School Debate: Melissa Speaks" 4 Questions; 4 Answers; Evansville School Board Forum

Question 1). You have each chosen to take on the difficult and rewarding task of running for the Evansville School Board. Please share with us the top two reasons you wish to serve.

First and foremost, our children will shape our future. Effective education of our children will determine the path that future will take. From a purely selfish standpoint, I have three of those reasons named Sarah, Holly and Will whose future depends on providing them with the best education possible within budget limitations. It is an honor to have the opportunity to serve on the Board and bring my research and analytical skills to bear on the many challenging decisions that the Board faces both immediately and long term.

The second reason compelling me to seek a seat on the Evansville School Board results from my experiences with the Board over the last 11 months.
I attended my first School Board meeting last March to support a program jeopardized by the perennial budget squeeze, in this case our last half-day kindergarten section. What I anticipated to be a one-time appearance quickly became a standing commitment. Other valuable programs I supported were also placed on the endangered species list, such as AP Chemistry and the Gifted and Talented program. There was a proposal brought to the board for universal 4K that changed with each presentation, lacked a firm budgetary analysis, had no facilities commitments and did not have the support of the average taxpayer in our district. Through it all, it became apparent to me as an analytical scientist that the Board was being asked to make critical high dollar decisions based on incomplete and in some cases inaccurate data. I wrote reports in an effort to clarify some of these issues for myself and copied the Board and the administration on my findings. From these experiences and the encouragement of a wide cross-section of people, I concluded that my skills and abilities would be a good fit for the Board at this time.












Question 2: The School Board is asked to respond to the needs, wants and demands of many stakeholders in the district. Who is the primary customer of the School Board and why?

The Wisconsin State Journal stated in their school funding series this week that the price tag for Wisconsin Public Schools now exceeds 10 billion dollars. This represents 40% of the general fund for the entire State. So the short answer is that the taxpayer is the primary customer of the School Board. But that is a simplistic answer to a complex question. The word “customer” connotes an economic relationship in which goods or services are rendered for a fee. One can define the School Board’s “business” as the effective oversight of budget and policy decisions in order to provide the best possible public education for our children while remaining mindful of taxpayer burden. The “product” of the School Board, in that case, is education and the primary customer is the taxpayer who is funding the education.

One important aspect of the customer/supplier relationship is satisfaction. If customers at a traditional retail establishment are unsatisfied with the selection or quality of the product, they can return the defective product, get a refund and choose to spend their future dollars elsewhere. These options do not exist for the taxpayer-customer whose sales tax, income tax and property taxes are not optional. Alternate programming costs are above and beyond this commitment as opposed to instead of this cost. Returns are not possible and refunds are non-existent. So there is a greater onus of responsibility placed on the Board to provide as best it can for each and every student’s needs, working with parents and taxpayers to strike that crucial balance between needs, wants and demands.

I propose an alternate definition for the relationship formed by the triangle of taxpayer, School Board and parent. Rather than considering the school board/taxpayer relationship as one that exists between a supplier and a customer, maybe we can broaden that definition to a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. The School Board administers the funds gleaned from the taxpayers, many of whom are parents who donate their time and talents in volunteering at the school, supporting homework assignments at home and furthering the success of the symbiote, our school district. Everyone has a stake in the successful outcome. Parents and taxpayers are put where they want to be-neither being steered by, nor steering the School Board-but at the helm with the School Board. And the effective education of our children becomes the focal point for all parties.



Question 3. We read each week of the competing demands placed on the school district and upon the board. Please focus on those that you consider to be the top two issues facing the board after the election and how you would balance them with the remaining issues.

The first issue I see facing our district is our hemorrhaging facilities costs. I wrote a report in May in which I compared the state average per capita school spending in 2004-2005 with Evansville’s per capita spending in the same year for various categories (www2.dpi.state.wi.us/sfsdw/Std_Rpts_Results.asp). Evansville showed impressive fiscal restraint in all but facilities costs, which were 53% higher than the state average per capita facilities costs. In concrete terms, we spent $637,686 above the expected value had our district facilities costs been equal to the state average value. This cost essentially negated the savings shown by frugality in all of the other budget categories combined. I would scrutinize this line item to evaluate where to begin improvements, if this were my own budget.

