A small group of Manitowoc residents got to hear what candidates running for the Manitowoc Public School Board think about different issues.
The candidates got to hear questions from both students in the district and from parents who wrote them down and had them answered in a debate-style format.
Topics included lack of theater, funding behavioral issues and parent/school board transparency.
The two big issues that were brought up were the teacher surveys, in which many say they have no confidence in the school board, and what the candidates think about the Success for All (SFA) Program implemented this school year.
Candidates Keith Shaw, Basil Buchko, and Incumbent Kerry Trask all criticized board president and incumbent Stacey Soeldner and Superintendent Jim Feil for their “leadership” and “lack of transparency.”
Buchko said the teacher surveys were damning, and the board’s response wasn’t good.
“A lack of accountability that exists in this district is sitting at the end of this table to my left,” he states motioning toward Soeldner. “She blamed the staff for their dissident in her politics. And then this focus on academics (in the SFA program) that sounds great right? We’re just going to focus on our academics and forget the people.”
Trask says the disconnect between the teachers and the board happens when there are so many closed sessions.
“This has been a board that has had more closed meetings than any organization that I’ve ever been on,” he explained. “There is no follow through. When the surveys came out, I was raising issues about why are some many teachers leaving, where they’re leaving all over Wisconsin (telling what he heard from the board). I said I want to know why they’re leaving Manitowoc.”
When asked whether the candidate supports SFA or doesn’t, Keith Shaw says the program is already implemented regardless of what happens or what is believed.
“It has a good structure, it has a good scope of sequence, there are some aspects to it, but it’s very outdated,” he described. “One of the books that the kids in the eighth grade have to read is let’s introduce ourselves to Pocahontas written in 1994. It’s very outdated, the textbooks are very outdated. We have to give our teachers the ability because they are smart enough to tweak that program to make it work.”
Soeldner talked about why she fully backs SFA.
“It’s a whole school reform model,” she stated. “Every single student now, K-8, gets the same experience, not because they live on the northside, not because they live on the southside, it doesn’t matter what they have in their pocket. They get the same experience, and they get to learn just like the 30% of kids that are reading at grade level.”
She also noted that there wasn’t any alternative program offered by the three candidates running for a seat when they talked against it.
The form was put on by students of Lincoln High School.
Two spots are available on the school board for the April 2 election.
