013 at 8:11 p.m.
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As much as I have supported you in the past Commissioner Sodemann, this vote does leave me perplexed.
If you don't wish to explain in this open forum, please email me via Gazetteextra as to your line of thinking on this subject.
Thank you.
Mar 20, 2013 at 7:51 p.m.
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School vouchers are theft of taxpayer money diverted to for-profit entities who are the largest contributors of political donations in the state. It's obscene, and a big thank you to the school board for opposing this robbery by night of the taxes we all pay.
Mar 20, 2013 at 6:49 p.m.
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Thank you to the seven school board members who support public education in Janesville. I believe it is a conflict of interest to support school voucher programs. I appreciate your support of the children in our community. Thank you! Thank you!
Mar 20, 2013 at 6:39 p.m.
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Distefano wants to "impact more kids" but voted against adding 2 additional classes that would give 50 additional kids services that they need to continue to grow academically. Once again, he has no clue. We are talking about adding 2 additional classes here. I have seen both sides of this program and these talented kids really benefit from being in this program and extended it to more kids would benefit the whole district. I bet if one of these additional classes was being added at Kennedy, he would support it.
Mar 20, 2013 at 6:15 p.m.
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"-- Agreed, on a 7-1 vote, to send a letter to the area’s state legislators, calling on them to oppose Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to expand the school voucher program. Bill Sodemann cast the one opposing vote."
You have got to be kidding me. You are on a public school board, serving as "president" and you support kids leaving the district at the taxpayers expense to go to private "for profit" schools. You are a piece of work. It is time for you to leave. It is obvious the only thing you care about is your tax dollar. You could give a rats ... about the quality of education in this district. I really hope Frank or someone at this paper calls Billy out on this. Try to twist this into some form or fashion that voucher schools help the SDJ Billy. Time to go. You don't care about kids. Leave please. Go join severson on the city council where you can't do any damage to our kids.
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