School Board Approves Policy Change, Actions on Legislation

The Wauwatosa School Board acted Monday to approve a new policy allowing a more public hearing to people with complaints; the formation of a citizens' advisory committee on the Human Growth and Development curriculum; and a letter in support of Republican-backed legislation to put tighter limits on the expansion of private school vouchers.

Of the three issues, the slam-dunk was the advisory committee on Human Growth and Development – or what many people would call "sex education," even though it involves much more than that.

Superintendent of Student Learning Beth Erenberger made a very brief presentation of the facts, most significantly that the establishment of such a committee was now required of the School District by legislative mandate.

With that, it remained only to discuss the makeup of such a committee, with board member Phil Kroner wanting to know whether the district would seek an expert in the field.

"To me, Human Growth and Development is a scientific curriculum," Kroner said. "It would seem that we would want expert input."

Not so much, said Erenberger and District Superintendent Phil Ertl. The legislation requiring the advisory committee also mandates at least part of its makeup, naming parents, teachers and, Erenberger said, "clergy, as per that legislation."

"They are the experts," she said.

Ertl said that there was no mandate to seek a professional advisor and that the district had no interest in paying for such services.

"We're going to be led by the citizens' advisory committee," he said with some finality, and with that the board passed the measure unanimously.

Strange bedfellows

On the subject of a letter to five state legislators whose districts fall into Wauwatosa, seeking support for a bill limiting the expansion of state vouchers for private schooling, the board took up a debate where it .

In the approved state budget, legislators attempted to add Racine to the state voucher program, which was formerly available only in Milwaukee. But it did so not by naming Racine as the target of the plan but rather by describing it under a set of criteria for eligibility. Those criteria include equalized value of property, shared costs and the percentage of students eligible for the free or reduced-price school lunch program.

The problem was that with the prospect of changing economic circumstances, 16 other second-class cities, including Wauwatosa, could plausibly become eligible as well, even though their public school systems might continue to be successful.

Wauwatosa, the letter points out, already meets two of four criteria for inclusion in the voucher program.

Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) and Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) drafted a new bill that more specifically describes Racine, and Racine only, and would effectively limit voucher expansion to that city by making only a city meeting the criteria at the time of passage of the bill eligible for the program.

For the majority of the board, it seemed necessary to support the bill even though no one on the board actually supports state private school vouchers for anybody, including Milwaukee and Racine.

For practical purposes, said board members Sharon Muehlfeld and Michael Meier, the district had to support the Ellis-Vos bill to protect its own interests.

But two members, Mary Jo Randall and board President Lois Weber, said that Wauwatosa ought to be making a much stronger statement of principle to legislators against using public funds for private schools, and also that the bill itself was not worded so as to provide enough protection to Wauwatosa.

"They did not take out the four criteria," Randall pointed out, adding that what the Legislature does now it could undo later. She wanted the letter to be a firm statement against the practice of offering vouchers and guaranteeing no further expansion.

Meier agreed in principle, he said, but he went on: "I would support a stronger letter. I think it's important that we have a letter that all members can support, but I doubt that a stronger letter will be supported by a majority of the board."

Weber repeated her warning that siphoning any of the "precious few" taxpayer dollars away from public school districts for private schooling was bad policy and refused to support the letter as written.

"Private school are a parent's choice and they shoud be responsible" for paying for it, Weber said.

Randall concluded simply, "My no vote is in support of public money going to public schools."

Theirs were the only votes against the letter, however, as the board gave Ertl the green light to send it off to Sens. Lena Taylor and Leah Vukmir and Reps. Fred Kessler, David Cullen and Dale Kooyenga.

10 minutes, please

The district's policy on "issue resolution" was reopened recently for some needed revision related to provisions of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act protecting the rights of children who “lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence” to receive an education.

Kroner took the occasion of revisiting the larger policy to introduce a new amendmet that calls for providing members of the public who have complaints to be given 10 minutes before the School Board to make a statement of their case.

To be sure, there is already a process detailed in the district policy calling for consideration by the School Board of written statements within 30 days of a complaint, upon which it may – or may not – call for a formal hearing.

Kroner felt that the process was unfairly weighted in favor of district administration officials, who could confer and consult professionally in preparation for both written and oral arguments.

Kroner's amendment amounts to an opportunity for a "pre-hearing" by the board so that a complainant's written argument wouldn't be buried under a tide of legal opinions.

"I suggest this out of fairness to the citizens of Wauwatosa," Kroner said. "We are looking at written statements by staff with graduate degrees and possible by attorneys.

"We should impartial and listen to people express themselves. The citizens should have a chance to take 10 minutes to tell us their side."

Randall was the only board member to take issue with the proposal – and who would ultimately vote against it – because she was leery of the giving people too open a platform for possibly spurious allegations.

"These ususally involve some very serious and specific accusations against a staff person," Randall said. "There are some serious implications to people's reputations."

Meier defended the move, saying, "The board is the only body that can waive its own policy, make an exception, show mercy, even though the superintendent may have made the right decision.

"This is the kind of thing that makes public schools worth the money – the right to come before your elected officials and make your concerns known."

_________________________

Editor's note: The text of the district's letter to legislators on private school vouchers and of the district's Issue Resolution policy are attached in the photo gallery.