School Board Meeting Last Night: Report

The Monona Grove Board of Education met last night, and with a light agenda, we were able to wrap the meeting up by 8:30pm. At our annual organizational meeting, the Board voted to elect officers. Susan Fox will remain the Board President. I am our new VP after Susan Manning declined her nomination. Susan Manning will remain the Board treasurer (Peter Sobol removed his name from consideration) and Lionel Norton will remain the Board Clerk (Jill List declined her nomination) The Board also voted to reinstate standing Board Committees, specifically Business Services, Policy and Curriculum. Please consider applying to serve the district on a committee. Information and applications will soon be available on the district website: http://www.mononagrove.org/.


Committee Chairs will be appointed by next week. With the re-establishment of our standing committees, the Board of Education will return to a one-meeting-a-month format beginning in June 2010. These meetings will continue to alternate between the District Office in Monona and the Glacial Drumlin IMC in Cottage Grove every second Wednesday of the month at 7pm. While our year-long experiment with the a two-meeting-a-month format did not entirely elicit the efficiency and comprehensive inclusiveness that I had hoped for, I am glad that the Board was willing to try a different approach. I never bought into the nonsense that the elimination of standing committees was an effort to stifle public input. Quite to the contrary, I am rather proud of the groundbreaking advances the Board made this year in opening up our budget reduction proposal debates to the staff and the public. I heard many comments from folks who are quite appreciative of the opportunity to speak at our public budget hearings, an option that had not been offered in our district since I've lived here. Sometimes trying new things works, sometimes it doesn't, but you'll never know until you try.

The Board approved revisions to Board Policy 185- Standing Board Committees. We also voted 7-0 to remove the expansion of our school walk zone to two miles from budget reduction consideration for 2010-2011.

Can You Make It?

I am trying to set up a meeting to discuss starting a canning kitchen in Monona. How does Sunday May 23rd sound to those who are interested? Time and location TBA. You don't have to live in Monona to participate.

Monona Grove Board of Education Meeting This Wednesday, April 28th.

The School Board will meet this Wednesday evening at 5pm in the Glacial Drumlin IMC for the annual School Board reorganizational meeting. Board officers will be elected and we will discuss the possible establishment of standing Board committees. I plan to encourage the re-establishment of the Business Services Committee as well as the Policy Committee. I also hope that we can reorganize our Curriculum Committee to include a long-term continuous academic achievement plan. The Board is scheduled to move into closed session at 6pm to discuss administrative contracts and negotiations with the MGEA. Our regularly scheduled meeting will reconvene at 7pm in the IMC. We have a fairly light agenda this week, with only two items of unfinished business: the discussion and possible approval of Board Policy 185- Standing Board Committees and the discussion and possible approval of the walk zone extension. The Board received recommendations from Transportation Director, John Vandermerwe and Director of Business Services Mary Ellen Van Valin to remove this budgetary reduction recommendation from consideration and I am inclined to agree with them. Mr.Vandermerwe is finding and implementing other ways for saving on costs by:

• Reducing the number of stops on routes (largely enforcing Board Policy of 0.2 miles to the closest stop for K-4 and 0.5 miles for 5-12)


• Reducing bus idling times


• Making use of alternate bus maintenance and servicing opportunities.


• The possibility of reducing a midday run.

This is an excellent example of when asking for more detailed and thorough information can produce favorable results. Instead of just going with the flow and extending the walk zone as was originally recommended, affecting a couple hundred elementary-aged children and their families in the balance, the administration looked for better solutions and found them. And that's a good thing.

What's Up, MGSD.Community?

I continue to have many questions and concerns about the MGSD.Community email group out of Cottage Grove, questions and concerns that continue to go unanswered. I have requested several times over the past couple of years to be included on the MGSD.Community email list, was added for a very short period of time (like a week), was kicked off the list and have never been added back on. My email requests go unanswered. In the meantime, I have become an elected official of the entire Monona Grove community, elected by both Cottage Grove and Monona voters, thank you very much. And still no entree into the MGSD.Community. Why? Did I miss the secret handshake? Did I mess up the special signal? Are my jeans not the right brand? I'm not asking to be on the cheerleading squad. I'm not asking to sit at the cool kids' table in the lunchroom. We aren't in middle school anymore. I was elected to represent the interests of our entire district. But I guess the MGSD.Community doesn't think so, because they won't put me on their email list. So much for increasing district communication.

