February 28, 2023 – West Bend, WI – The Spring election is offering hope for better schools in the West Bend School District, if we elect the 3-S’s.
For starters, some of our classrooms have controversial displays such as LGBTQIA+ and BLM posters and flags. When it was brought to the school board that this was in violation of Policy 381, the majority of the board voted to allow the displays, anyway. Why have a policy if it’s not going to be enforced?
The district decided to try removing nepotism policy 511.1 from the school board. The policy does not prevent relatives from working for the school district, but it does prevent lawsuits due to favoritism between relatives. The timing of the removal lines up with the April election where one candidate might be affected by the policy, if elected.
Fortunately, school board policies go before the full board and the scrutiny of the public, which is what happened at the last board meeting. The co-author of the nepotism policy, and the two strong conservative board members, John Donaldson and Melanie Ehrgott, were then able to raise enough concerns and convince a few more members to send it back to committee. Hopefully, the policy will remain in place at least through the April election.
Our academics continue to compare below 50% nationally and within our state. To save face, we are being asked to view 42% reading and 43% math rankings as doing better than 42% and 43% of the nation instead of worse than 58% and 57%, respectively (WBSD 2/6/23 school board meeting). Perhaps we are spending too much time training teachers on how to incorporate CRT into learning and also taking precious time away from academics by teaching students lessons in social emotional learning.
On 4/4, let’s vote for excellence by electing Schulz, Schloemer-Aleven, and Stewart.
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