The second issue I see facing our district is growth, which directly competes with what I perceive as the first issue. The State of Wisconsin population is estimated to have increased by 3.2% from 2000 to 2005 (quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/55000.html). Our district enrollment has increased by 11.5% in the same time frame while the overall state public school enrollment has decreased by 0.18%. It could be instructive to study the demographics of our remarkable increase to help understand in what ways Evansville differs from the average Wisconsin community and to better prepare for our future.

Our administration’s response to both of these issues was to ask the Board to commission a facilities survey that recommended building new schools. This document by PRA claims to show many inadequacies even at our new high school. I challenge some of their conclusions and cannot foresee community support for building new schools at this time. People have remarked to me that they were under the impression that the deficiencies outlined in the recent PRA report had been addressed with funds from the last referendum.

The report also predicts overcrowding at all facilities within 4 years, apparently predicated on a continued 11% growth rate in our district. I can’t speak to the logic of that approach, but our 7th grader recently said to me, “Overcrowded classrooms? We have PLENTY of SPACE. CHAIRS? Now that’s a different story. Get us some CHAIRS!” A brief evaluation of square footage per student in our district compared to National Averages proves Sarah right. If you took all the Gross Square Footage and divided it by all the enrolled students, the result is 255 SF per student, 1.5 times the (weighted) National Average of 170 SF per student. The facility closest to capacity now is Levi Leonard, which just happens to be attached to an underutilized Theodore Robinson. This indicates to me that redistribution, not a building referendum, is called for. This won’t fix the code violations at JC McKenna, but redistributing the younger grades instead of building new schools, will leave more money to address the problems at the Middle School. Just like a personal budget, you don’t necessarily go out and build a new house because it’s old fashioned or needs a new roof.

I surmise that the cost savings realized by considering the above approaches would then be available for some of the other competing issues the Board faces, such as hiring a sufficient number of teachers for our growing district.



























Question 4: There are six candidates to fill two seats. Why should the voters of the district hire you? What skills and experiences will you bring to the board making you the best candidate for the position?

In addition to the cute factor and a good sense of humor, I see four areas where my strengths will be an asset to our School Board. First, my former career as an analytical chemist with Wisconsin Energies honed my research and analytical skills. I was also trained in budget responsibilities for our department after a 40% layoff forced restructuring of our lab. I am familiar with crisis management modes and how to minimize their impact. I wrote several research reports for the School Board over the last 11 months that illustrate my analytical skills. The topics ranged from 4K to AP Chemistry. The results are mixed at this time, but together with a dedicated group of involved parents, we made a cogent fiscal argument for maintaining our last stand-alone half-day kindergarten as long as enrollment minimums are met.

Secondly, I’m familiar with several of the issues currently being considered by the Board. This would give me an opportunity to “hit the ground running” if I am elected. I attended all but 2 of the regular Board meetings in the last 11 months as well as the “budget retreat” and a few committee meetings. During these meetings, I listened, presented research or challenged the administration, as the situation demanded. I will always do the research necessary to ask the right questions. I will never vote on a measure without the pertinent data at hand. I’m a firm believer in these credos: “Show me the data!” and “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.” My experiences with the Board, the administration and the public lead me to believe that my informed, outspoken style will be a welcome asset on the Board.

The third characteristic I bring to my campaign for School Board is persistence in pursuing a goal. I spent months trying to decipher the funding streams for half-day kindergarten. I drove lots of people crazy asking apparently meaningless questions. It was all worth it when I reached that AHA moment in September where I finally grasped the issue as a whole. I would bring this persistence to any unresolved question in my mind and benefit the district as a whole in so doing.

Finally, my experience as the wife of an Evansville alderman for the last 6 years has prepared me for the rigors of the life of a public servant. I have a realistic view of the time commitment. I am prepared to deal with concerned citizens and irate taxpayers. I do not expect positive reinforcement beyond that gotten from dedicating personal strengths to public service. I’m equal to the task and would be honored if elected.