I continue to receive phone calls and emails from concerned district residents (from BOTH Cottage Grove and Monona) that have been kicked off this email list because they have asked the administrator/s to identify themself/selves. Parents from Cottage Grove are angry that the MGSD.Community is linked to the Cottage Grove PTO, which is supposed to represent the entire population of Cottage Grove elementary parents. I have heard complaints from parents angry that the Cottage Grove PTO is using the funds raised equally by all to distribute literature with an email link to the MGSD.Community. I have heard concerns from Monona parents who feel like MGSD.Community is bent on marginalizing their place in this district. I have received emails from district residents that won't even allow me to quote from them anonymously because they are scared of the political backlash from the MGSD.Community. I have read comments from our parents and community members who are just straight up sick and tired of all this sixth-grade bullying. Here are some quotes:

"It disturbs me greatly that I have attended almost all Cottage Grove PTO
fundraisers, etc... and the money that I have donated is being used to work
against me having a voice or even being informed of the issues. I believe that
the money raised by the Cottage Grove PTO could be used in better ways to help
the children, and if any more money is being used to promote this anonymous
email list, I see no other option but to cease all donations of money to the
CGPTO."

"How dare you take it upon yourself under the guise of 'community' to write
a message that openly creates an us versus them war. The only people who are
truly going to suffer with this battle are the students of the district. If you
are Community minded then act like it. Be creative, not destructive; offer
compromise, not confrontation; no attacks, just constructive dialogue."

And the response from the MGSD.Community, normally quite prolific in their correspondence to the select few? Strangely, suspiciously, uncharacteristically silent. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Why? I spend quite a lot of my time on my blog, trying to increase district communication and parent involvement for all sides of every issue. You know my name, where I live, who my children are, the fact that I have a ridiculously adorable chihuahua, that I'm obsessed with Star Trek and that I love tacos. My address is 4718 Tonyawatha Trail. My phone number is 249-7536, not that anonymous posters ever call me because I don't have an identity blocker or a voice scrambler installed on my line, alas. I am just a pleasantly normal person who is willing to stand up publicly for what I believe to be right. Agree, disagree, love me, hate me, question my fashion sense, tell my kids I suck, whatever. All my cards are on the table. I've got nothing up my sleeve.

MGSD.Community, who are you? You will endorse political candidates. You will put your email link on "Get Out The Vote" literature using PTO funds. You will send out informative missives to only those who pass the secret test. You lambaste certain Board members. You provide analysis-by-zip-code of our tax contributions. All under the banner of caring for our school district. "MGSD.Community Cares About Our Schools"? I disagree. You are contributing immensely to the division that this district suffers under. You are polarizing our taxpayers. You are alienating our parents. You are drawing precious energy away from the important issues at hand. You will not publicly walk the walk, but you're long on talking the talk. I ran for the Board of Education with the honest desire to help heal this district. You continue to pick at the scabs. How can this district come together to genuinely confront the seemingly insurmountable issues that face us financially, academically, racially and socially while you continue to sit back and stir the pot? This is a school district of two equally valuable, equally important and equally worthwhile communities that need to work together. For shame, MGSD.Community, you do not speak for the vast majority of us. Where is the "community" in that?

And I know that some will wonder why I am pursuing these questions, before you even get started with the

"Gee, Jessica, why are you picking on the MGSD.Community? Why aren't you picking on the Monona Rag? I cry foul! Why are you so unfair? Why are you biased? There's a conspiracy afoot! You're mean! Mean people suck!"

The reasons why I'm not picking on the Monona Rag are very simple:

• I'm not picking on anyone. I'm asking questions that I am only growing increasingly more curious about the longer they go unanswered.



