On-Line Referendum Surveys Don't Count

At last night's West Bend School Board work session, the survey consultant went over the conclusive results of the inappropriate, weighted, and biased district "survey"...

The consultant stated she "saw no evidence of anyone cheating", that "none appeared to be duplicates", and that she is "confident that nobody cheated". (Wow! She's really good!)

1675 surveys were received by mail (She felt this was due to the "solid older generation of citizens responding, who are a reliable source of information)
646 were returned via internet

When addressing the inappropriate personal information on the survey, the consultant stated "could not really say what that meant" when specifically speaking of the "male/female" question. Later on when it was noted that more women responded on the survey, the only comment made by the consultant was that they normally see this due to the fact that more women are in the home and not in the work place. (And this was pertinent to the referendum?)

As to why the talk radio stations were listed, the consultant simply said "opinions are discussed there".

School Board President, Joe Carlson, tried to lend validity to the consultants ability to effectively read into internet surveys by pointing out the fact that she has done 1-2 million surveys during her tenure as a survey consultant.

The consultant further stated that the internet survey was simply added as a "tool kit". (Hmmm..makes those 646 people feel important, doesn't it?)

Statistics were taken from the mailed-in surveys to form conclusions and internet surveys were not discussed further.

The final analysis from the consultant was this:
A very scientific 50/50 chance of the referendum passing.

(Thanks for spending my tax dollars wisely.)


The following questions filed in formal complaints to the School Board were never addressed:

a. Lack of control over survey respondents, making the survey unscientific and unreliable.
b. Lack of promised (in cover letter from Ms. Herdrich) option details posted on the District website. (Only 1 referendum option was offered.)

These requests on the complaints were ignored and never discussed, as promised by School Board members (see email conversations at www.wbcommunityinfo.blogspot.com) :

Requested that:
a. An investigation is launched into learning how this inappropriate survey came about and hold the appropriate people accountable.
b. The survey be invalidated and the district residents and media be made aware of the situation.
c. The district put forth a new survey, ensuring that all information is posted appropriately on the District website prior to the initiation of the survey.

Guess the School Board doesn't feel like they have any 'splainin' to do.