On Stottler criticizes school board president's solo act

Posted on October 16 at 12:33 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

ktaustin:

FYI - I/we did have a paper version printout. We wanted to be able to present it to the public via the power point as it would have been difficult for the cameras to focus in on the smaller pieces of paper. The board has the info, we want to share it with everyone.

Thanks,
Bill Sodemann

On Board member looks to clean up school halls

Posted on September 8 at 7:45 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Some of you are missing the point. This has nothing to do about movies. It is about vulgar language and other bad behavior that takes place in our schools. The movies referred to are still allowed (parental approval needed if rated "R"). The movie angle in this story was simply a teacher pointing out that language used in a R rated movie (shown in an advisory class) was similar to what was heard on a daily basis in the hallway.

The issue here is not about censoring movies, rather it is about censoring certain types of student language and behavior.

Thought you should know.

Bill Sodemann

On Board member looks to clean up school halls

Posted on September 8 at 4:57 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

While I appreciate the Gazette for giving this issue publicity, I find the front page headline (which was NOT written by Frank Schultz) to be part of the problem. While "hell" is not as bad as many of the words that are being said, I would have hoped that the Gazette would aim to be a more positive example. Instead, my 9 year old sees a picture of her dad in the paper, is drawn to read the article, and is asking why the paper is using this word. I didn't have a good answer for her.

Thanks to those of you who share my concerns.

Bill Sodemann

On 'Strange' scenario haunts school district budget

Posted on August 28 at 10:32 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Why Teach: The board did approve a "Insurance Reserve Fund" of about 3.5 million dollars a couple of months ago. This amount is part of the "fund balance". We also approved percentage guidelines as to how much is prudent to keep in the fund balance to avoid borrowing and keep our bond ratings strong etc. I hope that answers yor question.

Bill Sodemann

On 'Strange' scenario haunts school district budget

Posted on August 22 at 6:26 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

why teach: FYI - We did establish an insurance reserve that is part of our fund balance.

On 'Strange' scenario haunts school district budget

Posted on August 22 at 6:24 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Why Teach: I will give you a few reasons.

1. Why not? The rest of the world does, why not teachers?

2. Ownership. By paying a portion, hopefully the value of the insurance becomes more apparent.

3. Method to encourage people to partake in the wellness plan. If you partake in the wellness plan, your pay 3% versus 8% of the premium. If insurance is always given to you for nothing, there is no financial incentive to partake in the wellness plan. The more who partake in the wellness plan, the healthier we are which results in lower costs.

4. Chance that some employees will choose their spouses plan instead. As it was, if anyone is married to a teacher, they are going to forego the insurance that is offered by their own employer because they know that the coverage will not be as good as the districts and it is free as compared to what their employer is making them pay (my employees pay 10%$-20% of their premiums). Perhaps in the future (as plans become more comparable) not all spouses will jump on the districts insurance plan.

5. It is better for the teacher because we provided an additonal raise that more than covers the cost of the premium. This means that you have a larger salary than what you would have had. This means that more money is put into your retirement account (by the taxpayers) so your pension will be higher. Why wouldn't you want that?

If I can make a sincere comment. If your name implies that you can think of no good reason to teach in Janesville, perhaps you should do some soul searching and find a career or a district that does not offend you. Life is too short to be so unhappy in your job. Are you not able to find anything positive about your work and the people you work for? When times are tough like they are now, we should think about what is good about our jobs, lives, family etc. and be thankful.

Hoping you have a fulfilling year.

Bill Sodemann

On 'Strange' scenario haunts school district budget

Posted on August 21 at 11:29 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

whoops - typo - meant "lately" not "lateley"

On 'Strange' scenario haunts school district budget

Posted on August 21 at 11:23 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Let's keep in mind some of these facts.

1. The premium rate that we charge ourselves for our plan is much less than what it would be if we were not self insured. If it were higher, then I would admit that JEA has a gripe.

2. If we were not self insured, we (the district and taxpayers) would not have any claim to the savings. The insurance company would keep it in the form of profits and say "thank you very much" to us.

3. The premium rates are set using industry standards that take into account our claim history. It would be illegal for the district to set false premium rates. Where my company saw a 16% increase last year, the district rates were virtually unchanged.

4. The rates that were set by the district were BELOW the recommendations from the consultants!

You would think that we would be joyous over such information because it means that our teachers are healthier, taht we have had very few major medical issues and that the taxpayers can catch a break as well.

Let's not turn good news into bad news. We have had enough bad news in Janesville lateley.

Sincerely,

Bill Sodemann

On Janesville schools told to cut insurance spending

Posted on August 20 at 5:28 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

This story is very misleading.

The doctors and hospitals submitted 29.4 million in bills to our self funded insurance company. Because we are part of a purchasing alliance, we have agreements that allow us to discount the bill. This portion amounted to nearly 4 million dollars. In addition, nearly 5 million dollars was not paid by our insurance company because the claim falls under Medicare/Medicaid. Another 2.3 million was not paid because it was a duplicate bill. In all of these examples, which make up the bulk of the so called "unpaid claims", the insured had their medical charges covered.

To say that 15 million was denied leads the reader to a conclusion that is false. The consultants did not go a good job in explaining this last night so I will cut the reporter some slack. When I questioned the consultants about this, they either did not understand my question, which could be my fault, or they gave a very poor answer.

Thought you should know,

Bill Sodemann

On School district's insurance costs questioned

Posted on August 17 at 4:07 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Rocky: So your "stealing" comment still stands? As to you giving me an "F", let's make a deal. I will wager my school board salary against your teaching salary that says that I am right. Deal? Finally, let's say that I agree to pay you $20.00 to cut my lawn and I agree to pay for the gas. If gas goes on sale and costs me less, are you going to ask for more money? Conversely, if gas jumps up because the liberals won't let us drill anywhere (I just had to add a political dig there - sorry), are you going to offer me any money back? I am guessing you won't.

As you correctly stated in your first paragrah, I am almost certain that the language (stating that JEA had no claims to any surpluses) was in the contract because it was written to clear up any point of contention that resulted from the grievance. Therefore, as you put it, discussion over.

mooshoo: I will be glad to inquire if that type of data is able to be posted and in what format etc. Thanks for keeping the discussion professional.

Bill Sodemann