• The Monona Rag doesn't send home their blog address in half of our district's elementary students' backpacks on paper that was paid for by the Cottage Grove PTO.



• The Monona Rag doesn't lit-drop half of the school district with literature paid for by the Cottage Grove PTO.



• The Monona Rag doesn't refuse to publish my comments and also won't kick me off their blog when I ask questions about their identity.



• That being said, listen up Monona Rag! If you're going write a fashion review of the School Board meetings, you need to include the shoes! For those of us who are willing to rock the four inch stillettos while seven months pregnant, you'd better recognize! And what's up with your fixation on the Wiz?

So MGSD.Community, 'fess up. Who are you? Is your email list derived from the PTO email list? What is your association with the Cottage Grove PTO? Why are you using PTO funds to promote a political agenda? If you are truly all about caring for our schools, let's work together. For the betterment of all of the Monona Grove School District, not just where you live. And if that's not what you had in mind, do all of us uncool non-cheerleading, dorky-jeans-wearing kids a favor and change your email group name to the SpecialInterestOnlyByInvitationForOnly SomeOfTheTaxpayersForOnlySomeOfTheSchoolsForOnlySomeOfTheTimeAndOnlyIfIAgreeWithYou.Community.com. So then we'll all know where you stand.

Board of Education Committees Slated To Be Reinstated?

School board committees likely returning - The Herald-Independent - Cottage Grove and Monona, Wisconsin: "School board committees likely returning

Adam Mella
Managing Editor

After a year-long experiment to run all district business through the full board, it appears the school board will reinstate some committees in the near future.
Citing a desire to reduce redundancy and hold more policy discussions at the full board level, School Board President Fox and a split board voted to eliminate committees last year. After a brief discussion on April 14, it appears President Fox is ready to reinstate at least some of those committees in the near future."

Read the rest of the article directly here: http://www.herald-independent.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=21&ArticleID=1674

Pending Board action on the 28th, please apply for committee seats at www.mononagrove.org.

Broadway Banner Proofs

These are the almost final proofs (with minor changes in some wording) for the Monona Family Attraction and Retention Committee Broadway Corridor banner project:

Note: the top photograph of the actual light post with banner is just a representaion of how the placement will look. The banner itself was not selected.

A Frank Conversation About Racial Issues in the Monona Grove School District.

Our School Board meeting last night included a frank discussion of the racial issues that confront the Monona Grove School District. Monona Grove High School Principal Paul Brost, Glacial Drumlin Principal Renee Tennant and Diversity Coordinator Charlie Ellis sat down with the Board to discuss several incidences of racial intolerance in the district in recent years and detailed their ideas, concerns and plans for action. Both principals felt that cultural competency has become part of their schools' dialogue in recent years and have been successful with dealing with issues at both a student level and at an institutional level. The Ambassador Program for new students entering the district at the High School, the Friday meetings of the BSU, and the freshly implemented Focus groups at GDS were offered as examples of proactive programs initiated in the district. We discussed the emergence of a white supremacy gang, the Hicks and Coon Killers or CKs that is active in and recruiting within the district. This gang has been identified by the Dane County Law Enforcement Gang Prevention Unit and is thought to have originated in Cottage Grove. While this gang's presence is by no means isolated to the Monona Grove School District, we are seeing increased activity at the High School and community presence, particularly in members congregating outside area businesses in Cottage Grove. These gang members self-identify with the wearing of John Deere and camouflage apparel, as well as caps with fish hooks stuck in the visor. Of course, it is important to note that many people wear these items without any gang affiliation. My grandfather, for example, was a huge fan of John Deere and I can safely say that he was never a member of the CKs. I felt the most important message of the evening was that there is a huge need to examine these issues collaboratively as communities and as a school district. While Tennant and Brost both agreed that children are getting better at reporting racially-driven incidences in school and are increasingly aware of gang concerns and gang activity in the district, the communities themselves need to step up their efforts to self-report incidences to the police departments. There is a real fear of retaliation among community members, and as Charlie Ellis stated, we need to take away that sense of anonymity that some students feel they have while out in the community committing acts of racial harassment.