Lois Weber Resigns After Nearly 4 Decades on School Board

After 37 years on the Wauwatosa School Board, Lois Weber resigned Monday night.

Elected in 1976, Weber has been a continuous presence on the seven-member board and has served a number of terms as president, most recently from 2011 through 2012.

During that leadership term, her last as an officer, Weber guided the board through what she called the most challenging time in her own memory, as the District faced a $6 million budget gap during the protracted battle in Madison over Act 10.

"Lois, when you do the math, served for 37 years," said current board president Michael Meier. "The collective experience of the rest of the board is 39 years.

"She apprenticed everybody on the board right now. We all learned the job from her."

"We can fill the seat, but we can never fill the shoes," Meier said. "We cannot replace that contribution."

Wauwatosa Ald. Dennis McBride, who grew up with Weber as a guiding light in public service and is a close friend of her son, Curt, said simply, "She's a legend."

"Lois had one biological child," McBride said, " – every kid who's gone through the Wauwatosa Public Schools in that time."

For even longer than her service on the School Board, Weber served as a founder and director of the Wauwatosa Children's Theater.

Weber would never give her age – she said her mother had taught her that – but she graduated from then Wauwatosa High School in 1948, well before there would be a Tosa East and a Tosa West.

While she never played favorites in her public role, one of Weber's greatest prides was in handing out diplomas each spring to East High graduates.

On the School Board, Weber was always an advocate for providing the best possible education and preparation for Wauwatosa's children – and she steered the board in ways that will resonate long after her tenure.

"Lois was the guiding light for the idea that we are a policy board," Meier said. "And she said that the most important thing we do is hire the superintendent. We decide policy, but the superintendent manages the School District."

"I have followed that guidance for the nine years I've been on the board," Meier said, "and I will continue to follow it. Lois' influence will continue on the board for a long time."

Weber has been having health issues for the past several months and has been absent from some deliberations of the board.

"I know that she's been keeping an eye on things," Meier said, "and I hope and think she will continue to keep an eye on things. I hope to have her guidance as she chooses to provide it from her retirement.

"She's retiring from the board, but she's not retiring from Wauwatosa."