SCHOOL FACTS
Cost per student Mercer $26,433,
Wis. $13,505, Nation $11,762
ACT comp. score Mercer 17.0,
Wis. 19.6, Lakeland UHS 20.0,
Hurley 18.7; perfect score 36.0
Mercer DPI Report Card score
lowest of all 421 Wis. districts






Friday, February 5, 2021

 

The Finale-Part 2 -- A Strange Ultimatum

SINCE WHEN DOES COMPROMISE MEAN SURRENDER?

Some months ago, Mercer School Facts received a comment which urged critics of former Administrator Erik Torkelson and HIS since deposed School Board to “compromise”.  Sounds like a proper and reasonable suggestion.  But the remainder of the comment gave away what was really intended.

“You will never get the people of Mercer to agree with you so it’s in your best interest to just compromise,” read the message. 

In other words, everyone should overlook what Torkelson and HIS former School Board got away with by doing what they pleased, and it would not make any difference if Mercer voters elected independent and honest board members, like they did with the new School Board and when they elected Christa Reinert and Karl Anderson to the board.

But all of Torkelson’s minions are gone, and so is he.  Deanna Pierpont was the last to be taken out of picture by Mercer voters in last April’s election.  So, it is apparent that the people of Mercer must have agreed with what the critics were saying.  

The “compromise proposal” suggests that we should forget the wasting of taxpayer dollars and the depriving our youth of the education they deserved and move on.   

There is not a scintilla of doubt over who had controlled the Mercer School Board back then, and it was not Pierpont, Kelly Kohegyi, Noel Brandt or Micki Pierce-Holmstrom.  

A fitting response to this one-sided request to compromise might be what General Anthony Clement McAuliffe said when his 101st Airborne Division was surrounded in the Battle of Bulge and the Germans demanded his surrender:

“Nuts.”

4 comments:

  1. I can't find a way to enter an original post so I thought I would tag on here. Maybe the administrator could separate it for me, or at least address the issue.

    Two weeks ago the Iron County Minor reported that the Mercer School was being shorted, by the county, roughly $200,000. Could you please address what has become of that story? Is it true? Has it been resolved? What is the Board doing about it? Thank you.

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  2. I was told that Bob Davis the board president contacted the county and the WI department of revenue for clarification on this issue and was assured that the levy amount submitted after the November annual meeting for budgeting purposes, would be satisfied. One correction though is that the comment I heard during the zoom meeting relating to "shorted" was actually referencing the town of Mercer as the initial tax payment to satisfy the levy amount is collected at the town level and payment submitted by the Town for the January payment and potential February payment. According to what I heard on zoom during the meeting was the Town of Mercer was short $400k of which $200k was due to the school. The next round of payments would be paid by the County after the February payment and would be sometime in the August time period. It seems that the issue was resolved at least for the school. Can't comment on the town issue.

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  3. Jeff Nehring resigned from the Mercer School Board!

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  4. Do we need to go after our county board members now? What is Opal Roberts, John Sendra, Tanner Hiller, and Tom Thompson doing to correct this issue? Aren’t they suppose to represent us and our town?

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