The Mercer School Board
A NEW BEGINNING? WELL MAYBE
A NEW BEGINNING? WELL MAYBE
For the first time in eight years the
Mercer School may have a Board of Education and Administrator which will focus
on quality education and the efficient use of taxpayer dollars.
Two new Board members, selected at
the July 30 meeting, will join two recently elected members, Bob Davis and Jim
Hannemann. This is in contrast with a Board
which not too long ago lacked the ability to manage school affairs in an open
and honest manner.
Recently retired Mercer dentist Dr.
Jeff Nehring and retired Racine schoolteacher Sue Loth were selected from a
list of five to fill two vacant board seats.
The vacancies were created by the resignations of Karl Anderson and Noel
Brandt.
Now only one holdover from the knavish
School Board is still on the Board. But
voters will have a chance to remove Micki Pierce Holmsrom in the Spring 2020
election. They had earlier ousted clique
members Kelly Kohegyi and Denise Thompson.
The cabal was further decimated when Deanna Pierson chose not to seek
reelection in the last election, and Noel Brandt resigned and moved out of
town.
At least two attempts were made
earlier to break up the clique with the election of Karl Anderson and Christa
Reinert, who were committed to honest and open management of school affairs. They were repeatedly harassed, insulted and
even threatened. A smear campaign was successful in edging Christa
out of her Board seat in this last Spring’s election. Karl resigned for some unknown reason.
Probably the best qualified candidate
for appointment to a vacant Board position was not selected at the July meeting.
He is Rich Pegg, a retired attorney who has
a long history of working with youth groups and has been active in Mercer
community organizations. As an attorney,
he would have been able to provide valuable legal insight into school issues
and possibly avoid any future wasting of taxpayer money on outside counsel like
was done in the last school year -- $77,108, $37,212 of which was reimbursed by
the school’s insurer.
Another opportunity for rebuilding a
sadly lacking academic program may involve the selection of Sheri Kopka as
interim Administrator. She was the
school’s science teacher when chosen to replace Administrator Erik Torkelson
who had a stroke in June. At its July
meeting the Board approved a $90,000 one-year contract for Kopka.
To gain greater community involvement
Kopka said at the July meeting that she would appoint a citizens’ advisory
committee. She said that the committee
would work on creating a new school vision and a strategic plan for continuous
improvement “which will guide our work here at the school”.
Let’s hope that Kopka chooses wisely
and avoids putting any of the old clique Board members or their followers on
the committee.
Einstein said, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again but expect different results!! Kopka is "All in"! - there won't b a change!! Two different students and a teacher stated that administration and "a teacher" removed students from class the last week of school to all meet in the library and "fix their grades", open book finals and the eatimated 20 students that were failing were no longer failing!! Oh and there's two teachers license on the line for cheating accusations, no explanation/documentation provided by business manager as to administrator's allocated sick days, vacation etc. Nothing will ever change at that school because the parents don't get involved or ask tough questions, the board doesn't question the administration or do the right thing! Oh and then how does the board explain approving $7,500 and $2,500 pay raises to janitor and business manager when there is no budget in place. Meanwhile the Fund balance was depleted to $230K at June's meeting and the expenditures report shows $700+K surplus. This doesn't add up!! Hey BOARD OF EDUCATION WAKE UP!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with the people of Mercer! Have you no brains , or don`t you value your children??? Wake up!!
ReplyDeleteThere's optimistic, thinking things will change in Mercer. And then there is realistic, the fact that things will remain the same.
ReplyDeleteIf no new ideas (people) come in as administration, there is no reason to believe things will be any different.
Mercer must be deaf, dumb and blind.